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᾿ 4 ty νῶν af } a) Wr ee) ἊΝ Ἀν. 
, ᾿ ᾿ i i ᾿ ᾿ i Be ᾿ " {1} αὶ ΠΥ 


a at 
ὌΝΩΝ " ΠΝ 
ΓΝ 


HYPONOTA: 


OR, 


THOUGHTS ON A SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING 
(2TNESIZ ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙΚΗῚ 


OF THE 


APOCALYPSE, OR BOOK OF REVELATION. 


WITH SOME REMARKS UPON THE 


PAROUSTA, 


OR 


' SECOND COMING OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, 


AND AN APPENDIX UPON 


THE MAN OF SIN. 


Pv an Re. Avy 4 


“Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are 
written therein.”? Rev. i. 3. : 
“That ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.”? Coli. 9, * 


NEW-YORK: 


LEAVITT, TROW & CO., PUBLISHERS, 


2 MDCCCXLIV. 


Enterep according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by Joun R. Horo, in the 
Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York. 


TABLE OF CONTENTS AND RUNNING TITLES. 


Preface : 
Notice to the Reader 


PA Tey. §. 


CHAPTER I. 


Apocalyptic Introduction 


CHAPTER II. 


Introductory Epistle to Church in Ephesus, 


“ “ “ Smyrna, 
ΣΝ - # Pergamos, 
- εἰ τ Thyatira, . 


CHAPTER III. 


Introductory Epistle to Church in Sardis, . 


ἐν e Ἢ Philadelphia, 


- ( Laodicea, 
Summary of Addresses, 


CHAPTER IV. 


The Throne in Heaven, 


CHAPTER V. 
The Sealed Book, 
Retrospect, . 
CHAPTER VI. 
Opening of the first seal, 
( “ second seal, 


g «“ third seal, 


Section. 


lto 40 


. 41 to 48 


49 to 57 


. 58 to 67 


68 to 83 


. 84 to 87 


88 to 100 
101 to 112 
113 


114 to 132 


133 to 143 
144 


145 to 147 


. 148 to 151 


152 to 154 


Pace. 


ol 


iv TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


Opening of the fourth seal, 
᾿ “ ΒΠ} seal, : : 


(ς ς 


CHAPTER VII. 
Sizth seal continued, (part second.) 


The servants of God sealed, 
Chorus, 
Conclusion—contrast, 


CHAPTER VIII. 


Section. 


. 155 to 159 


160 to 163 


sixth seal—part first—coming of Day of Wrath 164 to 171 


. 172 to 176 


177 to 183 
184 


Opening of the seventh seal, and four Jirst trumpets. 


Seventh seal, 

The seven trumpets given, . 
The altar of incense, 

The first trumpet, 

The second trumpet, 


The third trumpet, . 
The fourth trumpet, 
The herald of wo, 
CHAPTER ΙΧ. 
First wo, and fifth trumpet. 
The bottomless pit, 


The scorpion locusts, 
Retrospect of first wo, 


Second wo, and sixth trumpet. 


The four angels loosed, 
The Euphratean cavalry, 


Retrospect, . 
CHAPTER X. 
Second wo, and sixth trumpet, continued. 
The mighty angel, 
Time no longer, 
The little book . 
Retrospect, . 


CHAPTER XI. 


Second wo, and sixth trumpet, continued. 


The outer court given to the Gentiles, 
The holy city, 


185 
186 


187 to 188 
. 189 to 194 


195 to 198 


. 199 to 201 


202 to 203 
205 


206 to 208 


- 209 to 216 


217 


. 218 to 219 


220 to 226 
226 


227 to 229 


. 230 to 232 


233 
235 


. 236 to 237 


238 to 239 


Pace. 


55 
63 
67 


75 
82 
93 


96 
97 
98 
101 
107 
111 
113 
ti? 


120 
123 
134 


138 
140 
151 


153 
156 
161 
164 


167 
171 


TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


Section. 
The two witnesses, . ‘ ὃ ‘ ν᾽ F . 241 to 253 
The earthquake, ; : . ‘ : . 254 to 255 
Retrospect, . : é : : ‘ ; ‘ 256 
CONTINUATION OF CHAPTER ΧΙ. 
Third wo, and seventh trumpet. 
Song of the chorus, , ) ) Σ : 258 
The temple opened in heaven, , F ; 2 Ξ 204 
CHAPTER XII. 
ς Third wo, and seventh trumpet, continued. 
The woman and the man-child, : i : : 266 
The great red dragon, , : : é : 209 
The warinheaven, . : ; : ; ὃ 219 
The heavenly chorus, 3 Ε 3 : ; : 289 
The dragon upon the earth, and persecution of the woman, . 287 to 291 
Retrospect, . " : : ; : E : 202 
CHAPTER XIII. 
Third wo, and seventh trumpet, continued. 
The beast from the sea, : : H : 298 ἰο 807 
The beast from the earth, . : : Ε : . 308 to 310 
The image of the beast, ε : : : : 311 to 312 
The mark of the beast, , : 3 : : . 313 to 314 
The number of the name, ; : : : . 315 to 316 
Retrospect, . . ς : : : ς . 317 to 323 
PART II. 
CHAPTER XIV. 
Third wo, and seventh trumpet, continued. 
The Lamb on Mount Sion, . : ‘ : : . 325 to 328 
The first herald, ᾿ : 3 i : 7 329 to 330 
The second herald, . 3 ; : ‘ 5 : 391 
The third herald, ° Ἶ : ν , : 333 
The voice from heaven - : - : , F 337 
The rest of faith, 4 , j . : 338 


The Son of man on the white cloud, ἴ he 4 - 999 


199 
207 


211 
215 
227 
233 
240 
248 


251 
269 
274 
280 
285 
292 


305 
312 
315 
319 
325 
327 
329 


vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


SecTion. Pace. 
The harvest, . - : 5 ‘ : 341 331 
The vintage, 5 : : 5 ‘ ; : 342 333 
Wine-press of wrath, . : ; ; : 343 335 
Retrospect, . - " : : : : : 345 339 

CHAPTER XV. 
Third wo, and seventh trumpet, continued. 
The angels having the last plagues, : - : ἱ 947 344 
The chorus of victors, . : 5 : : 4 348 345 
Song of Moses andthe Lamb, . Om : ;: : 349 347 
The temple scene—the seven plagues prepared, é : 353 352 
CHAPTER XVI. 
Third wo, and seventh trumpet, continued. 

Temple scene continued—vials poured out—first vial, . . 306 to 357 357 
Second vial, . : : : : : : 358 260 
Third vial, . ; 4 : : 5 : . 8690 to 360 361 
Fourth vial, : 3 : : ᾿ : : 361 to 362 364 
Fifth vial, . : : : : ; : 363 368 
Sixth vial, ; y : ais . ; : 364 370 
Spirits like frogs, . > : : : 4 . 365 to 366 372 
Warning to watch, ᾿ ᾿ μ 5 : : 367 to 368 375 
Armageddon, . : ᾿ : ᾿ : : 369 379 
Seventh vial, . . j : : : ; 370 to 374 380 
Retrospect, . : : : : : : : 375 388 


CHAPTER XVII. 


Third wo, seventh trumpet, and seventh vial, continued. 
Vision of the harlot, ν 4 : A : . 379 to 399 395 
Retrospect, 5 : : : : 5 : 400 428 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


Third wo, seventh trumpet, and seventh vial, continued. 


Desolation of Babylon, " : : ; : . 401 to 405 431 
Warning call, . : : ; : 3 : 406 to 407 437 
Sentence of retribution, : : : 5 : . 408 to 410 440 
Conflagration, . : : : : : : 411 445 
Anathema, . : : 4 4 : : ; 415 458 
Blood-guiltiness of Babylon, . f : ; ; 419 458 
Retrospect, . : : : : 5 : 421 460 


CHAPTER XIX. 


Third wo, seventh trumpet, and seventh vial, continued. 
Chorus and responses, . . : ' ; 4 424 464 


TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


The bridal array, 

Guests at the feast, 

The testimony of Jesus, 

Battle of Armageddon, and heaven opened, 
The conqueror, 

The Word of God, : 
The King of kings and Lord of lords, 
The herald of defiance, 

The gathering of Armageddon, 

The victory, 

Retrospect, 


CHAPTER XX. 


Section. 


426 
427 
428 
429 
430 
433 
434 
438 
439 
440 
442 


Conclusion of third wo, seventh trumpet, and seventh vial. 


Satan confined, . 

The first resurrection, 

Satan released, . 

Siege of the beloved city, . 
The last conflict, 

The great white throne, 
Heaven and earth flee away, 
The second resurrection, 

The books opened, : 
The sea, death, and hell judged, . 
The second death, 

The lake of fire, 

The day of judgment, . 
Retrospect, 


CHAPTER XXI. 
All things new. 


The new heaven and new earth, 

Descent of the holy city, 

The tabernacle of God with men, ; δ 
Former things passed away, 

The promise, 

The denunciation, 

Retrospect, 


CHAPTER XXI—(CONTINUED.) 


: Vision of the bride, the Lamb’s wife. 


The holy Jerusalem, 
The glory of the city, 


443 
447 
451 
453 
454 
455 
456 
457 
458 
459 
460 
461 
461 
462 


463 
464 
468 
469 
474 
476 
480 


481 
483 


Vii 
Paar. 
471 
478 
474 
470 
479 
480 
483 
489 
491 
492 
496 


571 
574 


Vill TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


SEcrTIon, 
The wall, gates and angels, and dimensions, : : . 484 to 489 
Garnishing of foundations, ; : : : . 490 to 497 
Twelve gates of pearl, twelve illustrations of one way of access, 498 
The street of gold, and the temple, . 4 é .. 502 to 503 
The light, . : ; : : 4 : : 504 
The open gates, and terms of admission A ; . 606 to 509 
CHAPTER XXII. 
Vision of the bride, continued. 

The river of life, . : 4 : : 5 . 510 to 511 
The tree of life, : : : ; : ; 512 
The twelve manner of fruits, ; : : : . 513 to 514 
No curse, : 4 : : : Ξ 515 
The throne of God and ihe Lamb, and the service of the servants 

of God, : 5 : : : ‘ . 516 to 517 
No night, ; : : : : : ὃ 518 
Kingdom and priesthood, . : ς : 4 : 519 
Reign of faithful and true sayings, 2 Σ : : 521 
Retrospect of Vision of the bride. ᾿ 4 : : 522 
Apocalyptic Conclusion, Σ A ‘ : . 626 to 536 
Address of Jesus, . ; : : : Ἵ . 587 to 551 
Parousia, or second coming, . : ; : . 545 to 551 
Summary, . : - : : : 552 


Note on the number of the ae 


APPENDIX. 


The Man of Sin. 


Pace. 


575 
585 
596 
602 
606 
609 


616 
618 
620 
623 


624 
629 
631 
636 
637 
643 
657 
672 
680 
693 


695 


PREFACE, 


Ir will be perceived in the following pages, that a design is attributed 
to the book of Revelation essentially different from that usually ascribed to 
it. The Apocalypse has been generally supposed to contain a prophetic 
account of certain political and ecclesiastical changes in the history of the 
visible church of Christ ; instead of this, it is here taken to be an unveiling 
of the mysterious truths of Christian doctrine, with an exhibition of certain 
opposite errors—a revelation made by Jesus Christ of himself—an intellec- 
tual manifestation; corresponding with what is apprehended to be the 
Scripture purport of the second coming of the Son of man. 

This view, it may be said, deprives the New Testament of the con- 
firmation of its divine origin, drawn from the heretofore supposed fulfilment 
of certain predictions, in respect to various anti-Christian institutions : 
the loss, however, if any, appears to be more than compensated by the 
support of gospel truth gained by a proper understanding of this mysterious 
volume. As the loss of any confutation of error, derived from the source 
above alluded to, must be fully counterbalanced by the forcible illustrations 
of doctrinal principles, to be found in the spiritual construction of this por- 
tion of Scripture ; a construction exhibiting truth under such a variety of 
phases, as to supersede in the mind the delusive imaginations from which 
all error in matters of religious doctrine takes its rise. We suppose, at 
least, a spiritual interpretation of this book of Revelation calculated to 


oppose directly not only one, two, or three erroneous systems, but to. 


x PREFACE. 


leave no place for falsehood: so operating upon the mind as not only to 
substantiate the divine origin of the Christian faith, but, at the same time, 
to give a just view of the spirit and character of the religion itself. 

It has been well obseryed that the occult meaning of Scripture lan- 
guage, “in order to have any degree of confidence reposed in it, must har- 
monize with the texts of Scripture which are plain and direct.”* Accord- 
ingly, no consideration is claimed for the suggestions here put forth further 
than they appear to be sustained by the contents of the sacred volume, taken as 
a whole, and comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Not only so, it will 
be perceived, from the number of references to, or quotations from, every part 
of the sacred writings, (about two thousand,) that our aim has been to allow 
the language of the inspired writers to make its own commentary upon the 
work under examination. We have taken all the books of the Old and New 
Testaments to be the immediate production of the same Author, whatever 
difference there may have been in the penmen or scribes. We assume the 
Divine Author to have been fully acquainted with the purport of his own 
figures of speech ; to have preserved throughout these several compositions 
a consistency and exactness in the use of these figures, and never to have 
been forgetful in one portion of his work of the purpose te which the 
same figurative or symbolical expression had been elsewhere applied. 

On these principles, a composition of divine inspiration must be pre- 
sumed to be capable of supporting an exact analysis; its figurative lan- 
guage being susceptible throughout of the same analogical interpretation. 
Tt is not pretended that such an exact analysis has been performed in the 
present work ; an effort only has been made towards it. Qur views have 
been thrown out as suggestions, and so we wish them to be understood, 
although in aiming at brevity of expression they may in some places carry 
the air of assertions. 


However commentators disagree in other respects, upon one point there 


can be no difference of opinion: all must admit the language of the beok 


* Smart's Hints, p. 28. 


Ἵ 6 
PREFACE. xi 


of Revelation to be highly figurative, and a literal interpretation of it to be 
entirely inconsistent with common sense. Being figurative, the field of 
construction is freely open to all; subject only to the restriction, that the 
sense applied be such as can be uniformly sustained, and such as is con- 
sistent with the general tenor of holy writ. The rule of interpretation must 
be the same ; there can be no intermixture or amalgamation of exegesis: 
one portion, or one chapter, is not to be rendered spiritually or doctrinally, 
and another literally or politically. 

The character given by the apostle to his own relation is professedly 
that of a vision, or waking dream ; and, as such, it must be contemplated 
from beginninig to end. The language is not sometimes that of reality, and 
at others that of a vision; except it be where the apostle is supposed to 
express some thought of his own at the time of writing, not forming part of 
the scene previously presented to his mind. 

The style of a dream is peculiarly adapted to the purpose of the narra- 
tion ; admitting as it does of sudden and apparently capricious transitions 
from one subject to another. It affords latitude, also, to a certain extrava- 
gance of imagination, not admissible in other compositions ; but, no doubt 
ἐὠδθωλον here, for the requisite variety of figures bearing analogy with the 
truths or meanings to be illustrated. This unlicensed extravagance, as 
humanly speaking we might term it, if not susceptible of an appropriate 
and consistent spiritual interpretation, would place the entire composition 
upon a level with the wild vagaries of mental aberration; whereas, if the 
whole be capable, as we maintain it to be, of sustaining the test of a rigor- 
ous analysis, the conviction can hardly be withheld, that it is the emanation 
of an omniscient mind. 

The use of the term spiritual in these remarks is intended to accord with 
that of the same term by the inspired writer himself: as, in speaking of the 
slaughtered witnesses, he says, (Rev. xi. 8,) “ and their dead bodies shall lie in 
the street of the great city, which spiritually (πνευματιχῶςν is called Sodom 
and Egypt, where our Lord was crucified :” a passage, incomprehensible 


otherwise than by supposing this figuratively anti-Christian city to be in 


ΧΙ ‘PREFACE. 


in some parts of Scripture alluded to as Sodom, in others as Egypt, and in 
others as Jerusalem in bondage to the Romans, where our Lord was cruci- 
fied ;—there being in all these a certain analogy of character or history, 
coinciding with the meaning of the figure employed, while other parts of 
the Apocalypse represent the same city as also spiritually called “ Baby- 
lon,” “that great City,” or“ Mystery,”’—the ‘“ Mother of Abominations.” 

In the use of other terms, we disclaim any sufficient acquaintance with 
the writings of other commentators to be influenced by their peculiar views 
or expressions, having purposely aimed at keeping ourselves aloof from such 
influence ; on the other hand, we are far from claiming for our thoughts the 
authority of a peculiar inspiration or intelligence to which some have pre- 
tended. ‘There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty 
giveth him understanding,” and whatever we do, it is to be done as of the 
ability which the Lord giveth, that his name may be glorified 3 but it ap- 
pears to have been the will of the Most High, to have withheld the miracu- 
lous evidences of his peculiar influence upon the mind ever since the days 
of the apostles, leaving every work to be tried by the test of his revealed 
word. 

‘Show me,” said Gideon, (Judges vi. 17,) “a sign that thou talkest 
with me.” This was the natural dictate of a cautious mind, fearful of 
being led away by some delusive imagination. The Hebrew champion 
wished to be satisfied that it was indeed the Deity who communed with 
him in so extraordinary a manner. ‘There must be few writers upon reve- 
ation, who would not, like Gideon, gladly obtain a miraculous token of 
divine guidance ; but we have Moses and the prophets ; we have Christ 
and his apostles—the law and the testimony. If our constructions accord 
with the general tenor of what these have revealed to us, we have the token 
or sign, that God has talked with us, and not otherwise. Here is the 
standard of judgment, and by this criterion alone our treatment of the sub- 
ject commented upon in the following pages is to be appreciated. 

In the remarks made upon the passages relating to the beast, the harlot, 


and the false prophet, it will be perceived that the application made of 


PREFACE. xiii 


these figures is not of so exclusive a character as that generally adopted. 
Wherever the inspired standards of doctrinal belief (the sacred Scriptures) 
are least attended to, there we may reasonably look for the greatest obli- 
quity in matters of faith as well as of practice ; but errors in doctrine are 
not confined to any single denomination of religionists, to any single sect 
or limited number of sects, or to any particular form of infidelity. The 
same error, under different garbs, may exist in some degree in a variety of 
ereeds and systems. The “man of sin,” ‘ the mystery of iniquity,’ when 
fully revealed, may be found to have exercised an influence, greater or less, 
in the minds of all ; however professedly adverse the creed or platform of 
doctrine of the disciple may be to such influence. Such, indeed, is the 
imperfection of human compositions, that the spirit of error itself may have 
no small share in dictating the very safeguards intended to operate against 
it. The design of the Apocalypse is, accordingly, supposed to be that of 
detecting and revealing this mystery of error wherever it is to be found, as 
well as of developing its opposite truths. 

The purport of this Revelation, contemplated in the light in which we 
view it, sustains, it will be perceived, in a manner not a little remarkable, 
the doctrine of salvation, through the vicarious sufferings and interposing 
merits or imputed righteousness of a Divine Redeemer, and through these 
means alone; as a result of the all-controlling power of sovereign grace. 
To prevent, however, any misapprehension of our views in this particular, 
we wish it to be distinctly understood, that we regard the moral law, as a 
rule of action, eternal and unchangeable in the nature of things ; as much 
so as the distinction necessarily existing forever between good and evil. 
In the nature of things, such is the character of the Deity, that this moral 
law must be the rule of conduct throughout eternity ; the glory of God 
requiring the observance of this rule in all his rational creatures in every 
state of existence. Circumstances may change ; where there is no death 
there can be no murder ; but envy, malice, fraud, hypocrisy, pride, selfish- 
ness or covetousness, must be as hateful to a Being of infinite perfection 


in eternity as in time. The love of God, with all the heart, and mind, and 


iv PREFACE. 


strength, together with a corresponding love of every fellow-creature, must 
be the rule of conduct hereafter, as it is the unchangeable commandment — 
here. 

As the criterion of moral good and evil must always be the same, the 
motive for adherence to this rule, apart from the difference of circum- 
stances, is all that is susceptible of change. In this state of existence, man 
is, in a greater or less degree, governed by mercenary feelings, arising from 
fear of punishment, or from hope of reward. Hereafter the redeemed dis- 
ciple can be influenced by no motive but that of gratitude (love) for evils 
escaped, salvation experienced, and benefits enjoyed. 

Such, or similar to this, is supposed to be the change introduced, wrought 
or to be wrought, in the heart or mind of the disciple, as an operation of 
faith or of doctrinal views even in this life. The rule of moral action 
remains the same, but the obligation to observe this rule, in the apprelien- 
sion of the believer, is entirely different. ‘The disciple, having cast himself 
with unreserving hope and confidence altogether upon the atoning sacrifice 
and justifying righteousness of his Redeemer, feels himself bound by the 
strongest ties of gratitude to perform scrupulously every duty of morality ; 
to fulfil every obligation towards God and man ; to avoid even the appear- 
ance of evil, that he may obey, please, and glorify his Divine Benefactor ; 
thus judging that he that died for all, died that those that live might no more 
live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them and rose again. 

To unfold this mystery, to enable the follower of Christ thus to discern 
his true and proper position, and the duties consequently devolving upon him, 
and thus to be built up in his most holy faith, while the glory is manifested 
to belong to God alone, is supposed to be the main design of this unveiling 


or revelation of Jesus Christ. 


NOTICE TO THE READER. 


Tue first three verses of the first chapter of the book of Revelation, may be taken 
for the title-page; setting forth the subject matter, the source whence this matter is 
derived, those for whose edification it is ostensibly intended, and the individual by 
whom the matter is committed to writing, together with a species of motto, calculated 
to impress the minds of all into whose hands the volume may come with the 
importance of its contents. 

The greeting is in the ancient epistolary style, and occupies the space from the 
fourth to the sixth verse inclusive ; the communication being in the style of an epistle 
to certain seven churches of Asia. The seventh verse appears to contain a proposition 
relative to the coming of Christ, which, as will be seen, (§ 552,) we apply to the subject 

of the whole book. The remainder of the chapter details the manner in which the 
apostle has received his commission to perform the extraordinary task devolving upon 
him; a detail equivalent to the declaration of Paul, Gal. i. 11, 12: “ For I certify you, 
brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me, is not after man, for I neither 
received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ,” 
be ἀποκαλύψεως Inoot Χριστοῦ. 

The second and third chapters are oceupied with seven distinct addresses to as 
many angels of churches; addresses coming not from John, but from him whose 
manifestation in vision had just been described. It is thus not till the commencement 
of the fourth chapter that the great subject of the book is entered upon. 

A large portion of the first chapter may be regarded as John’s preface ; we give 
therefore to our remarks on this chapter, the running title of Apocalyptic Introduc- 
tion ; and to the remarks on the second and third chapters, containing the addresses, 
the running title of Introductory Epistles ; having arranged and paged the matter of 
these three chapters in the usual form of an introduction, purposely to distinguish it. 

The division into chapters and verses, however, it is to be borne in mind, forms 
no part of the original composition, having been adopted some thirteen or fifteen 
hundred years subsequent to the times of the Apostles. “The text of the sacred 
books,” it is said, “was originally written without any breaks or divisions into verses, 
or even into words; so that a whole book, as written in the ancient manner, was in 


Xvi NOTICE. 


fact but one continued word; of which mode of writing, many specimens are still 
extant in ancient Greek and Latin manuscripts,” (Intro. Bagster’s C. B.) In seeking 


the sense of a passage, therefore, we must be governed by that of the preceding and 
succeeding matter, without let or hindrance from this arbitrary arrangement of human 
invention; of which it has been very justly said as above, “ Although the very great 
advantages which have arisen from it, in facilitating references to particular passages, 
has caused its almost universal adoption ; it must be confessed that these divisions 
and subdivisions are not always in the happiest manner, many passages being sev- 
ered that ought to be united, and vice versa.” 

The analytic manner in which these thoughts are given to the public, has arisen 
from the necessity of the case. [Ὁ was proposed to exhibit the Apocalypse as a doc- 
trinal work, to be understood in a certain spiritual sense, and in doing this, to employ 
a uniform rule of analogical interpretation; the value of this rule depending upon its 
capability of application to the entire piece of composition. In order to ascertain and 
to set forth these peculiarities, it became requisite therefore to examine the character 
of every passage, verse by verse, and clause by clause, that no important portion 
should escape attention, or appear to be intentionally passed over. 

The general course of interpretation pursued here, has been first to ascertain the 
proper natural or literal sense of the term or figure employed, as understood in the 
time of the apostle; and afterwards to search for the analogous spiritual meaning. 
In pursuing this investigation, the writer has availed himself only of such helps as 
were within his immediate possession: for the aid received from these he has been 
careful to give due credit where the occasion seemed to call for it; and he cannot 
express too strongly his sense of the important services performed in the cause of 
truth, by the laborious researches and patient labours of the lexicographers, com- 
pilers of concordances, and collators of editions and manuscripts, to whom the 
Christian world are so much indebted. 


P. S. In making quotations from the English Scriptures, we have’put the words 
italicized in our common version into parenthesis ( ), and those which we have our- 
selves substituted, or proposed to change, into brackets [ ]; italicizing only such 
words as we wish to render particularly emphatic. 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


THE REVELATION 
ΟΕ 
THE DIVINE. 


AIIOKAAY ¥IZ 


ST. JOHN IQANNOY (TOY OEOAOTOY). 


§ 1. Tuts title is not admitted in some editions of the Greek, nor is it 
noticed in the English Concordance of Cruden, or the Greek of Schmidt. 
It is generally believed to have been added by a later hand, (Rob. 
Lex. 301,) and may have originated from the endorsement on the outside 
of a scroll, afterwards inadvertently copied as the commencement of the 
manuscript. The Greek term Θεόλογος, the theologian, injudiciously rendered 
divine, is applicable to any writer treating of the Deity, qui de Deo, deisve 
disserit aut loquitur, (Suiceri Lex.,) but it is not in keeping with the style 
or character of John, the Evangelist, to give himself the title of saint, or 
of divine, or even of the theologian. As little can we suppose him to have 
styled the work his Revelation; either as a revelation of himself, or as 
something revealed by him. Even those by whom this title was first intro- 
duced, could have intended nothing more by it than to distinguish the 
volume or scroll as something committed to writing by this apostle, vouched 
for by him, and therefore called his. 


CHAPTER I. 


Vs. 1,2. The Revelation ofJesus Christ, ᾿Αἀποκάλυπψις ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἤν ἔδωκεν 


which God gave unto him, to show unto 
his servants things which must shortly 
come to pass: and he sent and signified 
it by his angel unto his servant John, 
who bare record of the word of God, and 
of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all 
things that he saw. 


αὐτῷ ὃ Θεός δεῖξαι τοῖς δούλοις αὑτοῦ ἅ δεῖ 
γένεσϑαι ἐν τάχει, καὶ ἐσήμανεν ἀποστείλας 
διὰ τοῦ ἀγγέλου αὑτοῦ τῷ δούλῳ αὑτοῦ 
᾿Ιωάννῃ, ὅς ἐμαρτύρησε τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ 
καὶ τὴν μαρτυρίαν σου Χριστοῦ, ὅσα 
εἶδε, OF ὅσα TE εἶδε. 


§ 2. ‘The Revelation of Jesus Christ.—Here we have the proper title of 
the book—a title which may also be rendered, THE UNVEILING oF THE 


ANOINTED SAVIOUR. 


The name Christ signifying the anointed, and Jesus, 


ll APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


the Saviour. The word translated revelation also implying the removing 
of a cover or veil, from καλύπτω, to hide or cover. As Matthew x. 26, 
and Luke xii. 2, ‘There is nothing hid, or veiled, or covered, which shall 
not be revealed’”—unveiled, or uncovered—alluding, apparently, to the 
mysteries of the Gospel subsequently to be unfolded—mysteries veiled 
under the old dispensation, but unveiled in Christ. As it was said of the 
children of Israel, 2 Cor. iii. 14, “Their minds were blinded, for until 
this day the same veil remaineth, untaken away in the reading of the Old 
Testament, which is taken away in Christ.” This apocalypse of Jesus 
Christ is therefore a revelation or unveiling, which he makes of himself—an 
exhibition of his own real character and offices—a revelation, or discovery, 
such as he made to the two disciples gomg to Emmaus, Luke xxiv. 27, 
when he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning him- 
self—a revelation of things once hid from the wise and prudent, but now 
revealed, even unto babes; and a revelation of himself, and of God mani- 
fested in him, of which he says, ‘No man knoweth the Son but the 
Father ; neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to 
whomsoever the Son will reveal him,’ Matt. xi. 27. 

The character of the revelation about to be contemplated, then, is that 
of a development of doctrinal truth, a development set forth in figurative 
language, and illustrated by a variety of imagery, to be understood only in 
a spiritual sense. ‘The period of this understanding we suppose to be that 
alluded to, Luke xvii. 30, as “‘ the day when the Son of Man is revealed,” 
(ἀποκαλύπτεται,) or unveiled—an opposite development -is alluded to, 
2 Thess. 11. 8, as the uncovering of the mystery of iniquity, “ and then shall 
that wicked be revealed, or unveiled.’’ The revelation of the Son of Man, 
spoken of in Luke, being an opposite of that of the man of sin predicted 
by Paul ;—events to be understood in the same sense, and probably to take 
place contemporaneously.* 

§ 3. ‘Which God gave him.’—It was committed to Jesus Christ to 
exemplify in himself, in his sufferings, death, and resurrection, as well as in 
the doctrines taught by him, the truths of salvation, the mysteries of all that 
economy of grace, by which, it is said, mercy and truth are met together, 
and justice and peace have been reconciled to each other, (Ps. Ixxxv. 10,) 
as he himself says, (John xxvii. 4,) “I have finished the work which thou 
gavest me to 4ο. This work being a revelation of the Redeemer in his 
person, as God manifest in the flesh, in his offices, as the propitiation for sin, 
and as the Lorp our Rientrousness. 


* The Greek term apocalypse, in all its various forms in the New Testament, is 
almost uniformly applied to an intellectual revelation. According to the Septuagint 
it expresses the sense of the same Hebrew word, which we render in Leviticus by 
uncover, and in the prophets by reveal. 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. iil 


> 


Jesus Christ is here spoken of, we may presume, as a distinct person, 
because it is not till the truth of salvation is entirely developed, that the 
Son is exhibited as giving up the kingdom unto the Father, and God himself 
is manifested to be all in all, (1. Cor. xv. 28,) as in fact He must necessa- 
rily have been from all eternity. 

“ΤῸ show unto his servants.’-—The work of Christ, although completed 
or wrought out at the time of his resurrection, may still be considered a 
thing covered, or veiled ;—its hidden meaning, or that which is to be taught 
by it, being but imperfectly understood. This meaning we suppose it to be 
the design of the Apocalypse to uncover, or make known ; the Holy Spirit, 
or Comforter, teaching and bringing the things of Christ to remembrance in 
two ways: first, after the didactic manner of the Apostles in their epistles ; 
and secondly, by the pictorial illustrations of this book of revelation. 

‘ His servants..—The word translated servants, may signify any descrip- 
tion of bondmen or slaves, and is thus applicable to all the followers of Jesus, 
purchased by his blood. Freed from sin, and redeemed from the conse- 
quences of sin, but bound to Christ. “Τὸ show to his servants,’ is to 
show to the whole household of faith, but especially to those whose duty it is 
to instruct others, stewards as well as domestics. 'The steward of those 
times being generally a confidential slave or servant, a fellow servant of 
those to whom he was to give their meat in due season. 

§ 4. «Things which must shortly come to pass’—or to be of a sudden, 
or suddenly brought forth—the adverb ταχύ, sometimes ἐν τάχει, including 
the idea of suddenness, (Rob. Lex. 745)—things to be developed at an un- 
expected moment, in such a manner as to flash conviction on the mind. So 
we find the Greek term ταχυϑάνατος rendered subito moriens, dying suddenly ; 
(Lex. Suiceri ed. Tiguri 1683 ;) corresponding with what is elsewhere 
said of the sudden coming of the day of the Lord, as in the twinkling of 
an eye. 

‘ And he sent and signified by his angel to his servant John. —The Greek 
term, translated angel, is literally a messenger, and any means, by which the 
Divine will is communicated, may be said to be a messenger of God. The 
elements, diseases, and even death, are such messengers. The angel of 
death is sometimes so spoken of—we should speak more correctly in saying, 
the angel Death, for death is virtually the messenger to call us fr m this 
state of existence. According to Hebrews ii. 2, the prophets were angels, 
or messengers; as it is said, If the word spoken by angels was stead- 
fast, how much more must be so the word of Him who speaketh from 
heaven. Sometimes we may consider the communication itself as the an- 
gel; they are all ministering spirits, and a spirit revealing the things of 
Christ must be a ministering spirit. We must form our judgment of the kind 
of angel alluded to in Scripture, by the circumstances of the case in which 


iv APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


the term is employed. Here it appears probable that the angel sent by 
Jesus in this instance is the spirit of revelation, which shows the things spo- 
ken of to the apostle. As it is said of the Holy Spirit, (John xvi. 7,) “If 
I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you : but if I depart I will 
send him unto you.” So we may say when the Deity opens the mind in a 
vision of the night, that this vision is a messenger, or an angel of God. 

‘Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus 
Christ, and of all things that he saw’—alluding to the record before given 
by this apostle in his gospel and in his epistles ; as if the question had been 
asked, What servant John is this? The answeris, It is John the Evangelist. 
He who bore witness concerning the word, or Logos, (John i. 1—4,) and who 
recorded both in his gospel and in his epistles, that which he himself wit- 
nessed of the works, and doctrines, and sufferings of his Divine Master, (John 
xxi. 24, and 1 Johni. 1.) The declaration thus identifies the writer of these 
different productions, and indicates in some degree a correspondence, or 
relation between these Scriptures ; all being written, as we say, by the same 
hand.* 


V. 3. Blessed is he that readeth, and Μακάριος ἀναγινώσκων, καὶ οἵ ἀκούοντες 
they that hear the words of this prophecy, τρὺς λόγους τῆς προφητείας, καὶ τηροῦντες 


and keep those things which are written |. 2) αὐτῇ γε; es heaps 
therein: for the time is at hand. ee Tee Ope Cee 

§ 5. The word rendered read is compounded of a word signifying to 
know, or to be acquainted with. It may apply to the recognition of the sense 
of a passage, as well as to the reading of it. So the hearing must be a hearing 
of the heart, or mind, applicable to a comprehension and willing reception 
of the truth ; the hearing alluded to, (Hebrews v. 11,) where dulness of 
hearing is put for want of understanding. So the keeping may bea holding 
in custody—something more than mere remembrance—a keeping of some- 
thing valuable. ‘If any one keep my saying,” or word, “he shall never see 
death,” (John viii. 51.) Reading and hearing, here, are not equivalents, 
as in common parlance we consider reading a discourse equal to hearing it. 
This reading seems to be rather a recognition of the authority of the reve- 
lation ; the hearing, a comprehension of the hidden meaning. He that 
receives the revelation of Jesus in his propitiatory character as the purpose 
of God; who comprehends how it is, that he, who was himself without 


* It may have been in allusion to the peculiar distinction with which the apostle 
was to be favoured as the recipient of this revelation, or as the eye-witness of this 
exhibition, of Christ, that the answer was given to Peter, (John xxi. 22,) “IfI will 
that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?” John, however, we find so far from 
assuming upon this distinction, the title of saint, or divine, styles himself the servant, 
the slave or bondman of Christ—one bound by indissoluble obligations of gratitude 
to his master; as a captive, (servatus,) saved from death by his captor, was held 
bound to devote his life to the service of his preserver. 


APOCALYPTIC [NTROBUCTION. 7 Vv 


sin, is made sin for us, that we may be made the righteousness of God in him ; 
and who cherishes, and rests upon, the gospel assurance of this gracious 
provision ;—such a one is happy or blessed ;—happy in faith even in this 
life ; as it is said, (Ps. exlvi. 5,) “ Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob 
for his help,” (as the Lord his righteousness,) “ whose hope” (for salvation) 
“is in the Lord his God,” (in the merits of his Redeemer.) 

ᾧ 6. ‘For the time is at hand, or is near..—The reason given for this 
happiness in reading, hearing and keeping, is that the time is at hand. We 
find at the end of the book, (Rev. xxii. 10,) the same reason given for not 
sealing the sayings of the prophecy, viz. that the time of developing the 
truth is at hand. The happiness contemplated arises from the full develop- 
ment of the glad tidings of salvation, now about being made. The mys- 
teries which prophets and kings desired to see and hear, and which angels 
desired to look into, are now to be exposed to view; at hand, because con- 
tained in this book. If the contemplation of them is not actually enjoyed, 
it is not because they are not at hand, but because those who have possession 
of the volume do not yet see, and hear, and keep its precious contents in the 
sense alluded to. ‘The time indeed is at hand in a more literal sense, as the 
moment of death approaches ; the moment of transition to that state of being 
where we shall see as we are seen, and know as we are known. But in the 
meantime, happy is he that recognizes in this revelation of Jesus Christ, his 
Saviour God, his strength and righteousness. Happy is he who understands 
the mysteries of redemption here set forth ; or rather he who is prepared to 
understand them. Happy he who leans upon the words of this prophecy, 
and conforms his faith to the views of the plan of redemption here displayed. 
Such we may suppose are not far from the kingdom of heaven, if they may 
not even be said absolutely to see it. 


Vs. 4-6. John to the seven churches, 
which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, 
and peace, from him which is, and which 
was, and which is to come; and from the 
seven spirits which are before his throne; 
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful wit- 
ness, the first begotten of the dead, and 
the prince of the kings of the earth. 

Unto him that loved us, and washed us 
from our sins in his own blood, and hatn 
made us kings and priests unto God, and 
his Father ; to him be glory and dominion 
fof ever and ever. Amen. 


§ 7. This greeting is of two parts. 


᾿Ιωάννης ταῖς ἑπτὰ ἐκκλησίαις ταῖς ἐν τῇ 
‘Aoi: χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη ἀπὸ ὃ ὧν καὶ 
ὃ ἦν καὶ ὃ ἐρχόμενος, καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν ἑπτὰ 
πνευμάτων, ἃ ἐστιν ἐνώπιον τοῦ ϑρόνου 
αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀπὸ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὃ μάρ- 
Tus ὃ πιστός, ὃ πρωτότοκος τῶν νεκρῶν καὶ 
ὃ ἄρχων τῶν βασιλέων τῆς γῆς" τῷ ἀγαπῶντι 
ἡμᾶς καὶ λούσαντι ἡμᾶς ad τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν 
ἡμῶν ἐν τῷ αἵματι αὑτοῦ, καὶ ἐποίησεν ἡμᾶς 
βασιλείαν, ἱερεῖς τῷ ϑεῷ καὶ πατρὶ αὑτοῖ, 
αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ χράτος εἰς ig αἰῶνας 
ἀμήν. 


The division between the two being in 


τῶν αἰών wy 


the midst of the fifth verse, where the verses should have been separated. 
The first part is an ejaculatory prayer, that those te whom the epistle is 
addressed may enjoy the benefit spoken of ; and the last part is a summons 
to those receiving the epistle, to unite with the Apostle in an ascription of 


vi APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


praise to Him, who is the instrument in procuring the grace and peace 
alluded to. 

‘John to the seven churches which are in Asia.’—The Apostle sets 
forth what he is about to write, as an epistle addressed to certain churches. 
Not, as the whole tenor of the book afterwards shows, that this epistle is 
intended merely for the edification of those bodies, or assemblages, but as 
a person writing a book for the instruction of young persons may put forth 
his publication in the form of letters to his own children. The design 
declared in the first verse, (to show unto his servants, &c.,) and the univer- 
sality of the blessedness spoken of in the third verse, confirm this supposi- 
tion. At the same time we must attend to the peculiar characteristics of 
these churches, in order to have a better understanding of the matter laid 
before them. 

These seven churches of Asia have long since passed away ; and if we 
except that of Ephesus, scarcely any mention is made of them in other por- 
tions of Scripture. Paul, also, addressed epistles to seven churches: the [ 
Roman, Corinthian, Galatian, Ephesian, Philippian, Colossian, and 'Thes- | 
salonian, besides his epistle to the Hebrews; but of these only one, the 
Ephesian, corresponds in name with a church of the Apocalypse. If we 
view these assemblies as types, it is unimportant what seven churches are 
selected. We have only to bear in mind the peculiar features of each ; if 
not types, it is difficult to imagine why Paul should have selected seven 
churches principally in Europe, and John seven churches in Asia. As to 
the number seven, it seems to express a certain totality, ad infinitum. Every 
circle being equal to seven circles, and each of these seven circles divisible 
into seven other circles, andso on. Thus the seven churches of John, and 
the seven churches of Paul, may represent alike, the whole Christian 
church. 

ᾧ 8. ‘Grace unto you, and peace.’—Grace, χάρις, gratia. Free, unme- 
rited favour, something the opposite of wages, or of debt, (Rom. iv. 4.) The 
law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Some- 
thing freely granted through Jesus Christ, and only through or by him. 
The grace of God which bringeth salvation, (Titus ii. 11,) being also styled 
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, (Acts xv. 11, and elsewhere.) 

Peace; reconciliation with God, obtained through the blood of the 
Lamb, (his Son,) as God was in Christ reconciling the world unto him- 
self, (2 Cor. v. 19.) Hence a peace passing understanding, (Phil. iv. 7,) 
a peace with God, but obtainable through Jesus Christ, and through him 
only, (Rom. v. 1.) 

It is important to bear the peculiar characteristics of these terms in our 
minds, that we may compare the consistency of this apostolic benediction 
with the general tenor of the revelation subsequently made. 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. Vil 


‘From him which is, and which was, and which is to come ;’ or, from 
the being, the was, and the coming. That is, from God himself; the giver 
of every good and of every perfect gift; and, indeed, the only being who 
can, strictly speaking, be said to give at all: all other beings only act as 
his instruments. He has not only a right to do as he pleases with his own, 
but all things being his, he has a right, and he alone has the right to do 
with all things according to his will and pleasure. Hence, the grace or 
favour coming from him is termed sovereign grace, consisting in the exercise 
of a power of perfect sovereignty. 

ὁ 9. ‘And from the seven spirits that are before his' throne.’—After 
what has been just said, it seems inconsistent indeed, to enumerate seven 
other sources of grace and peace. ‘The subsequent revelations of this book, 
however, will probably reconcile this seeming inconsistency. Meantime 
we may advert to what we have remarked ($7) of the number seven—that 
it represents a totality. The seven spirits before the throne of God, are 
all the spirits—before his throne. To be before the throne of God is to be 
in a position of peculiar favour. These seven spirits are, then, all the spirits 
thus favoured ; and the whole seven constitute in fact but one spirit—one 
spirit thus favoured, or in favour ; and this we may presume to be the Holy 
Spirit, which is not otherwise here mentioned; but which, according to 
Paul, is a joint source of the same blessing of grace and peace, or is some- 
thing equivalent to it: as he says, 2 Cor. xiii. 14, The grace of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and.the communion of the Holy Ghost 
(Holy Spirit) be with you all. These seven spirits must be, therefore, 
seven elements, or operations of the Holy Spirit employed in the work of 
conferring grace and peace. 

§ 10. ‘And from Jesus Christ.—Another inconsistency—unless Jesus 
Christ himself be identic with God the Father ; for there cannot be two sove- 
reigns of the universe, or two sources of sovereign grace. The common form 
of this benediction in Paul’s writings is, Grace to you and peace from God, (our 
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,) as we think the words should be read ; 
the two persons last mentioned being spoken of in parenthesis, qualifying 
or explaining the appellation given to the Deity. The translators of 
our common version, however, have uniformly supplied the word from, 
immediately before the person last named, so as to make it appear that the 
grace and peace are from two sources, when the apostle apparently intends 
to set forth, expressly, but one source. Jesus Christ, indeed, is said to be 
especially our peace, (Eph. ii. 14—16,) but this might be interpreted only 
as being so instrumentally ; whereas, in this passage of Revelation, the 
three, the Father, the Seven Spirits, and the Lord Jesus, are set forth as 
coequal sources of the same grace and peace ; corresponding with the decla- 
ration, 1 John v. 7, ‘‘ There are three that bear record in heaven, the 
Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost ; and these three are one.” 


Vill APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


‘The faithful witness. —Of the two other members of the triune 
source of grace and peace, it may be said that the apostle confined himself 
to pointing them out distinctly—God, as the eternal being, and the Holy 
Spirit, as the seven spirits before the throne ; but when he comes to men- 
tion the last member, Jesus Christ, whose unveiling is to be the subject 
especially of his book, he gives an epitome of his character, his dignity, his 
work, the results of his work, the glory due to him, and the manner in 
which this glory is to be manifested at his second coming. 

A faithful witness, that is, a witness worthy of full faith and confidence. 
“Tt behooved him to be made like unto his brethren ; that he might be a 
merciful and faithful high priest,” (Heb. ii. 17,) that is, a high priest to be 
depended upon. We call a martyr faithful when he dies at the stake in 
adherence to his testimony, although he may be in error ; we cannot, there- 
fore, depend upon the testimony of a martyr in this respect ; but with Jesus 
Christ there is no danger of mistake—in whatever testimony he bore, all 
doctrines taught by him while in the flesh, and all taught by him, through 
his apostles, are so much testimony of which he is the witness ; but besides 
this, we are now about to go into his testimony in the book before us. [{ is 
important, therefore, that we should establish our minds in the conviction 
that the witness about to testify, is one that cannot be mistaken, and will 
not deceive. He is a faithful witness—worthy of unlimited confidence. 

§ 11. ‘The first begotten of the dead’—or rather the first born from the 
dead ; ὁ πρωτύτοχος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν. We are apt to make use of these terms 
begotten and born as equivalents. We speak of regeneration as a new 
birth merely, and we speak of the resurrection of Christ here as a new 
generation ; whereas there is a marked distinction between the ideas to be con- 
veyed in the two cases.* To be born implies a previous existence ; but to be 
begotten, or generated, does not admit the idea of previous existence. It 
cannot be correct to say that Jesus Christ is the first generated from the 
dead. Accordingly the same Greek term which is here translated begotten, 
is rendered Col. i. 18, by the word born—“ the first born from the dead””— 
and in no other place of the New Testament is expressed by begotten, — 
except Hebrews i. 6 ; where it should have been rendered by the word born, 
as it there refers in a figure to the bringing in of the remedial plan of propi- 
tiation, as an event taking place in the Divine mind at a particular moment ; 
although we know that in the Divine mind the purpose must have been 
eternally the same. 

The reason given in Colossians for this precedence of Christ, in his 
birth from the dead, is, that in all things he might have the pre-eminence, 
(πρωτεύων,) tee being first, in allusion we suppose to the specimen afforded 
by the first fruits—Christ taking the lead, as we may say, in the process of 


* As there is a similar distinction between the Greek verbs téztw and yarrow. 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 1x 


resurrection, as he had done in the work of redemption :—ty pifying in a spirit- 
ual sense his resurrection from the position of condemnation, to which he 
had subjected himself in man’s behalf, and exemplifying, in a material sense, 
his triumph over the powers of corruption ; spiritually, affording the disci- 
ple an assurance of justification in him; and physically, an assurance of a 
re-existence in an incorruptible, material body of flesh and bones ; such as 
he was seen to have, Luke xxiv. 39. The disciple of Christ, adopted in 
him, and accounted to partake of his merits, and to be conformed to his 
image, being raised from a position of death in trespasses and sins, of which 
Christ’s resurrection is the earnest or first fruits. As it is said, (1 Cor. xv. 13-- 
17,) If Christ be not risen, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins—while 
at the same time his material resurrection, as a first fruit, is a sample of the 
material ye-existence of his followers. The word *“Azagzj, rendered first 
fruits in ouF Common version of this passage, in Corinthians strictly signify- 


ing first part, or sample piece, (Rob. Lex. 55.) As in a lump of leavened 


dough, if a piece taken from the outside be leavened, it is a proof that the 
state of the whole lump corresponds with it; the process of leavening hay- 
ing commenced from the centre. As the first piece is, therefore, so is the 
whole ; as is the fruit, so is the tree ; as are the branches, so is the stock ; as 
was the material resurrection of Christ, so will be that of his followers—not 
in manner, however, but in kind. 

$12. ‘The prince,’ or rather the ruler (ὁ ἄρχων) ‘of the kings’ or 
chiefs ‘ of the earth. —We have not yet reached the commencement of the 
apostle’s description of the vision, and cannot yet say that the language and 
figures here employed, are those of vision ; but we may say, that the lan- 
guage is already figurative, and that the term kings of the earth signifies 
here something else than political rulers, in the ordinary sense of the term ; 
as we find Paul uses the expression, 1 Cor. iv. 8, somewhat sarcastically 
perhaps: “ Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings with- 
out us.” So Jesus Christ says, (Luke xxii. 21,) ‘* Behold, the kingdom of 
God is within you.” Opposite to which we may suppose the kingdoms of 
the earth, or of the world, to be something within the disciple, opposed to 
the reign of God in the heart.‘ The Lord is our King,” it is said Is. xxxiii. 
22, ‘* He will save us.” Earthly sovereigns were formerly looked up unto 
by the people, in a time of trouble, and were trusted in for their power to 
save. Kings of the earth may thus represent supposed means of salvation, 
and as the earth is an opposite of heaven, the kingdoms of the earth must 
be opposites of the kingdom of heaven; and the kings of the earth we may 
consider leading principles of these kingdoms of the earth ;—leading prin- 
ciples of economies of salvation opposed to the economy of grace: all which 
leading principles are subordinate, and subservient to the manifestation of the 
power of Christ. The element of salvation by grace, through the imputed 


x APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


righteousness of Christ, predominating over the principles of all earthly 
schemes of redemption. As it is said of those justified in Christ, Col. ii. 
10, “‘ Ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and 
power ;” who also, it is added, (vs. 14, 15,) “in blotting out the hand-writ- 
ing of ordinances,” “ spoiled principalities and powers :” as Christ is also said, 
Eph. 1. 21, to have been “raised far above all principality and power, and 
might and dominion, and every name that is named.” So it is said of disci- 
ples, (Eph. vi. 11, 12,) that they “wrestle not against flesh and blood,” 
(human power in a literal sense,) “ but against principalities, against powers, 
against the rulers of the darkness of this world.” These quotations suffi- 
ciently showing that kings and kingdoms of the earth, or of this world, are 
figurative terms, even in portions of Scripture where we might suppose the 
literal sense to be more strictly adhered to. 

We have thus in this designation of Christ, as the source of grace and 
peace, three important particulars: that he is a witness to be depended upon ; 
that he is the earnest of the resurrection from the dead, both in a spiritual 
and in a material sense ; and that as a Redeemer, his power predominates over 
every other principle. 

§ 13. ‘Unto him that loved us..— We now come to the reminiscence of 
the great cause of gratitude ; as it is said, (1 John iv. 19,) “We love him 
because he first loved us.” And 1 John ix. 10, “‘ Herein is love, not that 
we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation 
for our sins.” And as Paul expresses it, Gal. 11. 20, “‘ The life that I now 
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and 
gave himself for me.” So Rom. viii. 35-37, ““ Who shall separate us from 
the love of Christ ἢ “ Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, 
through him that loved us.” The love of God and the love of Christ being 
uniformly spoken of in Scripture as identical; the passage which exhibits 
one, applies equally to the other; as we shall perceive more fully in the 
progress of this development of the character of our Redeemer. 

§ 14. ‘And washed us from our sins in his own blood.’ —As it is said, 
1 John i. 7, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin ; and this for the 
reason afterwards given, that he is the propitiation for our sins, (1 John i. 
2;) as it is also said 1 Cor. vi. 11, “ But ve are washed, but ye are sanctified, 
but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our 
God.” The washing in the name of Christ, being an expression equivalent 
to that of being cleansed by his blood. 

§ 15. ‘And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father.’— 
What we have just now said of kings, is equally applicable here. It is evi- 
dent that the term is not to be understood in a literal sense. For if all the 
followers of Jesus were kings, they would be kings literally without subjects. 
The peculiar characteristic of a king amongst the Hebrews was that of being 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. ΧΙ 


anointed, or set apart. So the kings of Israel were styled the Lord’s anointed. 
In which respect a king was a type of Christ, who is pre-eminently the 
anointed of the Lord, spoken of, Ps. ii. 2, and Ixxxiv. 9. In which respect 
Christ himself also represents all who are adopted in him, (Ps. xviii. 50.) 
To be a king, therefore, in this spiritual sense, is to be the Lord’s anointed, 
set apart in Christ ; and in him reigning and triumphing over the powers of 
the earth, opposed to the salvation of the sinner. Such an anointing ap- 
pears to be alluded to by David, Ps. xcii. 10, as an anointing of fresh oil ; 
that is, an unction in a spiritual sense, as contradistinguished from the literal 
oil, with which as king he had been before anointed. 

Priests were also anointed ones ; as Moses poured oil on Aaron’s head, 
Lev. viii. 12 ; but priests were also admitted to sacrifice at the altar, and the 
high priest, by virtue of his office, entered even the Holy of Holies. So, in 
Christ, the disciple, in a spiritual sense, is admitted to all these privileges. 
In Christ, he serves in the temple of God; in Christ, he offers his body an 
acceptable sacrifice ; and in Christ, he is admitted even into the holiest ; 
identified, or accounted identic in the sight of God with his Divine Re- 
deemer. It is thus in Christ only, that disciples are kings and priests ; and 
this to God, not to man, or in the sight of men. 

The word translated king, is said to have been originally applied to one 
who presided over sacred things, (Rob. Lex. 104.) According to some edi- 
tions of the Greek, however, this word should be rendered a kingdom, or a 
royal dignity, (Rob. Lex. 101 ;) and the word priests without the conjunc- 
tion seems to be intended in apposition, and not in addition, to the preceding 
term—et fecit nos regnum, Sacerdotes Deo et Patri suo—(G. & L.) And 
has constituted us a royal dignity, that is, priests, &c., corresponding with 
the royal priesthood, spoken of, 1 Peter ii. 9. As Christ was a priest after 


Zz order of Melchizedek, a royal priest; so in him his followers are 
c 


counted priests of the same order. As Melchizedek brought forth the 
offering of bread and wine, so Christ brings forth the sacrifice of his own 
righteousness, the bread of life, and the offering of his own atoning blood, 
the wine procured from the water of purification; and so the disciple in 
Christ is accounted to offer to God perpetually the sacrifice of his Redeem- 
er’s merits ; the bread and wine of eternal life. 
$16. ‘To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, amen.-—To 
him, that is, to Christ, as appears by the Greek order ; and yet we are told 
that God will not give his glory to another, (Is. xlii. 8.) We are thus con- 
tinually reminded that the Father and Son must be two exhibitions of the same 
Deity. The ascriptions of the apostle John being no doubt in strict accord- 
ance with that of another apostle, (Jude 25,) To the only wise God and 
our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. 
The word be is supplied by our translators; perhaps the sense would be 


᾿ 


| 


ΧΙ APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


better expressed by the word is. To him is the glory and dominion, for ever 
and ever. Solet it be. The glory belongs to the Saviour, and is and will 
be his whether any of his creatures should give it to him or not ; and this the 
apostle declares positively : He has loved us and washed us from our sins, and 
made us a royal priesthood, and to him is the glory. And so it should be, 
adds the apostle. Amen, so let it be. It is even to teach us that this glory 
and dominion is his, that he unveils, or reveals, himself to us, especially in 
the following pages. 


V.7. Behold he cometh with clouds ; ᾿Ιδού, ἔρχεται μετὰ τῶν νεφελῶν, καὶ Owe- 
and every eye shall see him: and they ται αὐτὸν πᾶς ὀφϑαλμός, καὶ οἵτινες αὐτὸν 


Beek choad me ΟΝ ἘΠΠΓΕΡΕ ἐξεκέντησαν " καὶ κόψονται ἐπ αὐτὸν πᾶσαι 
Even so. Amen. αἱ φυλαὶ τῆς γῆς " ναί. ἀμήν. 

17. ‘Behold, &c.’—Here. the apostle, as if carried away by the transport 
of his feelings, anticipates apparently the great subject matter, as we apprehend 
it to be, of the revelation committed to him; that of the second coming, or 
manifestation of his Master; as if he had said, In the revelation about to be 
made, the coming of the Lord is to be found. He that loved us is there 
about to unveil himself. He that hath done so much for us is now, amidst 
the types and shadows and figurative language of this book, as amidst the 
clouds, about to manifest himself ;—to reveal his love and the mysteries of 
the work of his salvation. Here, in this revelation spiritually interpreted, 
he is coming to the understanding. , 

The coming of the Lord is expressed in sixteen places of the New 
Testament, by the Greek word παρουσία ; in two, by the word ἐρχόυμενος, 
and in one, 1 Cor. i. 7, by ἀποκάλυψιν," which last term is the same as that 
rendered Revelation in the title of this book. There can be no doubt that 
all these terms relate to the same coming. So the Greek term apocalypse is 
rendered Rom. viii. 19 by manifestation, and 1 Peter i. 7 by appearing, while 
in the 13th verse of the same chapter of Peter, it is translated by revelation. 
Comparing the two verses together, it is evident that this apostle considered 
the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ and the revelation of Jesus Christ 
as identic, and consequently to be expressed by the same term; and it is 
equally evident that what Peter terms an apocalypse is that which Paul terms 
parousia. The word apocalypse is also made to express (Luke i. 32) 
light, or enlightening ; while the appearing of Jesus Christ, termed 1 Peteri. 
7, apocalypsis, is expressed in other places by the word ἐπιφανεία, a shining 
upon, (1 Tim. vi. 14.) An exhibition of brightness, which, according to 
2 Thes. ii. 8, is to destroy that wicked—the man ofsin ; then to be simulta- 
neously revealed, unveiled, (ἀποκαλυφϑήσεται.) The coming of this wicked 


* “ So that you come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ: who shall confirm you unto the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus 
Christ.” 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. xiii 


being expressed in the Greek by the same word parousia, as that employed 
most frequently to express the coming of Christ. In both cases the words 
coming, revelation, and appearing, or brightness of coming, being nearly 
equivalent terms, or at least terms to be understood in the same spiritual or 
intellectual sense. We hence take it for granted that the coming of Jesus 
Christ is the revelation of Jesus Christ, and this revelation of Jesus Christ, 
is precisely the title of the book we are now about to examine. Accordingly 
the expression, Behold, he cometh with clouds, is equivalent to the declara- 
tion, Behold, he is about to be revealed with clouds. 

$18. God is said (Ps. cxi. 7, 8,) to cover the heaven with clouds ; clouds 
being represented as a veil spread over the heavens. The heavens, it is said 
also, display the glory of God, and the firmament his handy-work. Analo- 
gous to this, we suppose the heavens, in a spiritual sense, to be that exhibi- 
tion of Divine sovereignty which manifests the glory of God, in his goodness 
towards a lost world; and his power in the work of redemption. _ As the 
clouds, in a literal sense, veil the material heavens, and partially or entirely 
prevent our contemplation of celestial objects ; so, in a spiritual sense, we 
may give the appellation of clouds to whatever conceals wholly, or partially, 
from the human understanding the wonders of redemption. Such conceal- 
ment is undeniably produced by the types and symbols, and figurative lan- 
guage, in which a large portion of Divine revelation is handed down to us. 

‘I have many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now,’ 
(John xvi. 12)—this was said even to the most favoured disciples of our 
Lord, and so probably it might have been said to his followers ever since 
that time. Our mental vision is not yet capable of sustaining the bright- 
ness of a full manifestation, or shining forth of the Sun of mghteousness. 
God in mercy has covered his revelation of truth, with a cloudy veil; we 
see as yet only through a glass darkly, (1 Cor. xvi. 12,) but no doubt we 
are permitted to see as much as we are able to bear. 

Previous to the coming of Christ in the flesh, the cloud may be said to 
have been one of thick darkness, (Joel ii. 2, and Zeph. i. 18.) But 
the light of divine truth has since been progressively revealing itself, 
becoming brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. In the present day 
the understanding of the symbolic language of revelation is much advanced. 
The heavenly exhibition is still veiled by a figurative mode of expression, 
but partially understood. We may say, however, perhaps, with the 
prophet, (Zech. x. 1,) “ὙΠῸ Lord hath made bright clouds.” In the 
account we have of the transfiguration upon the mount, where Moses and 
Elias were seen ministering to Jesus, it is said, Behold, a bright cloud over- 
shadowed him, Matt. xvii. 12. So, when we see the !aw and the prophets 
ushering in a development of Gospel mysteries, our Redeemer may be spoken 
of as veiled only with a cloud of brightness. On the other hand, when the 


XIV APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


understanding has no perception of Jesus, as the Sun of righteousness, it 
may be said to be a day of thick clouds. 

But while the figures and symbols of Scripture are the instruments of a 
temporary veiling or concealment of the mysteries of Divine goodness, they 
are also the instruments of handing down and of promulgating the know- 
ledge of this goodness. The knowledge of the Lord is to cover the earth, 
and this result is to be brought about by the use of these means ; so it is 
said, Ps..iv. 3, ‘‘ He maketh the clouds his chariot.” These types and 
figures, when properly understood, become the vehicles of setting forth the 
true character of Jehovah. This proper understanding we suppose to be 
comprehended under the figure of his coming in, or with the clouds. 

ᾧ 19. ‘ And every eye shall see him.’—That is, intellectually, corre- 
sponding with the petition of the apostle, Eph. i. 17, 18, “ That the God 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit 
of wisdom and of revelation (ἀποκαλύψεως) in the knowledge of him, that 
the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened; that ye may know 
what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inhe- 
ritance in the saints.’ ‘To every one, possessing this spirit of wisdom, or 
thus enlightened, Christ may be said to come intellectually, or to be seen 
coming as in the clouds, or with clouds. 

ᾧ 29. ‘ And they which pierced him.’—The word translated pierced, is 
the same as that used (John xix. 37) in reference to the action of the 
soldiers, who, in piercing the side of Jesus, unwittingly provided for the fulfil- 
ment of the prophecies: Ps. xxi. 16, ‘‘ They shall look on him whom they 
pierced ;” and Zech. xii. 10, ‘‘ And I will pour upon the house of David, 
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplica- 
tion: and they shall Jook upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall 
mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son.” The looking upon the 
pierced one is here spoken of as a consequence of the pouring out of the spirit 
of grace and supplication. As such it may be equivalent to the operation 
of the Spirit spoken of (John xvi. 8) as the conviction of sin, of righteous- 
ness, and of judgment. 

Literally, the body of Jesus was pierced by a single individual, a 
Roman soldier ; and even those who nailed him to the cross were but a few 
soldiers acting by command of a superior, not knowing what they did. 
In a spiritual sense, however, all have pierced him, on account of whose 
transgressions he was wounded, (Is. li. 5.) An understanding contempla- 
tion of the relation between the iniquities of the sinner and the sufferings of 
the Saviour, is probably what is alluded to as the lookmg upon him whom 
they pierced. The disciple sees his crucified Lord not merely as one who 
was pierced, but as one whom he himself has pierced. 

‘ And all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.’—It can- 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. XV 


not be those rejoicing in Christ as a Saviour, who mourn at the prospect of 
his coming ; on the contrary, their language is, Even so, come, Lord Jesus. 
The Greek term rendered here wail, and according to the Septuagint in 
Zech. mourn, signifies primarily, to cut one’s self; reminding us of the man- 
ner of the priests of Baal, (1 Kings xviii. 28.) It seems to be the charac- 
teristic of idolatrous worship, expressing the lamentation of vexation rather 
than of affection ; and we may suppose such lamentation of vexation and 
disappointment, to be the wailing of the kindreds of the earth, on the occa- 
sion here contemplated. Their position corresponding with that of the 
persecutors of the martyr Stephen, when, sitting in council and looking 
steadfastly on him, they saw his face as it had been the face of an angel ; 
and when, cut to the heart by the truth of his statements, they gnashed 
upon him with their teeth, Acts vi. 15, vu. 54. 

So the opposers of gospel truth may wail, when they behold the truth 
they oppose, decidedly demonstrated to be truth. ‘The opposers of the 
doctrine of salvation by grace, may wail when they perceive this doctrine 
about being manifested as truth. And the despisers of this salvation by 
the imputed merits of Christ may wail when they behold Jesus about ex- 
hibiting himself openly, and as it were face to face, as the Lord our right- 
eousness. So also those who go about to establish, or who, as they think, 
have established, and who depend upon a righteousness of their own for 
salvation, must mourn as one mourneth for a lost son, when they find this 
means of dependence, this source of vainglory cut off, and destroyed, by 
the exhibition of the truth as it is in Jesus.* 

§ 21. The word here rendered kindred, (φυλαὶ,) is the same as that transla- 
ted tribes, Matt. xxiv. 30, ““ And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.” 
According to the Jewish mode of speaking, we suppose the tribes of the 
earth to represent something the opposite of the twelve tribes ; as in figu- 
rative language the earth represents something the opposite of what is 
represented by heaven, and the kingdoms of the earth are put for opposites 
of the kingdom of heaven. As the twelve tribes represent something 
chosen, adopted, and set apart, so the tribes of the earth may be supposed 
to represent things not so chosen, adopted, and set apart. When the truths 
of the gospel are being manifested, then, as we apprehend, the principles of 
the economy of grace may be called upon, figuratively speaking, to lift up 
their heads ; while on the other hand it may then be said to be the part of the 


* © As one that mourneth for a lost son. Children are a heritage of the Lord ; 
analogous with this, the means of justification are also an heritage of the Lord: the 
inheritance of the merits of Christ by imputation. Children thus representing that 
righteousness, or merit, which is necessary to justify. The self-righteous man, when 
convinced of the nothingness of his pretensions, thus mourns, or wails over his loss, 
as if for a lost son. 


ΧΥΪ APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


principles of self righteousness, personified as the tribes of the earth, to wail 
because of him. The correctness of this construction, however, may be 
better appreciated as we advance in our examination of the peculiarly mystic 
language of this portion of the inspired writings. 

‘ Even so, amen’—or, yea, so let it be—as assuredly such will certainly 
be his coming, (Rob. Lex. 29 and 467.)—The word amen, here and in the 
preceding verse, appears designed to indicate the completion of the topic im- 
mediately preceding it. So at the end of the sixth verse, the summary of 
what Christ had done is completed. ‘Then comes a summary also of what 
he is about to do; which is also completed at the close of the seventh 
verse ; after which, the sense admits of a considerable pause. We may also 
consider this seventh verse as having immediate reference to what is said 
at the close of the third verse—‘“ For the time is at hand,’ ‘‘ Behold, he 
cometh.” The time is at hand, because the revelation contemplated is to 
be found in the succeeding pages ; and, behold he cometh, because this reve- 
lation constitutes his coming. 

V. 8. Iam Alpha and Omega, the ‘Ey εἶμι τὸ A καὶ τὸ 2, λέγει κύριος 
beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, § 9εός, 6 ὧν καὶ ὃ ἦν καὶ ὃ ἐρχόμενος, ὃ 


which is, and which was, and which is to 


come, the Almighty. ss: de ae oe 


§ 22. It will be perceived by comparing the English with the Greek text, 
as above, that there is some slight difference in the Greek editions. ‘The com- 
mon version omits the word God, (ὁ ϑεός,) and adds the words the begin- 
ning and the ending, (ἀρχή καὶ τέλος,) while the Greek edition from which 
we copy,* omits these last words, and adds ὁ ϑεός to the term κυρίος. 
This difference is not material, as the letters Alpha and Omega, the first and 
the last of the Greek alphabet, express all that is expressed by the begin- 
ning and the ending; and the closing term—the Almighty—shows the 
speaker to be God, whether it be so expressed before or not. 

‘IT am Alpha and Omega.’—We infer that these are the words of 
him that cometh, but it is not absolutely so declared. ‘The same annuncia- 
tion, however, is found in three subsequent passages: Rev. 1. 11, xxi. 6, and 
xxii. 13. The process of development is here just commencing, and we are 
gradually let in to a knowledge of the true character of Christ, as we are 
also into that of the peculiar functions of his mission and ministry. We 
learn here that he who styles himself the Alpha and Omega, is the Almighty, 
the eternal Lord God—which is, and was, and is to come. If we after- 
wards find the same title to be assumed by, or given to Jesus Christ, put- 
ting the two together, we find him declared to be the Eternal God, the 


ἘΝ. T. G. post Tittmannum. Ed. Robinson, New-York, 1842, with Heyne’s 
variations. 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. xvii 
Almighty.* But this announcement is at present delayed, as it were, 
because in the present stage of the revelation we are not yet able to bear it. 
Meantime we may notice that this title, Alpha and Omega, as the first and 
last letters of the Greek alphabet, has something finite in it, leading one’s 
mind to a characteristic of the speaker, distinct from that of his Eternity. 
With God, the Almighty, contemplated only as the Supreme Being, there 
can be neither beginning nor ending, (Heb. vii. 3.) We are obliged, there- 
fore, to look for something of which it may be said that the Almighty God 
is the beginning and the ending in a peculiar sense ; and this something we 
find or shall find in the Economy of Grace. Christ, that is, God manifest 
in Christ, being peculiarly the beginning and the ending of the plan of 
redemption—the author and the finisher, the first cause and the final cause. 
The economy of grace being designed to glorify the Saviour, as the woman, 
it is said, was created for the man, and not the man for the woman, (1 Cor. 
xi. 9.) The church being called into being for the Redeemer, and not the 
Redeemer for the church. Elsewhere, as Hebrews xiii. 8, we find the 
same attribute ascribed to the Son as is here given to the Father Almighty. 
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; that is, who was, 
and is, and is to come. 


V.9. IJohn, who also am your bro- 
ther and companion in tribulation and 
in the kingdom and patience of Jesus 
Christ, was in the isle that is called Pat- 
mos, for the word of God and for the tes- 
timony of Jesus Christ. 


᾿Εγὼ ᾿Ιωάνγγης, ὃ ἀδελφὸς ὑμῶν καὶ συγ-- 
κοινωνὸς ἐν τῇ ϑλίψει καὶ βασιλείᾳ, χαὶ 
ὑπομονῇ ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἐγενόμην. ἐν τῇ 
γήσῳ TH καλουμένῃ Πάτμῳ διὰ τὸν λόγον 
τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ διὰ τὴν μαρτυρίαν ᾿Ιησοῦ 


Xx OLOTOU. 


ᾧ 23. Here the narrative is introduced, with an account of such particulars 
of the writer and of his circumstances at the time of writing, as must place the 
genuineness of the production beyond dispute. The apostle claims for himself 
no consideration of superiority—he is a brother—adopted in Christ; every 
disciple is a brother, for all so adopted are brethren, by virtue of that spirit- 
ual tie. He is a companion in affliction—literally, he was so in those times 
ol persecution ; spiritually, he was so, because every sinner is, in himself, 
in a position of affliction, although in Christ he is in a position of rejoicing, 
which last state is expressed by companionship in the kingdom of Christ. 
The Greek term signifying a participation of fellowship—iiterally, as an 
avowed disciple and follower of Jesus—and spiritually, as participating in 
the communion of his merits, sharing in the benefit of justification by his 
righteousness, and of purification by virtue of his atonement. 

He was a participator also in the patience of Jesus Christ ; or rather in 
the patient waiting for Christ, this being the interpretation given to the 


* The letters 4 and 2 serving as a key to interpret, or rather as a chain to con- 
nect together these several titles. 


3 


XVill APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


same Greek word, 2 Thess. iii. 5. Not that the apostle affected to share 
in the endurance of Christ literally, but that there is a patience or endurance 
which every Christian is called to exercise for Christ’s sake, and which on 
this account is called the patzence of Christ. 

To these particulars of himself, the apostle adds the name of the island 
in which he was residing at the time of receiving the vision, and of com- 
mitting it to writing, and the cause of his being a resident of that secluded 
spot. Thus furnishing a geographical and an historical criterion for testing 
the reality of the circumstances, and for identifying the period of this remark- 
able revelation. 

The Island of Patmos, one of the Sporades, is mentioned by Pliny and 
Strabo ; and the apostle’s account of his confinement in the island, cor- 
responds with the tradition of his banishment to it by order of the Emperor 
Domitian, (see Leusden’s Onomas. Sac.) From what is said of the familiar 
terms upon which this disciple stood with some of the Jewish authorities, it 
appears probable, that the regard in which he was held by many of his 
countrymen, instrumentally procured for him this commutation of banish- 
ment for death, αἵ ἃ time when his life might otherwise have been scarcely 
spared. ‘The name of the island signifying something deadly, (lethals vel 
mortifere, according to Leusden,) may have been derived from its barren- 
ness, or want of salubrity, rendering it so much the more probable that such 
would be the place of confinement of a persecuted disciplé. So, as the 
providence of God overruled the circumstance of the apostle’s mtimacy 
with the high priest, to enable him to witness the trial of his master, 
similar circumstances were overruled to place him in a position favourable 
for writing his vision, and for promulgating it with these evidences of its 
authenticity. 

Perhaps without these coincidences, from the highly figurative language 
and imagery employed throughout the Apocalypse, the book would not have 
commanded that respect for its authority which has been so universally ren- 
dered to it for nearly 1800 years. 

It required, more than any other portion of the New Testament, pecu- 
liar evidence of its having been written by an apostle ; and even evidence 
pointing out the particular apostle. Some specification of circumstances 
was necessary to connect it with what was known of the writer’s life, as a 
kind of prelimimary proof to entitle it to attention, and to procure for it the 
critical and laborious investigation of pious and learned commentators ; an 
investigation bestowed upon it in a very remarkable degree, notwithstand- 
ing its apparent extravagance of diction. The book properly understood, 
will, no doubt, maintain its own authority ; but, in the mean time, had it not 
been for this announcement of the time when, the place where, and the indi- 
vidual by whom it was reduced to writing, its contents might have been taken 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. XIX 
for the wild vagaries of some visionary enthusiast. The Isle of Patmos, 
then—standing as it still does, a rock in the midst of a well-known Sea— 
performs the important part of a voucher for the authority and genuineness 
of this revelation, or unveiling of himself, made by Jesus to his beloved dis- 
ciple. This testimony becomes still more important, if we consider the 
peculiar manner in which John is here favoured, as the distinction implied 
in the words, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? John 
Xx1. 22, 23. 


THE VISION. 


Vs. 10,11. I was in the spirit on the 
Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great 
voice as of a trumpet, saying, fam Alpha 
and Omega, the first and the last: and 
what thou seest write in a book, and send 
it unto the seven churches which are 
in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, 
and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, 


> . , > ΄ > ~ ~ c Γ 
Ἐγενόμην ἐν πνεύματι ἐν τῇ κυριακῇ ἡμέ- 
, 
OM, καὶ ἤκουσα Oniow μου φωνὴν μεγάλην 
, ΄ ' 
ὡς σάλπιγγος, λεγούσης: ὃ βλέπεις γράψον 
εἰς βιβλίον, καὶ πέμψον ταῖς ἑπτὰ ἐκκλησίαις, 
> Way XY τὰ , \ 2 ' 
εις ἔφεσον καὶ εἰς Suvevoy καὶ εἰς Πέργα- 
Ἂ με , \ > Φ \ 
μον καὶ sig Θυατειρα καὶ sig Σάρδεις καὶ 
εἰς Φιλαδέλφειαν καὶ εἰς Ταοδίκειαν. 


and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, 
and unto Laodicea. 

ᾧ 24. “1 was in the spirit on the Lord’s day.’—There is no article in the 
original preceding the word translated spirit, and the form of expression is 
the same as that employed in Matt. xvii. 23, “ How then doth David in 
spirit” (εν πνεύματι) “call him” (Christ) ““ Lord ?” that is, how does David, 
speaking in a spiritual sense, or having his mind translated into that state 
which presents a spiritual view of the subject, call Christ, Lord ? 

The word rendered Lord’s, is the adjective form of Κύριος ; it occurs 
but in one other place of the New Testament, 1 Cor. xi. 20, χυριακὸν 
δεῖπνον, where it is rendered the Lord’s supper, in contradistinction to every 
In Latin it 
is correctly rendered by the word dominicus, and strictly speaking we should 
either say the Lord-Day, the Lord-Supper, or render the passages by a 
grecism or latinism, the kyriacal or dominical day. 
ever, to render the term by a noun in the possessive case, we have the same 
right to translate κυριακὸν δεῖπνον, by the supper of the Lord, as we have by 


one his own supper, and is not found at all in the Septuagint. 


If we choose, how- 


the Lord’s supper ; and we should render χυριακῆ ἡμέρα as justly by the day 
of the Lord, as by the Lord’s day. This distinction would not be so im- 
portant, were it not that we are accustomed to associate with the term the 
Lord’s day, the first day of the week ; and with the term the day of the 
Lord, something equivalent to the second coming of our Saviour. Accord- 
ingly, it is usually supposed that the apostle in this passage represents him- 
self to have been in a peculiarly devotional frame of mind, on a certain first 
day of the week ; a construction apparently far short of the real meaning. 


Xx APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


΄ 


The verb γώομαι, from which the word rendered J was is derived, is sus- 
ceptible of a variety of modifications of meaning, conveying, for the most 
part, an idea of generation, transition, or change of state, something more 
than is signified by the English verb Iam, or the Greek éui, to be, (Rob. 
Lex. 125.) So Rev. viii. 8, the third part of the sea became (ἐγένετο) 
blood; and Rev. iv. 2, and immediately I became in spirit—ev0 dae ἐγενόμην 
ἐν πνεύματι. 

Taking these particulars into view, we seem to be warranted in the con- 
clusion that the apostle’s meaning here is, that upon the occasion referred 
to, he was brought into such a state of mind that he was, in a spiritual 
sense, present in the day of the Lord—he was enabled to witness that day. 
In spirit, or by the spirit,* he was brought to see this day, which he calls 
the dominical (kyriacal) day ; not in the sense in which our almanac makers 
employ the term, but in the sense in which it was understood by the apos- 
tles—the day of the Lord being peculiarly the Dominical Day. So Jesus 
says to the Jews, ‘ Your father Abraham (in spirit) saw my day ; he saw 
it, and was glad.” As Paul also-was, we may suppose, an spirit, “‘ whether 


in the body or out,” enabled to hear unspeakable words, which it is not law- - 


ful for man to utter. So we may suppose the apostle John to have been in 
spirit enjoying in vision the coming of his Lord; with this difference, how- 
ever, between the two cases: that the beloved disciple was directed to com- 
mit to writing what it was not lawful for Paul to utter, 2 Cor. xii. 1-4. 

If we suppose the kyriacal day to be merely a first day of the week, 
there seems to be no sufficient reason why it should be- mentioned, and we 
are obliged to suppose the whole vision of the apostle to have been wit- 
nessed, if not committed to writing, on one particular first day of the week ; 
but if we consider the term as designating the day of Christ, the mention of 
it throws light upon the whole contents of the book; while we may easily 
suppose the witnessing and recording of the revelation to have occupied the 
apostle’s thoughts and time during a large portion of his banishment.t 


* ef δὲ ἐγὼ ἐν πνεύματι Geov. If I by the Spirit of God, it is said, Matt. xii. 28.—So _ 


it may be said here, I was by the Spirit in the day of the Lord—or verbatim, I was 
in the Spirit in the kyriacal day. The only question will then be, what did John un- 
derstand by the kyriacal day? We suppose it to be the day of the Lord. How far this 
reading is consistent with the whole tenor of the vision will appear in the sequel. 

+ The term, the Lord’s day, is not to be met with in any other place or passage 
of Scripture; and even as it occurs here in our common version, we find it classed 
in Cruden’s Concordance, with the day of the Lord. The day we call Sunday is uni- 
, formly designated in the New Testament as the first day of the week. In the Old 
| Testament, its typical equivalent appears to be that spoken of as the eighth day, 
_ (Lev. xxiii. 36-39.) 

The Sabbath, or Sabbath-day, as we commonly use the appellation, is a term 
uniformly applied both’ in the Old and New Testament to the seventh day of the 


ee 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. XXi 


§ 25. ‘And I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet.’—A 
voice we may suppose like the sound of a trumpet. 

Of the coming of the Son of Man it is said, (Matt. xxiv. 31,) “ And he 
shall send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall 
gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the 
other.” So, 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52, “ Behold, I show youa mystery ; we shall 
not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of 
an eye, at the last trumpet—for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall 
be raised incorruptible,‘and we shall be changed ;” and 1 Thess. iv. 16, 
«For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the 
voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God.” Here are three 
several predictions of the coming or manifestation of Christ, attended with 
the voice, or sound of a trumpet. The first is that of a great sound of a 
trumpet, such as the sound which John now hears behind him. The second 
speaks of the Jast trumpet ; we have no account of a last trumpet, so called, 
in ear but, besides the sound of this great trumpet, we have seven 
trumpets spoken of; concerning the seventh or last of which, it is said, 
(Rev. x. 7,) that in its sounding, the mystery of God should be Jinished. 
The third prediction is that of the voice of the archangel, and of the trump- 
et of God. We know that the trumpet of God is not the trumpet of man : 
and we may judge that it signifies not a material trumpet, but some revela- 
tion, or instrument of revelation from God, analogous to the voice of a trump- 
et. So the voice of the archangel must be the voice of one who js the 
ruler, the chief of the angels ; and we have, at the commencement, and at 
the close of this book of Revelation, the assurance that it is a communica- 
tion by the mouth, or voice, as we may say, especially of the angel of 
Jesus ; that is, Jesus himself speaking through his angel ; and may not this 
be equivalent to what Paul denominates the voice of the archangel? At 
least, may there not be some intimate relation between the trumpets alluded 
to by Matthew and Paul, and the trumpets described in the Apocalypse ? 

The trumpet was generally employed amongst the Hebrews for public 
proclamations and for martial preparations, and even the walls of the city of 
Jericho were overthrown by the sound of trumpets, Joshua vi. 4-20, The 
victory of Gideon was obtained instrumentally by the sound of trumpets, 
Judges vii. 19-22; and the ark of the Lord was brought up to the city of 
David, with trumpets, and cymbals, and shoutings. With these references 
we cannot but believe that there is something of more than an ordinary impor- 
tance to be attached to the employment of the apocalyptic trumpets. The 


week. Consequently we may say, the term Lord’s day, as applied toa particular 
day of the week, although such use of it may be sanctioned by very early authority 
in the church, cannot strictly speaking be considered a Scripture term. 


XXil APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


trumpet is peculiarly the instrument of a herald, indicative of a proclama- 
tion by sovereign authority ; any revelation of the divine will may be spoken 
of as such a proclamation, and may be thus figuratively termed the voice of 
a trumpet, or the trump of God. The Greek verb κηρύσσω, translated 
preach, and applied particularly to the preaching of the gospel, is a term 
primarily signifying the action of a herald in proclaiming the will of the 
sovereign as with the voice of a trumpet. The promulgation of the legal 
dispensation is spoken of, Hebrews xii. 19, as the voice of a trumpet ; and 
may be said to be a trumpet of God. So the preaching of the gospel may 
be called the sound of a great trumpet, or the trumpet of a god. Several 
developments of gospel truth may be each of them termed the voice of a 
trumpet, and the last of these, the final revelation which God may make of 
his will, may be equally spoken of as the sound of the last trumpet, the 
trump of God, the last proclamation of the will of the Divine Sovereign, as 
by a divinely commissioned herald. 'To these suggestions we may add, 
that the universally admitted extreme old age to which the apostle John 
was permitted to live, and the probability that the revelation he committed 
to writing was received towards the close of his life, (as supposed about A. D. 
96,) warrants us in the assumption that this revelation is the last promulgation 
of the will of God, made directly to man—the last divinely mspired communi- 
cation by a commissioned herald ; and as such it may be appropriately spoken 
of as the last trumpet, or the great trumpet. ‘The sound of this trumpet is 
its meaning. ‘This sound has not yet reached us, or we have yet heard it 
only indistinctly, as we hear the distant thunder; and even, if that exhibi- 
tion which the Apocalypse affords us of the true character and offices of 
Christ, constitutes what is called his parousia, or coming—something com- 
pared to the lightning which lighteth from one part of heaven to the other— 
the brightness of this exhibition may precede, in some degree, the full 
understanding of the truths presented by it, as the dazzling brilliancy of the 
electric fluid bursts upon our sight while we wait, as it were, the sound of 
the distant explosion for an interpretation of the cause of our astonishment. 

§ 26. ‘Saying,’ [I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last:] ‘ what 
thou seest write in a book.’—The words within brackets are not to be met 
with in all editions of the Greek, and are excluded from that from which 
we copy. They do not appear necessary here, but whether omitted or 
retained, the sense of the passage is not affected, and their limitation, when 
used, to the economy of salvation, has been already noticed, (¢ 22.) 

‘ And send it to the seven churches which are in Asia.’—Here follow 
the names of these seven churches. The apostle addressed his epistle to 
them in the first instance ; he now gives the reason why he did this, viz., 
that he was so directed. He is to send, too, an account apparently of all 
that he sees to these seven churches; although, as we afterwards find, he 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. xii 
has beside a particular message for each of them. Their number, seven, as 
we have suggested, (ὃ 7,) making it probable that they are put for the whole 
church—as we find, from the preamble in the third verse of this chapter, 
that all are blessed who read, hear, and keep the words of this prophecy. 
The particular designation by name of the seven churches, may have been 
made that the origin of the book might be traced from its first emission, 
and its authenticity and genuineness thus early established. Seven copies 
of the whole, in the apostle’s own hand-writing, being put forth simulta- 
neously, and being carefully treasured up no doubt by these seven churches 
as repositories. ‘The manuscripts afterwards transcribed could be compared 
by the early Christians with these seven originals, by which means a multi- 
tude of faithful copies was provided for—while each church, vouching 
for the fidelity of its own manuscript, may be supposed to have watched, 
with jealousy, the copies transcribed from it. The book is noticed, it is 
said, as early as A. 1). 107 and 108, by Ignatius and Polycarp ; by Justin 
Martyr, A. D. 120; at which time we may easily suppose all the originals 
to have been accessible to the writers of the age. The extraordinary contents 
of the volume at the same time must have prompted the early Christians to sat- 
isfy themselves of the correctness of its expressions and figures, and this they 
would naturally do, as has been since done, with the more curious research 
in proportion as a literal construction was put upon its language. 


Vs. 12-16. And I turned to see the 
voice that spake with me, and being turn- 
ed, I saw seven golden candlesticks ; ; and 
in the midst of the seven candlesticks 
(one) like unto the son of man, clothed 
with a garment down to the foot, and girt 
about the paps with a golden girdle. ‘His 
head and his hairs were white like wool, 
as white as snow; and his eyes were as 
a flame of fire, and his feet like unto fine 
brass, as if they burned in afurnace: and 
his voice as the sound of many waters. 
And he had in his right hand seven stars: 
and out of his mouth went a sharp two- 
edged sword: and his countenance was 
as the sun shineth in his strength. 


§ 27. 


* ‘ 
Καὶ ἐπέστρεψα βλέπειν τὴν φωγήν, ἣτις 
, 2 - 3 © 
ἐλάλει ust ἐμοῦ καὶ ἐπιστρέψας εἶδον ἑπτὰ 
λυ χνίας χρυσᾶς, καὶ ἐν μέσῳ τῶν ἑπτὰ λυχνι- 
ὧν ὅμοιον υἱῷ pau ἐγδεδυμέν ov πο- 
δήρ on καὶ περιεζωσμένον πρὸς τοῖς μαστοῖς 
χρυσῆν" ἢ δὲ κεφαλὴ αὐτοῦ καὶ αἵ 
Ss 3 λ ' «| Ἢ 5 a γ᾽ 7 ἊΝ ᾿ eo Zz £ Ἂ 
τρίχες λευκαὶ ὡς ἔριον λευκόν, ὡς χιών, nol 
ἘΠῚ 9 } \ > galas 10k ee "ee 
ot οφϑαλμοὶ αὐτοῦ ὡς φλὸξ πυρός, καὶ οἵ 
’ὔ 2 ~ Oo , < 
πόδες αὐτοῦ ὅμοιοι χαλκολιβάνῳ, ὡς ἐν κα- 
, Pe ‘ > ~ ε 
MOG τεεπυρωμένοι, καὶ ἢ φωνὴ αὐτοῦ ὡς 


ζώνην 


φωνὴ ὑδάτων πολλῶν, καὶ ἔχων ἐν τῇ δεξιᾷ 
αὑτοῦ χειρὶ ἀστέρας ἑπτά, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ στό- 
ματος αὐτοῦ ῥομφαία δίστομος ὀξεῖα ἐχπο- 
θευομέν Ny καὶ ἢ ὄψις αὐτοῦ ὡς ὃ ἥλιος φαίνει 
ἐν τῇ δυνάμει αὑτοῦ. 


‘ And I turned, &c.’—This turning of the apostle seems to con- 


firm the supposition that the voice did not at the time announce the speaker 
as the Alpha and the Omega. If it had, we may suppose he would not have 
turned—he would have remained as if transfixed with awe, waiting to hear 
what direction was to be given him; whereas, hearing a great sound as of 
a trumpet, with an abrupt direction to write, &c., the first impulse was 


naturally to turn, and see who gave the direction. 


ΧΧΙΥ͂ APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


‘I saw seven golden candlesticks.’—Not seven lights, but seven stands 
upon which lights may be placed. The seven candlesticks are declared in 
the 20th verse to be seven churches ; but we cannot suppose seven ephem- 
eral assemblages of disciples, in as many towns, or cities of Asia, to be 
literally so peculiarly the objects of divine care that they above all others 
should be thus distinguished. 

Here we are to remember in the outset that this is a vision, and that 
whatever is heard, as said in the vision, is a part of the vision, as much as 
whatever is seen. The interpretation in a vision of an object there contem- 
plated, is as much a part of the vision as the thing interpreted. Such inter- 
pretation we. therefore style the language of vision, being something which 
itself also is to be interpreted. Every thing seen or heard in vision being 
symbolic of something else, and to be so uniformly considered. The can- 
dlesticks are declared to be churches, but this is an interpretation in vision ; 
the term church is now a figure of vision, a symbol as much as a candle- 
stick. These churches are typical of something of a spiritual character, 
analogous both to a church and to a candlestick. A candlestick is the 
recipient of the light placed upon it, and the instrument of conveying that 
light to others. So these seven churches were literally the recipients of 
this revelation, and the instruments of conveying its light intellectually to 
others. But as assemblages of human beings, we may consider them sym- 
bols of assemblages of principles, or elements of doctrine, doctrinal systems, 
instruments of exhibiting and imparting spiritual light. ἱ 

The material of these candlesticks was of gold—the peculiar character- 
istics of gold are its preciousness and its capability of withstanding the test 
of the assayer or refiner. When submitted in the crucible to the action of 
fire, it is melted, but not destroyed ; pure gold in this respect resembling, 
and we suppose representing, pure truth—truth without alloy, capable of 
abiding the test of the revealed word of God, an instrument of trial com- 
pared to fire, (Jer. xxii. 29.) These golden candlesticks or churchés repre- 
sent, therefore, something of which the composition is truth, pure truth, gos- 
pel truth ; for this is that kind of truth which is peculiarly precious, and which 
we regard as so contemplated under the figure of gold throughout this vision. 

§ 28. ‘And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the 
Son of Man.’—The candlesticks are the recipients of light, and the imstru- 
ments of imparting the light they receive to other objects. The “like unto 
the Son of Man’ can be no other than a representation of Christ, who him- 
self assumed this appellation. His position in the midst of the candlesticks 
indicates the kind of light with which these candlesticks are to be supplied. 
He is the true light, John i. 9; the light of the world, John vii. 12. It is 
to be inferred, therefore, that the purpose of this light in the midst of these 
candlesticks is, that they may be supplied with ght, and that continually. 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. χχν 


Light is spoken of in Scripture in three different senses : light, in ἃ physical 
or natural sense, being literally light—light, in an intellectual or metaphorical 
sense, being an illumination of the mind or understanding, knowledge—and 
light, in a spiritual or analogical sense, being that glory of moral perfection or 
righteousness which belongs only to the character of the Deity, and which 
can be imparted to any of his creatures only by his own free act of impu- 
tation. The Son of Man, as God manifest in the flesh, represents especially 
this spiritual light ; he is clothed with it as with a garment. ΤῸ be in him 
is to be in a position of light, participating in the glory of this moral per- 
fection ; to be out of Christ, is to be in the position of spiritual darkness, 
entirely without this glory of divine righteousness. We contemplate the 
Son of Man here especially as the source and fountain of this spiritual light. 
The seven candlesticks we suppose to be seven instruments, assemblages of 
true principles, designed to exhibit and hold forth this spiritual light ; as the 
candlestick is not the light itself, neither does it bear light for its own use, 
but is the instrument of manifesting the light placed upon it. As the Son 
of Man is represented in the midst of these seven candlesticks, so God is 
spoken of by the prophet as in the midst of the spiritual Jerusalem ; which 
herself may be considered as in a position equivalent to that of these golden 
candlesticks—I, saith the Lord, will be a wall of fire round about her, and 
will be the glory in the midst of her, (Zech. ii. 5.) 

ᾧ 29. ‘Clothed with a garment down to the foot.’—The peculiarity of 
this array is the entireness of the covering, its amplitude and sufficiency. 
' Such is the righteousness of Christ—it is sufficient, abundantly sufficient, for 
all to whom it may be imputed. Unlike the merits or righteousness of man, 
of which it may be justly said, “‘ The bed is shorter than a man can stretch 
himself upon, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in 
it,” (Is. xxviii. 20.) This garment down to the foot, may be considered 
equivalent as a figure to the coat of Jesus, without seam, woven from the 
top throughout, spoken of, John xix. 23; a symbol of the spiritual robe 
of his perfect righteousness ; its allotment among his persecutors represent- 
ing that purpose of sovereign grace by which his merit is freely imputed, 
even to those who were the cause of his vicarious suffering. ΑΒ it is said, 
Prov. xvi. 33, “ The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof 
is of the Lord.” So the same clothing down to the foot was represented 
on the mount of transfiguration as the raiment white as the light, Matthew 
xvil. 2; indicating the light of the glory of that divine righteousness, of 
which the Son of Man in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks 
appears as the never-failing source and supply. The robe of the High 
Priest (zodijeys) was of the same ample character, (Rob. Lex. 611,) in 
typical allusion, no doubt, to this garment of salvation of the great High 
Priest of our profession. 


ΧΧΥΪ APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


‘ And girt about the paps,’ or towards the paps, ‘ with a golden girdle.’— 
The position of the girdle may indicate the avocation of the wearer. ‘The 
high priest ministering at the altar, or the intercessor at the throne of grace, 
we may suppose to have his robe girded towards the breast or upper 
part of the chest ; but the disciple, whose part it is to agonize, to strive, and 
to run the race set before him, must be girt about the loins. 

The girdle, however, in both cases, must be of the same material—the 
master and the disciple, the intercessor and the worshipper, must be alike 
girt about with truth, Eph. vi. 14. The golden girdle, precious, pure, and 
incombustible ; something upon which entire reliance may be placed ; as it 
is said, Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and Faithfulness the 
girdle of his reins, Is. xi. 5. é 

§ 30. ‘ His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow.’ 
—That is, we suppose, the hair of his head, of his eyebrows, and of his 
beard, were white. Hair being of the nature of a covering, and the colour 
white, representing perfect moral purity, or perfection, the covering of the 
face and head may be considered as corresponding with the entire covering 
of the garment down to the foot, being part of the same figure of amplitude 
and completeness ; showing the Being here represented to be complete in 
the array of moral perfection. As it is said of the Redeemer, in view of his 
qualifications for the work of salvation, he put on righteousness as a breast- 
plate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head ; and as it is said of the dis- 
ciple, in allusion to the benefits resulting from adoption in Christ, Col. 11. 10, 
«« Ye are complete in him.” 

‘His eyes were as a flame of fire.—F ire is the agent by which the 
purity of metallic substances 15 tried ; so it is said of the Most High, (Ps. 
xi. 4,) His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men; and Prov. xv. 
3, whose eyes are in every place beholding the evil and the good. I 
beheld, says the prophet, (Dan. vii. 9, 10, 13, and 14,) till the thrones 
were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white 
as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was like the 
fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire ; a fiery stream issued and came 
forth from before him. Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten 
thousand times ten thousand stood before him. We can hardly bring these 
passages together, without looking upon the Ancient of days as identic with 
the Son of Man, allowing only for the difference, that Daniel sees the same 
Being in his exalted state, which John saw in his mediatorial character. In 
the one case, God being manifest on the throne of his majesty ; in the 
other, God manifest in the flesh, according to the mystery of godliness spoken 
of, 1 Tim. i. 16. 

‘ And his feet like brass, as if they burned in a furnace.’—The burning 
appearance of these feet indicates the tendency of the progressive develop- 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. XXVii 


ment of the character of Christ, in testing the truth or falsehood of every 
doctrine connected with, or opposed to, the elements of God’s plan of salva- 
tion. At the same time the strength of the material, brass, may be intended 
to point out the firmness of the divine purpose in advancing this develop- 
ment ; as it is said, Num. xxiii. 19, God is not a man, that he should lie ; 
neither the son of man, that he should repent, (change his mind.) Hath 
he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it 
good? 

§ 31. ‘ And his voice as the sound of many waters.’—So, Jer. x. 13, 
it is said of the Deity, ‘“‘ When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of 
waters in the heavens.” The action of a multitude of waters, or the rush- 
ihe of many waters, is to overpower, to sweep away every thing before 
them. ‘The voice of the Son of Man, when he speaks, must be the revela- 
tion which he utters, and this revelation we may suppose to have the over- 
whelming and overpowering effect compared to that of a deluge of many 
waters. The sound of the waters indicating the effect at hand. 

In the book of Daniel we find the description of one whose appearance 
very nearly corresponds with what the apostle here says of the Son of Man, 
“Then I lifted up my eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man 
clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz ; his body 
also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his 
eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and feet like in colour to polished brass, and 
the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude,” (Dan. x. 5and 6.) The 
effect of the voice of a multitude being that of silencing all other voices. 

The similarity of these different visions leads us to conclude that the 
same divine Spirit which was manifest in the flesh in Christ, has been also 
in vision exhibited under the various appellations of Gabriel, Michael, and 
others ; but always nearly in the same garb, and bearing the same attributes. 

§ 32. « And he had in his right hand seven stars.—These stars are ex- 
plained in the twentieth verse to be the angels of the seven churches—not 
the churches themselves, but their angels, messengers, or ministering spirits. 
As we speak of the spirit of a doctrine, these stars or angels may be figures 
of the spirit, or tendency of the collections of doctrines, represented by 
these churches or collections of human beings—like stars imparting or exhi- 
biting their light, or the light given them, or as messengers (angels) commu- 
nicating this light to others; or they may be the systems of faith built upon 
these doctrines. It does not appear that the seven candlesticks have any 
other light than that supposed to be committed to them under the figure of 
a star. Each has its portion of divine light, and each is upheld by the right 
hand of the Son of Man. We find, by Is. xl. 1, 10, the right hand of 
Jehovah to be his righteousness. Accordingly, whatever be represented by 
these stars, we may suppose it to rest or depend for its manifestation upon 


XXVili APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


the doctrine of salvation by the imputed righteousness of God. The angel, 
or star, however, is not the light itself, but is something between the candle- 
stick and the light. It is something capable of receiving and transmitting 
the true light, but something, as we shall see, by which the true light may be 
misrepresented. 

Analogous to this is a literal church or congregation of disciples ; it re- 
ceives the light, and may be the instrument of imparting it intellectually, but 
it may also be the instrument of perverting it. As it is said, Matt. v. 14— 
16, Yeare the light of the world: a city that is set upon a hill cannot be 
hid: neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a can- 
dlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light 
so shine before men. Here the literal church is neither the light nor tHe 
candlestick, but the candle ; supposed, however, to give no useful light un- 
less placed in a candlestick. So, to remove the candlestick would be equiv- 
alent to depriving the candle of its ability to enlighten those around it ; cor- 
responding with which, we may suppose the star to be no longer held in the 
right hand of him who is in the midst of the golden candlesticks. 

§ 33. ‘And out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword.’—The 
word of God is said (Heb. iv. 12) to be sharper than any two-edged sword, 
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, (ψυχῆς ze καὶ mvev- 
watog,) separating the physical or natural from the spiritual sense... This 
word of God is also spoken of, Eph. vi. 17, as the sword of the Spirit ; 
the instrument by which a spiritual understanding of revelation is obtained. 
So the promise given to the apostles was, that the Holy Spirit should give 
them understanding ; the Spirit of truth should guide them into all truth, John 
xvi. 7,13. This promise we find fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, when 
this Spirit of truth appeared unto the disciples as cloven tongues (Acts 1]. 
3) of fire. Not two tongues paired—but one tongue divided into two parts, 
(διαμεριζόμεναι γλῶσσαι,) figurative apparently of the literal and spiritual senses 
in which the language of revelation may be understood. ‘These tongues, 
too, were of fire, because the revealed word, with its literal and spiritual sense, 
is the element for testing the character of every doctrine, or principle of doc- 
trine. Connecting this twofold characteristic of the tongue with the descrip- 
tion of the two-edged sword, and its position, coming out of the mouth, we may 
suppose the two instruments to be the same revealed word, spiritually under- 
stood, which is also termed, 2 Thess. ii. 8, the spirit of the mouth of the Lord.* 

* The idea of a twofold sense in the language of inspiration, is far from being a 
modern one. The efforts of the public teachers amongst the Jews to ascertain the 
hidden, or mystic sense of the Holy Scriptures, obtained for them, it is said, the appel- 
lation of searchers ; and teaching in the synagogues was commonly called searching, 
(Cruden’s Concord, art. Synagogue.) Such probably was the searching of the 


Bereans, (Acts xvii. 11,) and to such searching our Lord may have alluded in his 
direction to the scribes and Pharisees, (John v. 39.) 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. ΧΧΙΧ 


ᾧ 34. ‘ And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.’— 
The day cometh, says the prophet, Malachi iv. 1, 2, when the Sun of right- 
eousness shall rise with healing in his wings. This Sun of righteousness. is 
here revealed in the person of the one like unto the Son of Man. As 186 
natural sun clothes every object accessible to its rays with light, so every | 
object of divine mercy is clothed with the imputed righteousness of the Re- | 
deemer. Thus clothed, the disciple appears clad in the light of the coun- 
tenance of his divine Master, to which allusion is made, Ps. iv. 6, and xlii. 
5. So, Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, The Lord God is a sun and shield; and Ixxxix. 15, 
ἐς Blessed is the people that know the (gospel’s) joyful sound ; they shall 
walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance ; in thy name shall they re- 
joice all the day, and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.” Or, as it 
is expressed, Acts ii. 28, Thou hast made known to me the ways of life, 
thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. 

We thus perceive in this description of one like unto the Son of Man, the 
attributes of the Triune God. The one being the express image of the other ; 
thus preparing our minds for a full exhibition of their identity. 

“T saw,” says the prophet, (Dan. vii. 13, 14,) “in the night visions, and 
behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came 
to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him, And there was 
given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, and nations, 
and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, 
which shall not pass away, and his kingdom, that which shall not be de- 
stroyed.”’ To this we must add the declaration of the apostle, 1 Cor. xv. 
27, 28, “For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith he 
hath put all things under him, it is manifest that he is excepted which did 
put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, 
then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under 
him, that God may be all in all.*” 

The one like unto the Son of Man being virtually brought near unto the 
Ancient of days—one identified with the other—God manifest in the flesh 
—being no other than Jehovah, our righteousness, and the Lord our Re- 
deemer ; corresponding with the declaration, Is. xliii. 11, 1 am the Lord, 
and besides me there is no Saviour. 


Vs. 17, 18. And when I saw hin, I fell 


- § '@ + > , 2 ‘ ‘ , 
Kat ὅτε εἶδον αὐτόν͵ ἔπεσα πρὸς τοὺς πό- 
αἱ his feet as dead. And he laid his hand 


~ c , 2 . 
Sag αὐτοῦ ὡς νεχρός" καὶ ἔϑηκε τὴν δεξιὰν 


upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am 
the first and the last: (IJ am) he that 
liveth, and was dead; and behold, 1 am 
alive for evermore, amen; and have the 
keys of hell and of death. 


αὑτοῦ én ἐμέ, λέγων" μὴ φοβοῦ: ἐγώ εἰμι 
ὃ πρῶτος καὶ ὃ ἔσχατος καὶ ὃ ζῶν" καὶ ἐγε- 
γόμην νεχρός, καὶ ἰδοὺ ζῶν εἰμι εἰς τοὺς αἰῶ- 
vag τῶν αἰώνων, καὶ ἔχω τὰς κλεῖς τοῦ ϑανά- 
του καὶ τοῦ ἅδου. 


* It is evident that, in this, and in all similar passages of Scripture, the manifest- 
ation of the fact, and not the fact itself, is that which is spoken of as prospective. 


GK APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


§ 35. ‘Thou canst not see my face and live,’ said the Lord to Moses, Ex. 
xxxill. 20, ‘ for there shall no man see me and live.’ The most favoured 
servants of God appear to have borne this declaration in mind upon every 
manifestation of the Deity. It was to them, however desirable the favour, 
a cause of trembling. ‘“ Wo is me,” said the prophet, (Is. vi. 5,) ‘ for 
mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Such seems to have 
been the apprehension of the apostle on this occasion. He does not appear 
to have recognized, in the form before him, the face of his beloved Master. 
His impressions seem to have been only those of that awe which a supposed 
sight of the Supreme Being must have inspired. 

Daniel experienced similar feelings of fear in beholding the vision already 
alluded to, so like the present, (Dan. x. 5-18.) He needed one like the 
appearance of a man, to strengthen him, to enable him to contemplate the 
face of him whose appearance was as of lightning, and his eyes as lamps 
of fire. So it is in Christ only, as in the cleft of the rock, (Ex. xxxiii. 
22,) that we can behold the glory of the Lord and live. As, without holi-- 
mess no man can see the Lord, so it is in Christ only that any can be thus 
qualified to see him, or to enjoy his presence. 

‘ And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not.’—This right hand 
is the same as that holding or sustaining the seven stars. The right hand 
of the Lord is,particularly designated in Scripture as the hand of power, 
Mark xiv. 62, and Luke xxii. 69, especially of saving power, (Ps. cxxxviii. 
7,) and the reason why it is thus designated is given, Is. xli. 10. Because 
it represents that divine righteousness by the imputation of which the sin- 
ner is justified and saved. As it is said, “" Fear not, for 1 am with thee: be 
not dismayed, for | am thy God: I will strengthen thee ; yea, I will uphold 
thee with the right hand of my righteousness.’ 'To be upheld by the power 
of Jehovah’s righteousness, being thus equivalent to being in’ Christ, or 
in that position of holiness which enables the disciple to see the Lord and 
live, and which virtually says to him, ear not. 

ᾧ 36. “1 am the first, and the last, and the livmg’—and I became dead, 
and behold, Lam living for ever—The terms first and last, corresponding 
with Alpha and Omega, have been already commented upon ($ 22) as 
applicable especially to the beginning and ending of the economy of 
redemption. The living, that is the ever-living, as John vi. 57, ὁ Cav πατὴρ, 
the living or ever-living Father. And was dead or became dead ; the living 
became dead, and yet behold he liveth, and that forever. Here is a decla- 
ration identifying expressly the speaker with the crucified Redeemer, ‘‘ who 
died for our sins, and was raised for our justification ;” at the same time iden- 
tifying him with the speaker in the eighth verse, who declares himself to be 
the Alpha and the Omega—equivalent to the first and the last—also the 
being, and the was, and the coming—the Almighty. We have thus 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. ΧΧΧΙ 


advanced, by ἃ very important step, in the development or unveiling of Jesus 
Christ, showing him, although in appearance to human vision like unto the 
Son of Man, to be in effect one and the same with the Almighty God, the 
Everlasting Father, as it was predicted of him, Is. ix. 6. 

The living, the Ever-living, became dead, and still he is alive for ever.— 
Well might it be said of him, in the same prediction, his name shall be called 
Wonderful. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness—God 
was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached 
unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory, (1 Tim. 
iii. 16.) The Ever-living, in the person of his Son, having assumed a human 
form, uniting a material body with his own spirit, underwent a separation of 
that spirit from the body, became dead, as all who die undergo a like sepa- 
ration ; but again, by his own power, reunited that spirit with the same body, 
and remains as he was, the Ever-living. As he said, in reference to his 
human form, (John ii. 19,) ““ Destroy this temple, and in three days I will 
raise it up;’ and as he said of the sacrifice of what may be called his 
natural life, John x. 18, “ No man” (οὐδεὶς, no one) “ taketh it from me—I 
lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to 
take it again.” He did lay it down, he yielded up, or rather sent forth, 
transmitted, breathed out, (as it is variously expressed by his evangelists,) 
the spirit; but we must bear in mind that this spirit did not cease to be, and 
that what we call death itself, is not annihilation. Jesus died, or became 
dead, and rose again, or became alive again, the third day, but he was not 
annihilated a single moment—there was no cessation of being. His spint, 
separated from the body, had still the power of reuniting itself to the body. 
The body without the spirit is said, indeed, to be dead, (James ii. 26,) but 
it is nowhere said that the spirit without the body is dead. 

§ 37. ‘And have the keys of death and of hell.’—There is a dif- 
ference here, it will be perceived, in the order of these terms, some editions 
with our common version, reading, the keys of hell and of death; giving 
the precedence to the term death, however, is most in conformity with 
the arrangement of the same words in other parts of the Apocalypse, as well 
as with our general notions of the subject. 

‘And have the keys.—As keys are instruments, in a literal sense, of 
locking and unlocking, of confining and of liberating, so used as the expres- 
sion is here, in a book of revelation, we suppose them to represent the 
means of unlocking or opening the things to be revealed. Christ may be 
said to have the keys of Death and Hell in every sense—literally, as God, 
subjecting the creature to natural death and its consequences—as Supreme 
Judge placing the sinner in a position of condemnation, and pronouncing 
the sentence of condemnation ; and as Redeemer, delivering even the crimi- 
nal from the state to which under the law he has been condemned. But 


XXX1i APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


especially, in this last respect, he not only has the keys, he is himself, the 
instrument of the deliverance. We may presume, therefore, that in the 
apocalyptic sense, the use of a key is its employment in developing the 
mysteries spoken of ; as, in his first coming, Jesus Christ furnished a key to 
the interpretation of the ancient prophecies, so, in the final manifestation of 
his true character and offices, he furnishes the means of understanding the 
mysteries of Death and Hell. As it is said, 1 Cor. ἢ. 7, 10, “« We speak 
the wisdom of God in a mystery ; even the hidden wisdom ordained of God 
before the world ;”’ “‘ but now,” he adds, “revealed or unveiled unto us by 
his Spirit ; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” 
«¢ Which things, also,” he says, ‘“‘ we speak, not in the words which man’s 
wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth”—comparing spiritual 
things with spiritual. The whole Economy of Redemption constitutes, it is 
true, one mystery ; but this mystery is composed of a number of other 
mysteries subordinate to it; as the mystery of the resurrection, 1 Cor. 
xv. 57; the mystery represented by the marrage union, Eph. v. 32; 
the mystery of iniquity, 2 Thess. ἢ. 7; the mystery of the seven stars, 
Rey. i. 20; the mystery of Babylon, Rev. xvi. 5, 7. All of which may 
be included with others in the mysteries of the kingdom alluded to, Matt. 
xiii. 11, and Luke viii. 10; and the mysteries of God, of which the Corin- 
thians were said to be stewards, (1 Cor. iv. 1.) So we suppose Death and 
Hell to have each its separate mystery, of which Christ alone has, and fur- 
nishes the key or means of interpretation, as he possesses and furnishes also 
the keys of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, (Matt. xvi. 19.) 

ᾧ 38. ‘Death and Hell.’—Whatever is to be understood in the apoca- 
lypse by these terms, we find by Rev. xx. 14, that they represent something 
finally said to be cast into the lake of fire, which is sufficient to establish 
the point, that they represent mysteries, for the development of which a key 
may appropriately be said to be required. We find, by Rom. vii. 9, that 
there is a state of death contemplated in Seripture entirely distinct from that 
of death in the ordinary, or physical sense of the term. I was alive, says 
the apostle, without the law; but when the commandment came, sin 
revived, and I died. Here death is an appellation given very specifically to 
a position under the law, which peculiar position we may term the mystery 
of Death. 

The term Hell, would have been better rendered in this place by adopt- 
ing the Greek word Hades, to distinguish it from the term γέερρα, (Gehenna,) 
which we have likewise translated by the same English word Hell, although 
the two Greek terms have probably very different significations. The last 
of these terms, sometimes denominated the Hell of fire, τὴν γέενναν τοῦ πυρός, 
(Matt. v. 22, xviii. 9, and Mark ix. 47,) is not found at all in the book of 
Revelation ; not, we may suppose, because there is no such thing, but because 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. — 


it is not a subject of which this book is designed to treat. The term Hades. 
on the contrary, is met with in three other passages of Revelations, and in 
them it is immediately coupled with, and succeeds the term or idea of Death : 
as in the representation of the rider of the pale horse, it is said, Hades fol- 
lowed with him ; and in the judgment scene, Rev. xx. 13, Death and Hell, 
or Hades, are said to deliver up the dead which were in them—indicating 
very plainly that this term Hades, must be the appellation of something else 
than the state of future punishment, because we cannot suppose its inmates 
to be punished first, and judged afterwards. The same word, too, is employed 
1 Cor. xv. 55, where we have rendered it the grave ; and perhaps we may 
say that as, in a material sense, the state of the grave is an immediate con- 
sequence of the state of Death, so, in a spiritual sense, the state of condem- 
nation is an immediate consequence of a position under the law. The pres- 
ence of the law giving existence to sin, (the sting of death,) and the exist- 
ence of sin being necessarily attended by a state of condemnation, in which 
sense Death and Hades may be said to be inseparable companions. 

These suggestions are sufficient to show that Hades, the apocalyptic Hell, 
has its mystery, as well as Death ; or that death and hell constitute one mys- 
tery ; and, consequently, that to have the keys of death and hell, is to have the 
means of opening, unlocking, or developing the mysteries thus denominated. 
Our further consideration of these topics must necessarily be postponed for 
the present. 

— 19, 20. — τ — ris Teawoy οὖν ἃ εἶδες καὶ ἃ εἰσὶ καὶ ἃ μέλλει 
ou hast seen, and the things which are, γέγεσϑαι μετὰ ταῦτα. τὸ μυστήριον τῶν 

thotaryteryo the seven sinks which thea A5% Srtioas, ὧν εὔδερ ix} sip, Sete pw 

sawest in my right hand, and the seven *% τὰς ἑπτά λυχνίας τὰς χρυσᾶς. οἱ ἕπτα 

golden candlesticks. The seven stars are ἀστέρες ἀγγεῖοι τῶν ἕπτα ixzinoww εἰσι, 

the angels of the seven churches: and χαὶ αἵ λυχνέαι ai ἑπτὰ ἐχχλησίαι εἰσί. 

the seven candlesticks which thou sawest 

are the seven churches. 

ᾧ 39. ‘ Wnite, therefore. —The word therefore is not in the common 
version, but the particle ovr is said to be found in all the Greek editions sup- 
posed to be most correct ; and it appears to give an appropriate force to the 
direction. As if the divine speaker had said, I, the first and the last, and 
the ever-living—I am the author and finisher of all that you here see, or are 
to see—I have the keys for opening all these mysteries ; write therefore what 
thou seest ; write what thou hast already seen in this vision, what thou now 
seest, and what is yet to be exhibited to thee. 

The apostle is directed to commit the vision to writing ; not the inter- 
pretation of it. The word things is supplied in our common version, but it 
is not material, the term being as applicable to objects of vision as to reali- 
ties. We are to be careful, however, not to associate literal ideas with terms 
intended only to be figurative. The word barna/ies fim also rather a free 

4 


XXXlv APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


translation of the Greek μετὰ ταῦτα, after these. Write the things thou hast 
seen, the things thou now seest, and the things which are to be after these. 
The same Greek words μετὰ ταῦτα repeatedly occur in other parts of this 
book, and are as repeatedly rendered by after this, or after these things. 
In Rev. iv. 1, they are translated at the commencement of the verse by after 
this, and at the close by hereafter. The importance of the difference lies 
“principally in the different ideas associated. After this, we readily suppose 
to apply to something subsequently taking place in the vision; while, by 
things to be hereafter, we suppose events are understood which are to take 
place ages, or\centuries afterwards. ‘There is nothing, however, in the direc- 
tion here given, to oblige us to suppose the apostle ‘instructed to write an 
account of distant events, either political or ecclesiastical. He is only to 
write what he sees, has seen, and may see. 

Taking into consideration the peculiarly strange and anomalous appear- 
ance of the objects presented for John’s contemplation, we may well sup- 
pose that he would hardly have committed a description of them to writing, 
had he not been imperatively directed to do so. He might well have 
doubted the saneness of his own mind. He might have hesitated, lest he 
should be carried away by some delusion of the imagination ; and this, not so 
much in respect to what he already saw, or had seen, as in regard to what 
he was yet to see. ‘The command is therefore positive, and general, and 
unqualified. He is to write all. As if it had been said to him, however 
strange and unnatural these things, or some of them, may appear to you, 
write down all that you see and hear. The manner in which the speaker 
had previously announced himself, leaving no room to doubt of his author- 
ity, or of his peculiar prerogative in dictating the duty to be performed. 

§ 40. ‘The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right 
hand.’=-The word mystery, μυστήριον, is said to come from the Hebrew 
mustar, a moral truth veiled under an external representation, (Jones’s Lex. 
1132.) This definition is nearly the same as that usually given to the term 
allegory ; and perhaps the mustar of the Hebrews corresponded with the 
allegory of the Greeks. The word mystery, however, was in common use 
amongst the Greeks in the times of the apostles, as a mythological term 
applicable to something hidden or concealed in matters of religion—hidden 
in effect although outwardly exhibited by mystic rites, signs, or symbols. 

The apostle is first directed to write certain things, and then is added 
apparently in apposition, the mystery of the seven stars ; as if the first direc- 
tion were equivalent to the second, write what thou seest; that is, write 
the mystery of the seven stars upon my right hand. The whole subsequent 
revelation constituting, or pertaining to, this mystery of the seven stars. 

He is also to write the seven golden candlesticks, or an account of them, 
as something connected with the mystery, although it is not expressed that 


ee 


APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. ὄψων 


the mystery of the stars is also that of the candlesticks; for the stars are 
spoken of in the genitive case, as governed by mystery, while the candle- 
sticks are in the accusative, forming with the mystery a common object of 
the verb write. The near relationship, however, of the candlestick to the 
star or candle, may leave it to be implied, that what is the mystery of one 
must be the mystery of the other. 

The further explanation is then given :— 

‘ The seven stars are angels of the seven churches, and the seven can- 
dlesticks are the seven churches.—These terms are all terms of vision. 
The star is not literally a star, nor the angel literally an angel, nor the can- 
dlestick literally a candlestick, nor the church literally a church. The 
star represents an angel, and the angel represents something of a spiritual 
character. The candlestick represents a church, and the church represents 
something also of a’ spiritual character. 

We suppose churches, as assemblages (ἐχκλησίαι), literally of human 
beings, to represent assemblages of doctrinal principles or truths ; and as 
these churches of Asia are represented by golden candlesticks, we suppose 
the material of the principles of these assemblages to be truth, that is, they 
are systems of true principles. The Greek term éxxAnoiagg(church,) ex- 
presses not merely an assembly of persons, but an assernbly of persons 
called out—an assembly of select persons, of particular stations or charac- 
ters. So, spiritually, the seven assemblages of principles, or elements of 
doctrine, are select assemblages, true principles, or elements called out from 
the mass. So many collections of these principles, constituting parts of the 
whole collection of truths, enter into the composition of the church or econ- 
omy of grace ; this economy, as a whole, may perhaps be typified by the 
candlestick of pure gold, seen by the prophet Zech. iv. 2. The seven 
churches of Asia, literally, we suppose to be mere types—having answered 
the purpose for which they were intended, as literal assemblages of Christ- 
ians they have passed into oblivion ; it is not even necessary to enquire into 
their character, or that of the individuals composing them; but there is 
an important distinction here, between the church and the angel of the 
church. 

The subsequent admonitions, it will be perceived, are directed to the 
angels: of the churches ; and in the reprimand given to the angel of the 
church of Ephesus, he is told that his candlestick—his golden candlestick 
—his church shall be taken out of the way. By this, it appears that the 
angel of the church is something liable to perversion, and to be deprived of 
the advantage derived from its collection of truths ; but these collections 
themselves are unchangeable—they may be removed, but not destroyed. 

Angels, as Paul says or implies, are all ministering spirits ; admitting 
these churches or candlesticks to represent assemblages of true doctrinal 


XXXV1 APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


principles, we suppose the angels to represent the system of faith deduced 
from those principles. The principles may be true, but the system built 
upon or deduced from them may be more or less incorrect—as we say of 
an argument, the premises are good, but the deduction is false. ‘The sys- 
tems represented by these angels may, accordingly, prove to be perver- 
sions of true doctrines. In this case they will eventually be manifested, as 
unsustained by the assemblages of truths, from which they professed to ema- 
nate. Such a manifestation would be in effect the taking away or removing 


of their golden candlestick, and would be equivalent to a repudiation of the 
angel.* 


* This last verse appears to have been designed as an explanatory introduction 
to the several addresses contained in the two following chapters. The division of the 
chapters, however, here as well as elsewhere, seems to be unnecessary and injudicious 
as far as the meaning is concerned. We are not to suppose any considerable pause 
between the conclusion of this chapter, and the commencement of the next. The 
apostle is first told generally all that he is to write ; and then, as it were, in the same 
breath, he is told what to write to the churches severally ; while, in the meantime, to 
prepare him to understand the direction given to write the seven angels, he is 
shown the connection between these angels and the stars, ‘and between the churches 
and the candlesticks—at the same time, we are to recollect that the whole Apoca- 
lypse, as one epistle, purports to be written for the use of the seven churches. Hach 
is to receive its introductory address, while also each receives a copy of’ the whole 
revelation. 

The angels of the seven churches find, we may suppose, in the pictures of the 
Apocalypse, an admonition against the tendency of their own errors, and an exhidi- 
tion of truth to preserve them from going further out of the way. 

The seven churches, in the aggregate, representditerally the whole Christian com- 
munity, all to whom the Gospel is preached—to whom these presents may come— 
spiritually, the seven in the aggregate represent the whole economy of salvation, or 
epitwal church, represented by the Bride, as we shall see hereafter. So also we may 
suppose, the seven angels, with the good and bad features peculiar to them, to represent 
in the aggregate, literally, the whole visible church, with its various errors as well 
as truths; spiritually, the Economy of grace, perverted more or less by the erroneous 


elements which have crept into the exhibition of it—equivalent, perhaps, to that 
typified by Babylon. 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. XXXVii 


CHAPTER II. 


Epistle to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus. 


V.1. Unto the angel of the church of Τῷ ἀγγέλῳ τῆς ἐν ᾿Εφέσῳ ἐκκλησίας γρά- 


Ephesus write: these things saith he yoy: τάδε λέγει ὃ κοατῶν τοὶς ἑπτὰ ἄστέ 
πα ate S CEMTU UOTEOMS 
that holdeth the seven stars in his right — a: ° 


: : ἐν τῇ δεξιᾷ αὑτοῦ, ὃ περιπατῶν ἐν μέσῳ τῶν 
hand, who walketh in the midst of the Ὁ 4] λ he SREY SRS ἐδ, 
seven golden candlesticks. ὅπ Κυχνίῶν, τῶν χρυσῶν 


ᾧ 41. ‘ Unto the angel of the church,’ &c.—As these terms have been 
already commented upon, and the epistles are distinctly addressed to the 
angels of the churches, and not to the churches themselves, we shall pre- 
sume these angels (¢ 32) to represent something equivalent to systems of 
faith—deductions from assemblages of doctrinal truth. The churches them- 
selves representing something equivalent to such collections of truth, or ele- 
ments of true doctrine ; as the candlesticks are said to be the churches, (Rev. 
i. 20;) and their material, gold, is the symbol of truth, (ᾧ 27.) The Greek 
term ecclesia, rendered church, signifying also, not only an assembly, but an 
assembly of selected individuals—not a promiscuous multitude, but a selec- 
tion from the multitude. Jf there be error, therefore, to be reproved, it is 
not in the assemblage of doctrinal principles or truths, (the candlestick,) 
but in the system or spirit of the system, the star, angel or ministering spirit, 
messenger, or instrument of communicating or imparting the views formed 
from these collections of truths. 

‘He that holdeth,’ &c.—The verb χρατέω, to hold or wield, expresses a 
right of power over the thing held. A right implied, though not expressed 
in the verb ἔχω, to have, employed Rev. i. 16, where the Son of Man 
appears as having (ἔχων) only these stars in his right hand: here he 
declares himself to have a right or power over them—a declaration the 
more appropriate as he is now about to admonish and reprove, as well as to 
instruct and encourage. 

_ ©The seven stars.—These stars are the seven angels, (Rev. i. 90 ;) 
that is, they represent them, as a thing in the hand may represent something 
at a distance ; for a person could not be spoken of as sending a message in 
writing to another whom he held by the hand. So the holding, (κρατέω,) 
cannot express here the immediate exercise of power; because, if the stars 
were immediately controlled by the hand, it would not be necessary to send 
the epistle tothem. The power, we may say, is exercised through the in- 
strumentality of the instructions given. 


XXXVIil INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


‘In his right hand.’—The right hand of his righteousness, (Is. xli. 10.) 
As the star is upheld by the hand alluded to, so the system, if a system of 
truth, must be upheld by divine righteousness as its basis. And as the right 
of the Creator to control the universe arises from the fact that he sustains 
the universe, so the right of the Redeemer to control or dictate a system of 
faith, arises from the fact that such a system must depend upon his own 
imputed righteousness for its foundation. In other words, as the right hand 
of Jehovah’s righteousness is declared, in the passage above quoted, to be the 
instrument of salvation ; so the same right hand, or the precious truth repre- 
sented by it, must control and regulate all views pertaining to the scheme of 
redemption. 

‘Who walketh, &c.—This walking amidst the golden candlesticks, 
ecclesia, or assemblages of select truths, may indicate that amidst these only 
Christ is to be found, bearing the characteristics represented in the descrip- 
tion given of him in the preceding chapter. 


Vs. 2,3. I know thy works and thy 


> τ , 
ἶ οἷδα τὰ ἔργα σου καὶ τὸν κύπον σου καὶ 
labour, and thy patience, and how thou 


canst not bear (them which are) evil: 
and thou hast tried them which say they 
are apostles, and are not, and hast found 
them liars: and hast borne, and hast pa- 
tience, and for my name’s sake hast la- 
boured, and hast not fainted. 


τὴν ὑπομονήν σου, καὶ OTL οὐ Dvr βαστά- 

σαι χακούς, καὶ ἐπείρασας τοὺς λέγοντας 

ἑαυτοὺς ἀποστόλους καὶ οὐκ εἰσί, καὶ εὗρες 

αὐτοὺς ψευδεῖς, καὶ ὑπομονὴν ἔχεις, καὶ 

ἐβάστασας διὰ τὸ ὄνομά μου, καὶ οὐ κεκο- 
; 

πίακας. 


§ 42. There are some slight differences here in the various Greek edi- 
tions, as well as in the English versions, but such as to require no comment. 
The rendering of the close of the last verse, may be, according to Leusden, 
“and has suffered for my name, and hast not been wanting or deficient.” 
The words, them which are, in the second verse, are supplied by our trans- 
lators ; the reading without them would be better—and how thou canst not 
bear evil ones, that is, evil principles ; but this is immaterial, as we consider 
here, as well as throughout the whole book of Revelation, the terms of persons 
when introduced, as well as of animals, angels, and material things, to be figura- 
tively employed. Principles being personified by men and angels, or typically 
represented by beasts, birds, living creatures, and even inanimate objects. 

“1 know thy works,’ &c.—A doctrinal system is here addressed under 
the figure of the angel, or ministermg spint, of a church. Its tendency to 
activity and perseverance in promoting the glory of the Redeemer is praised ; 
at the same time, its deficiency in one important respect is pointed out ; 
while due credit is given for its opposition to certain incorrect views of Chris- 
tian faith, and its examination and condemnation of false doctrines, spoken 
of as pretended apostles. 

We have no particulars of the Ephesian Church to throw light 
upon this passage, unless it be the faith and love towards the saints, 


INTRODUCTORY EPI{STLES. χα 


alluded to, Ephesians i. 15. The quality praised or reprehended, and 
not the person or persons, is that to which our attention is to be directed. 
It is unnecessary to inquire what particular works or labour are here alluded 
to—we have only to take the representation as it is in the general. ‘The 
Ephesian angel was not deficient, apparently, in works, but he may have 
relied too much upon works for salvation, as contradistinguished from grace. 
He laboured, too, but he may have laboured or gone about to establish his 
own righteousness ; he exercised patience, but he may have relied upon his 
patience as a work; he had zeal, too, in contending with the elements of 
error, and, according to Paul, as above referred to, he had faith towards God, 
and love or benevolence towards the saints, but he may have considered 
his faith a merit, and his benevolence a merit ; and thus, after all, have contem- 
plated salvation as a result of works of righteousness done by the disciple, 
although not works professedly fulfilling the law. ‘That such was the case, 
appears probable from the character of the error for which he is admonished. 


V.4. Nevertheless I have somewhat ᾿4λλ ἔχω κατὰ σοῦ, ὅτι τὴν ἀγάπην σου 
against thee, because thou hast forsaken τὴν πρώτην ἀφῆκας. 
thy first love. 


ᾧ 43. ‘ Because thou hast forsaken,’ &c.—The word ἀγάπην, here trans- 
lated love, is the same as that rendered, 1 Cor. xui., charity. We may 
either say here, thou hast forsaken thy first charity, or we may say there, 
without love we are nothing. It is to be regretted that the same English term 
- has not been uniformly employed in our common version. So, Romans xiii. 10, 
‘love is said to be the fulfilling of the law, while, according to Tim. i. 5., the 
end of the commandment is charity. The term in both cases being the 
same as that which is expressed, Rev. ii. 4, by love, and ii. 19, by charity. 
The manner in which the verb, derived from the same root, is employed, 
1 John iv. 19, shows us more exactly what we are to understand from the 
Scripture use of it—jusig ἀγαπῶμεν ἀντὸν ὅτι αὐτὸς πρῶτος ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς---- 
“We love him, because he first loved us ; from which it is evident, that this 
principle of love on the part of the disciple is that commonly called grati- 
tude ; although it appears somewhat extraordinary that the term grateful, or 
gratitude, is nowhere to be found in our common version of the Scriptures ; 
and even the term thankfulness occurs but once, Acts xxiv. 3, and then it 
is only used as a complimentary expression towards a Roman governor. 
The term thankful, occurs but once in the Old Testament, Ps. c. 4, and 
once in the New, Col. ili. 15, and once, Rom. i. 21, where the want of 
thankfulness, or of gratitude, is spoken of as a characteristic of those who, 
although they knew God, glorified him not as God. That the same princi- 
ple of gratitude, spoken of by John as love towards God, is also recognized 
by David, appears from his language, Ps. exvi. 1, “I love the Lord be- 
cause he hath heard my voice and my supplications.”’ 


xl INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


We are to be grateful to God, as the Scriptures teach us, for the love, 
or loving kindness exhibited by him towards us. This is the disciple’s love 
or charity manifested towards God, in obedience ; towards man, in benevo- 
lence. The love of God consists in his free and unmerited goodness towards 
us ; our love to him is something which He has deserved, merited, in the 
highest possible degree. His love towards us, is something entirely unde- 
served on our part ; our love towards him, is in return for favours received 
from him. The great love wherewith God has loved us, (Eph. ii. 4,) is 
entirely a matter of grace, a free gift ; our love to him, is something which 
we are under the highest obligations to render—something not to be with- 
held by us, without the basest ingratitude. His love towards us is some- 
thing which He is under no obligation to give, and which He may at any 
time withhold without any act of injustice. 

Although the term Jove may be the same in both cases, it is evident from 
the difference of the circumstances that the cause of the sentiment must equally 
differ. ‘To pretend that our love of God should be like his towards us, entirely 
irrespective of any antecedent cause, is to place ourselves in the position of the 
Deity, a degree of presumptuousness virtually bordering upon blasphemy. It 
is at the same time undermining that foundation upon which our obligation of 
service is to rest, and from which our love is to grow up and increase with 
every retrospective glance of favours received, throughout eternity. The. 
greater the love or benevolence we believe God to have manifested towards us, 
the greater, necessarily, must be our return of gratitude, or love to him. Could 
the love of God towards us have been merited on our part, in the first in-” 
stance, there would have been no room for gratitude ; or could it have been 
partially so, our gratitude in the same proportion must be partial, if such a 
thing were possible. If we believe what God has done for us to be but an 
act of justice towards us—nothing but what we have merited, as a reward 
of some goodness of our own—our belief will not admit of the principle of 
gratitude. With foolish hearts so darkened, we must necessarily be unthank- 
ful. So, if we believe ourselves to have partially merited what we receive 
at his hands, in the same proportion we lose that love which is due to him 
for all his favours, but especially for his redeeming mercy. 

Such we suppose to have been the error pervading the Ephesian system 
—a persuasion that the benefit of eternal salvation is the result of some 
good quality or meritorious work on the part of the recipient—a_persua- 
sion calculated to destroy in the disciple that sentiment of love or gratitude 
so unavoidably felt in the first moments of conversion. It may have been, 
therefore, especially in view of the ungrateful tendency of these errors, that 
the Apostle prayed, as he says, for the Ephesians, “ That they, being rooted 
and grounded in love, might be enabled to comprehend the breadth, and 
length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ,” Eph. ii. 17, 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. xli 


that by this knowledge they might themselves be brought back to what is 
called in the Apocalypse their first love. . 

Our views may be perhaps better illustrated here, by supposing the case 
of an individual. 

The heart or mind of the sinner on his first conversion, when first 
convicted of his sinfulness, overflows with gratitude towards his Saviour for’ 
that love of God which he believes and trusts is manifested in his redemp- 
tion. He does not then admit a thought of any merit of his own. The 
involuntary expression of his feelings corresponds with that of the Psalmist, 
“What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits,’ (Ps. exvi. 12.) 
The more sensible he is of his entire unworthiness of the least of the favours 
of his God and Saviour, the more grateful will he be for the distinguished 
privilege he enjoys. This state of mind may be denominated that of the 
disciple’s first love. Conversion, however, being followed by reformation in 
mind and conduct, attention to religious and moral duties takes place per- 
haps of reckless self-gratification, and habits of thoughtlessness being now 
changed for those of piety and devotion, the same individual begins to look 
upon himself with some degree of self-complacency. He compares his 
conduct with that of those around him, not so correct in their deportment, 
and he gradually imbibes the idea that there is some good thing in him. 
That the favour he receives from God is a reward or recompense of some- 
thing that he has done. Some work of his own, or, as he supposes, his own 
penitential feelings, may have been a merit calling for this reward. He no 
longer considers his eternal salvation entirely a matter of grace, and conse- 
quently he no longer possesses those unmingled feelings of gratitude with 
which his heart once overflowed. He loses his first love. 


V.5. Remember therefore from whence πνημόγευε οὖν πόϑεν πέπτωκας, καὶ με- 

thou art fallen, and repent, and do the f } τὸ Sto ἕ, ᾿ . 

ἕξ ταν ϑ όσον HHL τὰ πρῶτα ἕργὰὰ ποιῆσον [2 

first works, or else I will come unto thee ° 47 Ἴ 

quickly, and will remove thy candlestick 
out of his place, except thou repent. 


δὲ μή, ἔρχομαί σοι ταχὺ καὶ κινήσω τὶν 
λυχνίαν σου ἐκ τοῦ τύπου αὑτῆς, ἐὰν μὴ 
μετανοησῆς. 

ᾧ 44. The word translated repent, is the imperative of the verb μεταγοέω, 
compounded of μετὰ, change, or after, and vo¢éw, [ think. 'The compound ex- 
pressing a change of mind, or after-thought, in Latin sententiam et mentem 
muto—post intelligo. In the Latin versions of Leusden and Beza, it is ex- 
pressed by resipisco, to come to one’s senses again. It signifies, strictly, a 
mental or intellectual operation, a change of opinions, a change typically 
represented by that described as taking place in the mind of the prodigal 
son, when, as it is said of him, Luke xv. 17, he came to himself; so also by 
the change wrought on the demoniac, (Luke viii. 35,) when after his cure 
he sat clothed, and in his right mind. Such was the meaning of the word 
in the times of our Saviour and his apostles, although in subsequent ages of 


ΧΙ INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


the church different ideas came to be associated with the term. Some of 
our lexicographers give two meanings to this and other Greek Scripture 
terms, one according to profane writers, and the other according to ecclesi- 
astical writers ; but we may reasonably suppose the evangelists and apostles 
to have written the New Testament in Greek, for the perusal and under- 
standing of those who were familiar with that language, as it was spoken 
and written in their time ; of course we must go to the profane writers of 
that day to know what was understood by the words then used; for we 
cannot suppose the apostles to have looked forward prophetically to the 
‘meaning to be given to certain words by the schoolmen or ecclesiastical 
writers, some hundred years afterwards.* 

‘Remember, therefore, whence thou art fallen. —Change thy mind, come 
to thy senses again. Go back to those views of faith which were given 
thee when thou wast first convinced of sin, and first cast thyself upon the 
atonement of Christ for salvation—when, most sensible of thy utter unworthi- 
ness, the whole work of thy redemption appeared to thee a work of sove- 
rein grace, and a call for unadulterated love, or gratitude, towards him who 
gave himself for thee. 

Such appears to be the admonition addressed to this personification of a 
system of faith, possessed of many good features, but labouring under the 
influence of an error peculiarly hostile to the system of the gospel. Under 
the figure of this angel all are admonished who are under the influence of 
the same error. Wherever the first love is forsaken, there the golden can- 
dlestick will be taken away. 

‘Or else I will come unto thee quickly,’ that is, suddenly, (ᾧ 4.)—I 
will manifest myself as the only Saviour, and show the inconsistency of thy 
system with the assemblage of true principles, represented by the golden 
candlestick. 


* Μετάνοια, says Suicerus, apud scriptore profanos, notat mutatam mentem et 
sententiam ; apud scriptores vero ecclesiasticos, notat, 1, penitentiam sive resipiscentiam. 
2, Penas canonicas eorum qui ob delicta sua castigabantur, atque hi dicebantur oi ἐν 
μετανοίᾳ. Repentance, according to profane writers, signifies a change of mind, or 
opinion. But according to ecclesiastical writers, it denotes—Ist, penitence, or com- 
ing to one’s right mind—2d, the canonical punishments, or penalties of those who 
were chastened on account of their misdeeds—or, as he says of the verb Meraroéu, 
specialiter μετανοῦντες vocantur, qui ob delicta sua in ecclesie penis ecclesiasticis cas- 
tigabantur. Those were especially styled repenting persons, who were being chas- 
tened, on account of their offences against the church, with ecclesiastical penalties. 

The design of this chastisement was, no doubt, to bring these delinquents to a 
change of mind—but in process of time, in the use of terms, the means were substi- 
tuted for the end, and the endurance of penalty was put for repentance ; and subse- 
gently penance and repentance were considered identic. It is evident that the 
apostles, in their use of language, did not contemplate these interpretations of a 
subsequent age. 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. xliii 


As the right arm sustains the stars, so the golden candlestick, or assem- 
blage of truths, may sustain the system of doctrine. To remove the can- 
dlestick, being equivalent to withdrawing the right arm from the star; that 
is, unless there is in the system supposed, a return to what is denominated 
its first love, it will be manifested to be deprived of the support of divine 
righteousness spoken of as the right arm of the Saviour. 

‘ Repent and do thy first works.’—That is, works of faith, operations of 
the mind, such as are spoken of by Christ himself, (John vi. 28 and 29,) 
“They said, therefore, unto him, what shall we do that we may work the. 
works of God? Jesus answered, and said unto them, this is the work of 
God: that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” Such, probably, were 
the first works—a conviction of sin and of entire unworthiness, and the cast- 
ing of one’s self without reserve on the grace of salvation through a cruci- 
fied Saviour. Change thy mind, and go back to thy first views—going back 
to these first views, being the course to be pursued for regaining the lively 
sentiment of gratitude designated as a first love. 


V.6. But this thou hast, that thou "“λλὰ τοῦτο ἔχεις, ὅτι μισεῖς τὰ ἔργα τῶν 
hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which γι χολαϊτῶν, ἃ χἀγὼ μισῶ. 
I also hate. 


§ 45. The term Nicolaitans comes from Nicolas, Λικὸ-λαος, one that over- 
comes the people ; or from γικολαίται, victoria plebis, (Leusden and others.) 
The people being overcome, we suppose, by arts of seduction, as in the course 
recommended by Balaam, and as by the idolatrous worship introduced by 
Jezebel. The term has been supposed to be applicable to the followers of 
a certain teacher of the name of Nicolas ; “but a better opinion,” it is said, 
“seems to be, that the appellation here is not a proper name, but symboli- 
cal and referring to the persons described, Rev. ii. 14, as holding the Balaam 
doctrine,” (Rob. Lex. 472.) We should goa little further, and say that in 
the apocalyptic sense it applies to principles inculcating this doctrine, or 
sdmething analogous to them. 

The word translated deeds, (égya,) is the same as that rendered in the 
previous verse by works—deeds or works here being matters of faith. The 
deeds of the Nicolaitans, we suppose to be certain errors of doctrine opposed 
to the truth as it is in Jesus. Not professedly in opposition, but, like other 
heresies, although nominally Christian, militating with a correct view of the 
gospel system—teaching a dependence upon other means of salvation than 
those of the merits of Christ. Such, for example, as the doctrines of those 
who trouble the disciples with words subverting their souls, (minds,*) saying, 


* τὰς wizas, here, as in Acts xiv. 22, “ confirming the souls,” &c., would be better 
rendered by minds, instead of souls—a subversion of the soul, according to the usual 
acceptation of the term, implying a loss of eternal life, an irremediable evil; while a 
subversion of the mind, carries with it only the idea of a lapse into error, capable of 
being subsequently remedied by an increase of knowledge.—(Rob. Lex. 842, art. 


ψυχή.) 


xliv INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


ye must be circumcised and keep the whole law, (Acts xv. 24.) Τὸ which 
subversion the Apostle probably refers, Gal. iii. 1, as a bewitching, operating 
against an obedience to the truth. 

Whatever may have been the tendency of the spirit of the Ephesian 
Church, it did not go so far as to adopt these Nicolaitan errors. It was 
strongly opposed to them, as the figurative expression, hating, implies. At 
least it was so in the outset, although any divergence from the line of truth must 
ultimately issue in an entire estrangement from it. As we frequently meet 
with those who strenuously profess themselves opposed to every principle 
bearing the semblance of self-righteousness, while their doctrinal views, if 
carried out, unquestionably prove their hope of eternal life to rest upon some 
merit of their own, either in faith or practice. Their views thus, in effect, 
undermining the foundation of gratitude or love towards the Author of their 
salvation, and in that respect perhaps illustrating the error peculiar to the 
Ephesian system, ($ 63.) 


V. 7. He that hath an ear let him hear ὃ ἔχων οὖς ἀκουσάτω τί τὸ πνεῦμα λέ- 
ἀλιβηεμμει oecdmneth Will DREN” ao OO 9 ne Ol μαμες 
of the tree of life, which is in the midst of τῷ BEY. εἶν ἐκ ay ἔὐίον 719 bailig, 0 eaten 
ihe paradise of God. ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ τοῦ ϑεοῦ. 

ᾧ 46. ‘He that hath an ear,’ &c.—This admonitory caution occurs 
several times in the gospels, as well as in the Apocalypse ; apparently con- 
veying an intimation of the peculiarly mystic sense of the passages in which 
it is found, reminding the reader of some hidden meaning, either in the pre- 
ceding or subsequent context, or in both. . A 

At the commencement of this book it is repeated seven successive 
times, that is, at the conclusion of each of these addresses; being thrown 
in, as it were, by way of parenthesis, perhaps equivalent to saying, He that 
hath an understanding capable of receiving the spiritual sense, let him 80 
receive it. The advertisement is general and uniform to all the angels— 
what the Spirit saith to the churches, being the whole subject of the book, 
The mystic caution applies, therefore, to the whole, and to all who read, and 
hear, and keep it. 

‘To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the tree of life.—To 
the overcoming, (τῷ νικῶντι.) The pronouns he and Az in these passages are 
supplied by the translators, (as the word man is in some other like passages 
supplied,) probably from taking the overcoming in a literal sense. In the 
original the masculine prepositive article only is employed, with a present 
participle. This peculiarity, however, is not material, for if it had been 
otherwise, we should still consider the he, him, man, &c., personifications, 
in conformity with the uniform style and tenor of the book ;—a book of 
which the language, to be understood, must be immaterialized throughout— 
entirely divested of any sense connected with matter, other than that arising 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. χὶν 


from the analogy between the material figure, and the spiritual subject of 
thought represented by it. 

§ 47. The tree of life is not a material tree. The eating of this tree, 
or of the fruit of it, is not an eating in a literal sense ; so, the him that eateth 
is not necessarily a human being, but something, we apprehend, represented 
by a human being. Eating a portion of matter is a participation of that 
matter ; so a principle or doctrine may partake of, or participate in, a certain 
important truth. A disciple’s faith is his doctrine. If this doctrine be 
sound or correct, it will be manifested to participate in the all-important 
truth of salvation through the vicarious suffering of a Redeemer. If the 
principle of the Christian’s faith be such as to manifest its superiority over 
the legal principles of condemnation, it will be manifested also to partake 
of the only sufficient principle of justification : the imputed righteousness of 
Christ, as set forth in the propitiatory offermg of his own body on the cross. 
All that is prospective, or all that, in speaking of which the future tense is 
employed in this revelation, being applicable, as we have before remarked, 
(ὃ 34.) to the manifestation of the fact, and not to the fact itself. 

The word here translated tree, is the same as that elsewhere in the 
Testament rendered cross. Its primary meaning is wood ; the, material by 
a common figure of speech being put for the thing composed of it. So to 
partake of a tree, is to partake of that which the tree bears—its fruit. The 
cross of Christ bore his body, bruised for our iniquities, and wounded for 
our transgressions ; and from his body on the same cross was poured forth the 
expiatory offering of his own blood, the fountain opened for the washing 
away of sin and uncleanness, (Zech. xiii. 1.) 

The material body of Christ, we may say, represents the spiritual body 
of his righteousness or merits. The material blood, his atonement, or 
propitiation—his taking upon himself the penalty of man’s transgressions. 
The cross may represent something equivalent to the purpose of divine 
sovereignty, which provided the sacrifice, or that principle of divine justice 
which required it. Such we suppose to be the Tree of life in contemplation, 
or rather that for which it is put, Christ crucified, corresponding with a 
certain purpose in the divine mind, a principle in the economy of grace, 
represented by Christ crucified. The disciple in fact participates of the 
tree of life, by participating in the imputed merits of his Redeemer. Shar- 
ing in the justification procured by the interposing righteousness of Christ, 
and in the ablution from sin, resulting from his atonement. ‘The principle 
of faith which overcomes the requisitions of the law, participates, in the 
Apocalyptic sense, of the tree of life, by being manifested to belong to that 
arrangement or purpose of the divine mind, exhibited as Christ crucified— 
as the substitution of the Saviour for the sinner—as the sacrifice of the 
Redeemer’s merits in behalf of the transgressor. 


xlvi INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES 


The words to the overcoming, (τῷ νικῶντι.) contain apparently an allusion 
to the term φρικολαϊτῶν, just before used. As if it had been said: This thou 
hast, that thou hatest the doctrine of the overcomers of the people, which I 
also hate: to the really overcoming I will give, &c., &c. This play upon 
_ words, as we commonly call it, appears to be natural to the chain or current 
of human thoughts—an idea of importance being frequently suggested to the 
mind by a sound or term, of which the reasoner had just before made use, 
in speaking of some other topic. Such a use of language may be said to 
belong to the rhetoric of nature, the severer discipline of art only having 
discountenanced it in later times. 

Other parts of Scripture teach the duty of faith, and the benefits result- 
ing from it ; but we suppose it to be the special object of this revelation to 
show us what our faith should be, and to illustrate the peculiar principles 
upon which it is to be formed. It will then be for the disciple to compare 
his faith with the picture here presented. If it correspond, he possesses that 
which overcomes, and in proportion as he finds this to be the case, his 
hopes of salvation are strengthened, and his gratitude for that salvation 
augmented. 

To suppose the disciple himself to overcome, is to make him the efficient 
author of his own salvation, whereas it is evident that Christ only, speaking 
of persons, can be said to have overcome. ‘The disciple overcomes in 
Christ—accounted to be identified with him ; but this is a principle of faith, 
not a personal work or act of the believer, as it is said, Rom. iv. 5-8, 
“To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, 
his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as (or, in the same manner 
as) David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God im- 
puteth righteousness (or justification) without works, saying, Blessed are 
they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is 
the man to whom the Lord will not impute 51η. So we may say, the 
principle of sovereign grace, exhibited in the salvation of the sinner, over- 
comes all the principles of vindictive justice opposed to this salvation. 

Happy, certainly, must he be who can see his salvation resting upon 
such a principle, while he is encouraged to regard his faith in this mystery 
as a token of his destined participation of the benefit to be enjoyed. This 
faith we suppose to be acquired, instrumentally, in proportion as the disciple 
is enabled to contemplate the various principles of truth combined in the 
mystery of redemption. As a person’s confidence. in the power, or capa- 
bility, of a complicated piece of machinery to perform a certain work, is 
increased in proportion as he finds, upon examination, a perfect adaptation 
and sufficiency in all its parts; in like manner, the faith of the Christian 
in the work of his Redeemer is strengthened and confirmed, in proportion 
as he perceives the power and peculiar adaptation of all the principles of 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. xlvil 


truth entering into the composition of this divine plan or economy. To 
exhibit these peculiarities, we suppose to be the design of the Apocalypse ; 
that by this the disciple may be edified, or built up in faith and love. Prin- 
ciples of truth being to the mystery of redemption, what principles of physics 
are to the mysterious economy by which the evolutions and revolutions of 
the heavenly bodies are directed and controlled. The more we are enabled 
to contemplate either of these systems, the more confidence we have in the 
power, and wisdom, and benevolence of the Sovereign author of both. This 
confidence in physical things, is faith in spiritual things. 

Whatever difference of opinion there may be on this subject, it must be 
admitted that the tree of life can represent nothing else than that which 
furnishes the means of eternal life, and the Scriptures assure us that Christ 
crucified is the only means by which this eternal life can be secured. The 
cross, or Christ, must then be this wood, or tree of life, Ξύλον ξωῆς, as it is 
said, 1 Pet. ii. 24, “* Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on 
the tree,” or wood, (ξύλον)---- by whose stripes” (wounds or sufferings, 
Moiaw) “ye are healed ;’—Acts xiii. 29, And when they had fulfilled 
all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree ;—and Gal. 
ili. 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a 
curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a free. 
There can be no other tree of life. To eat of this tree, on the part of the 
disciple, must be to share in the benefit of this vicarious sacrifice: on the 
part of a principle of faith, it must consist in being manifested to belong to 
this propitiatory element of the plan of salvation—something depending 
upon it. 

§ 48. ‘ Which is in the midst of the paradise of God,’ or of my God, 
according to some editions. The difference is not material, since, as we have 
already suggested, Christ retains his distinct sonship, till the final manifest- 
ation, when God will appear to be all in all. 

The term Parapise is met with only in two other places of the New 
Testament, viz., Luke xxiii. 43, the assurance given by Jesus to the 
malefactor, “ To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise ;” and 2 Cor. xii. 
4, where Paul speaks of one caught up into paradise. In our common ver- 
sion of the Old Testament, the word does not occur at all; but the term 
there rendered garden, as applied to the garden of Eden, and the garden of 
God, is uniformly rendered in the Septuagint by the word Παράδεισος, (Par- 
adise.) The word is supposed to have been adopted into the Greek lan- 
guage from the Persian, (Rob. Lex. 543.) However this may be, it seems 
to have been generally understood in the times of the apostles ; and we may 
suppose it to have been understood by them in the sense and with the asso- 
ciation of ideas attached to it by the Greeks and others of those days. 
Literally, it is said to be an appellation given to a park or hunting ground, 


xlviil INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


a place of security as well asa place of enjoyment. Applied, as it is, in 
the Septuagint to the garden of Eden, it is evidently understood to be 
applicable to a place where there is every provision for sustenance and for 
enjoyment—every plant pleasant to the eye and good for food. Hence, 
metaphorically, it has been employed to express the condition of the blessed 
in a future state, in which sense we may presume it was intended to be under- 
stood by the thief on the cross. It is also said to be figuratively employed to 
express the sacred Scriptures, or that revelati n, perhaps, by them,*in which 
the tree of life may be said to be found. -Notat (says Suicerus) scripturam 
sacram, que frequenter Paradiso confertur. In this figurative, or rather in 
a spiritual sense, we suppose the term to be employed in the Apocalypse. 
As it is said, Cant. viii. 13, Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the compan- 
ions hearken to thy voice: Cause me to hear. 

Jesus, the Redeemer, is to be found in, or dwelling in, the Scriptures ; 
but it is more particularly in the economy of redemption, or plan of salva- 
tion, revealed in those Scriptures, that he may be said to dwell. So it is by 
participating in the benefits and privileges of that plan, that his followers 
may be said also to dwell, or to be with him—as in a garden, park, or paradise ; 
a position where there is abundant provision for eternal life, where there is 
ample security from evil or danger, and where all is to be found that is 
necessary for the attainment of endless happiness. 

In this economy, or paradise of God, the tree of life (the cross of 
Christ) occupies a prominent position ; the one is in the midst of the other, 
as the tree of life once stood in the midst of the garden of Eden, (Genesis 
ii. 9.) 

The appellation, the paradise of God, or of my God, may be intended to 
point out something in contradistinction to the first paradise, or to that posi- 
tion in a spiritual sense of which the first paradise was intended as an illus- 
tration. | 

The first paradise was of a temporary character, and its enjoyment was 
conditional. The second paradise is eternal, and its enjoyment uncon- 
ditional, for it is freely given, without money and without price. So long 
as our first parents were ignorant of the difference between good and evil, 
they were accounted innocent in the sight of God. They were alive, as 
the apostle says, without the law, (Rom. vii. 9.) We are not obliged to 
suppose their natures more perfect then, than they were afterwards ; but 
whatever of imperfection or of depravity existed in them, so long as they 
had not tasted of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they were not 
held accountable as those subject to the law. For them, with the excep- 
tion of a single command only, there was no law ; and sin is not imputed 
when there is no law, Rom. v. 13. If they acted morally wrong, with one 
exception, it was the action of ignorance, and for this the tree of life stood 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. xlix 


in the midst of the garden, and they in common with the whole creation 
around them enjoyed the benefit of its healing influence. No sooner had 
they tasted of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, however, than their 
whole position was changed. ‘They were now accountable beings—the law 
came, sin revived, and they died—they were now subject to condemnation 
for every action not morally correct. The plea of ignorance no longer 
availed them ; they now stood upon their own merits, and in this position, | 
they could no longer participate in the benefits of the tree of life. The — 
condition of the enjoyment of the first paradise was, that those who pos- 
sessed it should be ignorant of good and evil, and consequently should not 
be dependent for this enjoyment upon any merit of their own. ‘To become 
wise was to become accountable ; and every creature not perfect as God is 
perfect, if accountable, must be in a state of condemnation—a state spirit- 
ually called death. The declaration of the Almighty—in the day thou eat- 
est thereof, thow shalt surely die—was an annunciation of the nature of 
things. It was an annunciation of the truth, that the only way in which the 
creature can be innocent in the sight of God, is by being in that position in 
which sin is not imputed ; and consequently in that position in which the 
subject of judgment is not treated upon his own merits. 

Our first parents, however, preferred a position under the law—at least 
our first mother did so; she thought it was a good thing to be wise. We 
think, if we had been in their place, we should not have acted thus ; but 
every self-righteous person does the same thing. He prefers being under the 
law—he wishes to stand upon his own merits—he braves the condemnation 
which the law denounces against every soul of man that doeth evil. In 
this position man is virtually expelled from paradise—in this position, he 
cannot, in the nature of things, partake of the tree of life. In this 
emergency, what is the remedy? How is man to be brought back to 
his original state—not of ignorance, but of imputed innocence? Imputed 
innocence, too, notwithstanding his knowledge of good and evil—under the 
law, and yet delivered from its penalties! The remedy, we may say, has 
been applied without his consent. In despite of his own self-righteous per- 
tinacity, Christ has fulfilled the law in man’s behalf. He has endured its 
penalties—He has absorbed, as it were, in his own merits, all the baleful 
influence of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and He 
now stands in the midst of the paradise of God—the tree of life, free of 
access to all who draw near to participate in its fruit. 

The disciple is now again in a position of accounted innocence ; a posi- 
tion in which iniquity is not imputed to him. Not now because he is 
ignorant, but because, in the sight of God, he is looked upon as substituted 
in the place of him who was without sin; who became sin for us, that we 
might become the righteousness of God in him, 2 Cor. v.21. Such is 

5 


] INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


the ample provision pre-eminently to be called, in a spiritual sense, the para- 
dise of God—a provision furnishing all the requisites for a position of per- 
fect security from the wrath to come; and for insuring the enjoyment of 
endless happiness. As it is said, Ps. xci. 1, “He that dwelleth in the 
secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the 
Almighty.” So, John xix. 2, 3, “In my father’s house are many man- 
sions. I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, ye may be also ;” 
or, as it is expressed by Paul, 2 Cor. v. 1, ‘ For we know that if our earthly 
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an 
house not made with hands—eternal in the heavens.” — 

The bliss of the first paradise being, in respect to the law, the bliss of 
ignorance, it may be called the bliss of the paradise of man. 'The bliss of 
the second paradise is that of justification, through the imputed righteous- 
ness of Jehovah, and may be, therefore, appropriately styled the Para- 
dise of God. In the first paradise, man, with a knowledge of good and 
evil, was precluded from sharing in the benefit of the tree of life, (Gen. ii. 
22-24 ;) in the second, notwithstanding this knowledge, he is not only per- 
mitted, but called upon, to put forth his hand and eat, and live for ever. 


Epistle to the Angel of the Church mm Smyrna. 


V. 8. And unto the angel of the church Kai τῷ ἀγγέλῳ τῆς ἐν Σμύρνῃ ἐκκλησίας 
in Smyrna write; these things saith the ὄψον: τάδε: λέγει: ὃ πρῶτος καὶ 6 ἔσχα- 
first and the last, which was dead and is ΑΘΌΥ. 7 . a 
alive. 


§ 49. The announcement here shows the message, from the characteristics 
already analyzed, ($$ 22 and 36,) to come from the same source as the pre- 
ceding, viz., from Jesus, the beginning and the ending of the economy of 
redemption ; ‘‘ who was delivered for our offences and was raised for our 
justification, and is ever at the right hand of God to make intercession for 
us,” (Rom. viii. 94 ; iv. 25.) 


τος, ὃς ἐγέν éTO VEXQOS nol ἕζησεν" 


V.9. Iknow thy works, and tribula- ode σου τὰ ἔργα καὶ τὴν ϑλῖψιν καὶ 
tion, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and τὴν πτωχείαν (ἀλλὰ πλούσιος εἶ) καὶ τὴν 
(1 know) the blasphemy of them which 9. mere OG , 3 , + 

βλαςφημίαν ἐκ τῶν λεγόντων “Iovdeious εἶ- 


say they are Jews and are not, but are 4 ἢ Πῶς wake 3 
the synagogue of Satan. γαν ἑαυτοὺς καὶ οὐκ εἰσίν, ἀλλὰ συναγωγὴ 
τοῦ σαταγᾶ. 


‘I know thy works.’—That is, the works of the angel, the elements 
of the system, the tendency of its principles. This declaration is made 
to each of the seven churches, even to the Laodicean angel, so espe- 
cially rebuked for lukewarmness. 'The sense must therefore be, I know thy 
works, both those which are good and those which are otherwise. 

‘ And tribulation.’—The term ϑλῦψις, rendered here and elsewhere trib- 
ulation, or affliction, carries with it an idea of pressure, or compression. 
We may suppose the system represented to afford that peculiar view of reli- 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. h 


gious faith which produces a sense of mental pressure, as it were, under a 

load of duty. The disciple, instead of rejoicing in Christ, goes mourning 

all his days, under an impression of his dependence upon some merit of his 

own ; in respect to which he is at the same time continually sensible of his 

deficiency. Instead of enjoying the gospel air of freedom, he feels himself 

imprisoned even in a closer state of confinement than those who are alto- 

gether dependent upon works of the law. Instead of throwing himself 

upon the mercy of God, as it is exhibited in Christ, he is under continual 

apprehension of vindictive judgment. His language is that of complaint— . 
“Thou puttest my feet in the stocks, and lookest narrowly upon all my 

paths,” Job xiii. 27.“ Blessed are they that mourn,” it is said, “ for they 

shall be comforted.” Here is a mourning, however, without the comfort. 

Godly sorrow worketh repentance, (change of mind,) not to be repented of, 

but the sorrow of the world worketh death, (2 Cor. vii. 10.) We may 

suppose a conviction of sin to work that sorrow which leads to an utter 

renunciation of self-dependence. This change of mind, directing the disci- 

ple to the Saviour, is a repentance unto life; but the conviction of sin 

which goes no further than to prompt the disciple to greater efforts in fulfill- 

ing the law for himself, confining his views to some propitiation of his own ~ 
working out, is a sorrow of the world, that-worketh death. Such we may 
suppose to be the tribulation of this system. It exhibited the cause of 
mourning, but not the means of comfort. 

§ 50. ‘And poverty, (but thou art rich.)’—Corresponding with the 
tribulation, or compressing view, of the system, is its poverty. Personified 
as a disciple, it is supposed to look to its own want of merit, which, indeed, 
is a cause of tribulation ; but besides this, it overlooked the true riches— 
those imputed merits of Christ which constitute the only real wealth. 
Every Christian adopted in Christ, and sharing in his imputed righteousness, 
or in the imputation of his merits, must be rich in effect, because sovereign 
grace has given him this inheritance. But every such Christian may not 
enjoy the knowledge of this truth. Like the servant of the prophet, 
although there are more for him than there are against him, he does not per- 
ceive this till his eyes are opened. He is, in fact, rich in Christ ; while, look- 
ing only to his own unworthiness, he feels really poor. As there may be a 
tribulation, or sense of sin, which does not lead the mind to dependence upon 
the atonement of Christ, so there may be a sense of poverty or unworthi- 
ness which does not lead to a trust in the merits or riches of Christ. As it 
is said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, (or, in a spiritual sense,) for their’s is the 
kingdom of heaven, (they are rich.) But they do not enjoy their blessedness 
till they come to the knowledge of the truth, or of their true position. This 
we may suppose to be the defect of the system of the Smyrnian Church. 

The ransom of a man’s life it is said is his riches, (Prov. xiii. 8.) The 


lit INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


means of ransoming eternal life, (Job xxxiii. 24,) must be the greatest of all 
riches. Such as are called, (Prov. vill. 18,) durable riches and righteous 

ness. ‘To be without this means is real poverty, to possess them is to be 
indeed rich. ‘To believe that we do possess them, may be said to be rich in 
faith—a faith possessed by the Apostle Paul, as he describes it, (Phil. iu. 7,) 
—but an element of faith, wanting we suppose in the system represented by 
the angel of the Church of Smyrna. The reason of this deficiency is pro- 
bably alluded to, under the figure of the blasphemous errors of certain false 
teachers introducing themselves into the Church. The system having to 
contend with the erroneous principles introduced into it, as the pastor of 
a congregation, in a literal sense, might have to contend with those whose 
doctrines were calculated to turn his people from the truth. 

§ 51. ‘The blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, &c. Blas- 
phemy, according to John x. 33, consists essentially in making one’s self God, 
or equal with God. Whoever is the efficient author of man’s salvation, to him 
must the glory of that work redound. If man were saved by his own merits, 
he would be the efficient author of his own salvation. In such case man 
would be glorified by the work, and not God. If man represent himself to 
be thus the author of his own salvation, he puts himself in the place of God ; 
he makes himself equal with God, and this is blasphemy; not in words, 
perhaps, but in effect. 

The Jews were particularly scrupulous in eschewing the sin of blas- 
phemy ; and yet here is an error charged particularly upon those who pro- 
fessed themselves to be Jews :—‘ He is not a Jew, says Paul, (Rom. 1. 28, 
29,) which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward 
in the flesh; but he is a Jew (in a spiritual sense) who is one inwardly : 
and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter: of 
which the praise is not of man, but of God ;” something of which the praise 
does not belong to man, but to God. For the sinner cannot be entitled to 
praise for that which God has wrought either in him or for him. 

The words rendered inwardly, as above, are ἐν τῷ χρυπτῷ, im the hidden, 
or mystic sense; as the hidden wisdom, 1 Cor. ii. 7; and the hidden 
manna, Rev. ii. 17. He is a Jew who is so in that hidden, or mystic, or 
spiritual sense which is represented or symbolized by the literal Jew. In 
this spiritual sense we suppose the really uncircumcised to be those depend- 
ing upon the carnal or self-righteous covering of their own merits, to hide 
the shame of their guilt in the sight of God: whereas, he is the true Jew, or 
the truly circumcised, who renounces all dependence upon such covering ; 
counting all merits of his own but loss, and trusting wholly to the robe of 
Christ’s imputed righteousness to cover his iniquities, and to protect him 
from the wrath to come. 

ᾧ 52. The heart, in Scripture, we suppose to be put for what we call 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. hii 


the mind—the inmost fountain of thought and motive, whence all the springs 
of action originate; as the blood, propelled from the physical heart, circu- 
lates through the whole corporeal system. The characteristic of the 
circumcised mind, or heart, must be a conviction of entire unworthiness— 
entire destitution of merit. Few, perhaps, possess this conviction to its full 
extent; and, if the spiritual circumcision necessary to bring the disciple 
within the pale of the economy of salvation, depended altogether upon the 
state of his own mind, who might not have reason to dread the awful 
sentence of excommunication—‘ That soul shall be cut off from his people,” 
Ex. xii. 15. But, as the operation upon the Hebrew infant was not per- 
formed by itself, but by its parents, so we may say of the spiritual rite, that 
it is not an act of the disciple, but of his Heavenly Father. ‘To God the 
praise belongs, not to man. However imperfect the believer’s views in this 
life, God has graciously placed him in that position of circumcision, in 
which his salvation must be of grace, and not of debt. If his faith be suffi- 
ciently enlightened, he must’ see this even here, and his only motive of 
conduct will be that of grateful love, this motive operating through his 
whole moral system; but whether he see this or not in this life, he cannot 
but know, and see, and feel it hereafter. Corresponding with this, those 
who say they are Jews, and are not, we may take to be those pretending to 
this circumcision of mind—pretending to have renounced all dependence 
upon their own merits, but not having actually done so. Whatever their 
professions may be, they still go about to establish, and still trust in some 
supposed righteousness, or worthiness, of their own. 

These things we have transferred in a figure, as the apostle terms it, 
(1 Cor. iv. 6,) to the disciple, by way of illustration ; but we suppose these 
false professors, or teachers of false doctrines, to be principles, or elements 
of doctrine, and not human beings. The professed tendency of these 
principles comporting with the spiritual circumcision alluded to, but their 
real tendency being that of blasphemously representing man as the author 
of his own salvation. 

§ 53. These principles are spoken of as belonging to the synagogue or 
assembly of Satan, that is, emanating from the Satanic system, or Satanic 
collection of doctrines; the synagogue of Satan being thus an opposite of 
the Church, or of a church of Christ :—the term synagogue, signifying a col- 
lection of people, or things, in which respect it corresponds with the term 
ecclesia, (church,) except that the latter carries with it the idea of selection, 
which the former does not. As we have supposed a church (ecclesia) | 
in the apocalyptic sense to represent an assembly of elect or sanctioned 
principles, so we suppose a synagogue to represent an assembly of principles 
not elect, not sanctioned. The synagogue of Satan being an assembly even 


of repudiated principles. 


liv INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. - 


By Rev. xii. 9 and 10, we find the terms Satan, the Devil, the great 
dragon, the old serpent, the accuser of the brethren, to be only so many 
different appellations of the same being, or character. ‘The term Satan from 
the Hebrew, and Devil (Diabolos) from the Greek, signifying also an 
accuser, such as an adversary at law, or one occupying the place of a public 
prosecutor—the opposite of a mediator, or intercessor, or redeemer. We 
shall have occasion to treat this subject more at large hereafter: meantime, 
we assume the peculiar characteristic of Satan to be that of a legal adversary ; 
one whose office it is to enforce the action of the law, to render the subjects 
of his perquisitions obnoxious to the law, and in fine, to bring the disciple 
under tlte~condemnation of the law, to be subjected to its penalties, in des- 
pite of the redemption wrought out in his behalf. ‘Thus, to say that an 
element of doctrine is a principle of Satan, or that it belongs to the 
Synagogue of Satan, is equivalent to saying that it is an element of legal 
accusation, as opposed to an element of the economy of salvation by grace. 
Accordingly, it is said of these principles of self-righteousness, spoken of 
figuratively as teachers, professing to be Jews, without really being so, 
that they are not only false in this respect, but that they actually belong 
to the legal system of accusation ; a system entirely opposed to the whole 
spirit and purport of the gospel. ‘They are hypocritical im pretension, blas- 
phemous in character, and condemnatory, or working condemnation in their 
tendency. 


V.10. Fear none of those things which ηΤ]Τηδὲν φοβοῦ ἃ μέλλεις πάσχειν. ἰδού, 
thou shalt suffer. Behold the devil shall μέλλει βαλεῖν ὃ διάβολος ἐξ ὑμῶν εἰς φυ- 


cat (some) of you into prion, 8 70 iy, Ine πειρισόῆτε᾽ oud fare lyn 
tion ten days. Be thou faithful unto /M®9o” δέχα. you πιστὸς ἄχρι ϑανάτου, 
death, and I will give thee a crown, or καὶ δώσω σοι τὸν στέφανον τῆς ζωῆς. 

the crown, of life. 

§ 54. ‘ Fear none of these things,’ &c.—The system is figuratively repre- 
sented as a disciple, having to contend with those who teach doctrines of self- 
justification, and in doing so, appeals to the accusing principles of the legal 
dispensation. In this position, the language of the disciple should be that 
spoken by the mouth of the prophet, Is. 1. 8, “ He is near that justifieth 
me: who will contend with me? Behold the Lord God will help me ; 
who is he that shall condemn me?” The circumstances, and the encourage- 
ment given, corresponding with those alluded to, Is. xl. 10-13. The 
suffering is the apprehension of the action of legal principles. As the minds 
of certain of the disciples were troubled, (Acts xv. 1, 5, 24,) by those 
representing circumcision, and the keeping of the law, as indispensable 
to salvation, a doctrine declared by the apostles to be altogether unau- 
thorized. 


‘Behold, the Devil’ (the accuser) ‘ shall cast (some) of you into prison.’ 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. ly 


—That is, into a place of custody, in order that ye may be tried. The 
trial does not consist in being in the prison, but is something consequent to 
it. The public prosecutor seizes upon delinquents, and causes them to be 
imprisoned, preparatory to their trial. So certain principles of this evan- 
gelical system are seized upon by the element of accusation, for the purpose 
of trying, or testing, their efficacy in the work of salvation. 

‘And ye shall have tribulation,’ or compression ; that is, ye shall be 
tried.—Certain of the principles emanating from this system, are to undergo 
the test. The word some is not in the original. The words ἐξ ὑμῶν, 
imply that which is from you. It may be all the principles emanating from 
this system are to be thus tried,—the elements of legal accusation being 
brought to act on one side, while those of justification by grace are exhib- 
ited on the other. Nevertheless, the assurance remains, as it is expressed, 
Is. li. 7, 8, “« Fear ye not the reproach of men ; neither be ye afraid of their 
revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm 
shall eat them like wool; but my righteousness shall be forever, and my 
salvation from generation to generation.” 

ᾧ 55. ‘Ten days.’—A definite term for an indefinite ; a decimal number 
of days for a whole period ; a short period for a long one. The very short- 
ness of the period, being intended to show the figurative character of the 
term ; as every reader is struck, at first sight, with the conviction that the 
literal sense is not at all to be taken into consideration. Had the time 
mentioned been ten years, or even ten months, we might have supposed it 
to apply literally to some specific portion of duration ; but as the trial is so 
exceedingly short as ten days, it is evident that something else is intended, and 
that something else we may suppose to be the whole period of duration, 
from the time of the announcement till the final manifestation of truth, 
when every trial of this kind must necessarily terminate. The perfect 
manifestation of the truths of the plan of salvation by sovereign grace. 
putting an end, in the nature of the case, to all further efforts at establishing 
the principles of self-justification, or at enforcing those of legal accusation. 

‘ Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life.’—All 
the Greek editions (according to Rob. ed. with Hahn’s notes, New-York, 
1842,) have the definite article here ; indicating but one crown, as there is 
but one righteousness. So Paul, 2 Tim. iv. 8, speaks of the crown of 
righteousness laid up for him and others, and not ἃ crown, as our common 
version has rendered it. 

The word translated crown in this place, (ozépavog,) signifies the kind of 
crown given to conquerors at the public games; differing in this, from the 
word διάδημα, which we also render crown, but which applies to the insignia 
of supreme authority, and would be more properly rendered by the term 
diadem. The first kind of crown is alluded to by Paul, 1 Cor. ix. 25, 


lvi INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


“They do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.” This 
crown is the token of success in the contest or struggle, upon occasions of 
which it is given, and may be viewed, not as the reward itself, but as the 
evidence of the victor’s title to his reward ; as, amongst the ancients, public 
games were sometimes instituted to decide upon the election of a chief or 
ruler. The victor at the games, was. crowned with a garland, or wreath ; 
and we may suppose him, at the conclusion of the exhibition, to have prof- 
fered this crown as the evidence of his claim to promotion. So, to the fol- 
lowers of Jesus, the imputed righteousness of their Redeemer is the evi- 
dence of their victory over the powers of legal condemnation ; and conse- 
quently, the token, or crown, upon which they depend for the inheritance of 
eternal life—a crown of his righteousness, and not of their own, and 
thence distinguished as the crown of righteousness, and THE crown of life— 
the crown by which eternal life is secured. Their Saviour bore for them 
the crown of thorns, which they should have borne ; and they receive from 
him, as a matter of grace, the crown of righteousness to which he alone had 
a title. , 

The other kind of crown, (the diadem,) is that represented to be on the 
heads of the red dragon, and of the beast, Rev. xi. 3, and xii. 1. Not 
that these were either of them entitled to sovereignty, but that they are sup- 
posed to assume the prerogative ; as to assume the diadem, has been a com- 
mon figure of speech for pretending to imperial sway. In contradistinction 
to these false pretensions, it is said of the Word of God, that on his head 
he had “ many diadems,” (Rev. xix. 12.) The disciple is nowhere said to 
receive a diadem, or the diadem ; but he receives a crown, as the token of 
his success in the contest of faith. 

Such a token of victory is spoken of as allotted to the system, or angel 
of this church, figuratively, on condition of its faithfulness to death. As we 
may say, in the nature of the case, if the system prove to be correct,—if it 
comport with the elements of the economy of grace throughout—f this be 
manifested by its abiding the tests and trials to which it is to be exposed, 
then it is manifested to be itself the truth, and this manifestation is spoken 
of under the figure of allotting a crown to an individual disciple; the 
period of final manifestation, corresponding with this figure, being alluded to 
under the appellation of death. 


V.11. He that hath an ear, &c. ὁ ἔχων ove, κ-τ.λ. 
He that overcometh, shall not be hurt at ὃ γικῶν ov μὴ ἀδικηϑῇ ἐκ τοῦ ϑανάτου τοῦ 
the second death. δευτέρου. 


§ 56. ‘He that hath an ear,’ &c.—This is a repetition of the hint, as 
we conceive it to be, given to all who read the book, of the mystic sense 
of the passage ; the remarks already made upon these words (¢ 46) have 
been, perhaps, sufficient. 


J 
/ 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. lvil 


‘He that overcometh.’—These words are thrown into the same verse 
with the hint just-spoken of, as if particularly connected with it. But we are 
to bear in mind, throughout the book, that in the original manuscripts there 
was no separation of chapters, or verses, and here probably, as elsewhere, 
the admonition as to the mystic sense is no more peculiar to what follows, 
or to what is in the verse with it, than to that which precedes it. 

ὁ vixav— The overcoming shall not be hurt at the second death.’—A 
a promise is given to him that overcometh in each of these seven addresses, 
The promises are different, but we may presume the enjoyment of one to be 
no way inconsistent with that of either of the others. The same overcoming 
individual, whatever is to be understood by the term, may enjoy the fruition 
of all of these promises—perhaps they all constitute but one promise. In 
the preceding epistle, the overcoming was to partake of the tree of life. In 
the present, the faithful unto death is to receive the crown of life. To one 
is promised the means of eternal life, as food constitutes the means of natural 
life ; to the other is promised the evidence of title to the same life,—this 
evidence of title being itself also a means. But in addition to this, the over- 
coming is promised here exemption from hurt at the second death. 

The verb rendered hurt, ἀδικέω, usually signifies doing an injury, in 
the legal sense of the{term—as Matt. xx. 13. Friend, I do thee no wrong, 
οὐκ ἀδικῶ oe. It is evident, however, that a promise to him that over- 
cometh, that he should not suffer wayustly from the second death, could not 
be what is here intended. The noun of the same formation is rendered in 
Scripture by the word unrighteousness ; and the verb and participle are both 
used, Rev. xxii. 11, as the opposite of d:x0100, signifying in the active voice 
to justify, and in the passive, Matt. xii. 37, and in Paul’s epistles, to be 
justified. Hence we may safely consider the hurt, or injury alluded to here,\ 
and of which the second death is supposed to be the occasion, to be the! 
opposite of justification. 

He that overcometh shall not be deprived of justification by or at the 
second death. The particle translated of in this place, ἐκ, signifies out of, 
—something proceeding from—as, if we suppose this second death to 
represent a system, or means of trial, the words are equivalent to the decla- 
ration thus, he that overcometh shall not be condemned, or have his 
justification impaired by any principle, or power, emanating from that 
which is termed the second death, (δ 174.) 

§ 57. We find, by Rev. xx. 14, that the lake of fire, into which death 
and hell were cast, is the second death. In remarking upon Rev. i. 18, 
we have seen ($$ 33, 37, 38) that death and hell, or Hades, are mysteries, 
or systems, of which Christ holds the keys; the means of unlocking or of 
interpreting these systems being found in him. ‘The element of fire we 
suppose to represent the revealed Word of God, (Jer. xxiii. 29,) by which 


lviil INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


all doctrines or principles are to be tried, and by which all that is false in 
them is to be consumed, or manifested to be worthless, (1 Cor. iii. 13.) A 
lake or pit of fire, as it were an immense furnace, we suppose to be a very 
powerful revelation, or development of the revealed word, which is to act in 
a more than ordinary manner, in trying the truth, and testing the falsehood 
of all principles, or elements of doctrine, at that period of peculiar manifesta- 
tion, when these two anti-evangelic systems, Death and Hades, are to meet 
their final destruction. This instrument of trial is also spoken of as a lake 
of fire and brimstone ; we suppose in allusion to the popular opinion that the 
sulphuric composition of volcanic fires is the cause of their perpetuity. 
Hence a lake of fire and sulphur, or brimstone, is an instrument of trial, as 
by fire, perpetual and eternal. ‘To be Aurt by this second death, is to be 
manifested in this final trial to be in a state the opposite of justification. A 
principle hurt or unjustified by this trial, or test, is one manifested to be in- 
consistent with divine truth—inconsistent with the truth of sovereign grace. 
Such a fate as this the angel of the church in Smyrna is assured cannot 
attend the overcoming principle, ὁ γικῶν. The principle of salvation, 
through the imputed righteousness of Christ, will abide the test of the 
revealed word in its most spiritual sense. And this we suppose to be pre- 
eminently the overcoming principle of faith—the principle of sovereign grace, 
which overcomes every principle of legal condemnation. 


Epistle to the Angel of the Church of Pergamos. 


V.12. And to the angel of the church Kai τῷ ἀγγέλῳ τῆς ἐν Περγάμῳ ἐχκλησίας 
in Pergamos write; these things saith he άψον- τάδε λένει O ἔγων THY δομφαΐαν 
which hath the sharp sword with two Εν Ξ ῳ ᾿ δε 
edges. 


τὴν δίστομον τὴν ὀξεῖαν" 

ᾧ 58. “Ηδ that hath the sharp sword.’—Of the different titles assumed 
by the speaker in addressing the churches, six refer us back distinctly to the 
account given in the first chapter, of the form and language of the one like 
unto the Son of man, while the title assumed in the seventh address leads 
to the faithful witness, declared (Rev. 1. 5) to be Jesus Christ, thus identi- 
fying the form seen in the midst of the golden candlesticks, with one of the 
personifications of the source of grace and peace. 

The sharp sword is not an uncommon figure in Scripture. David says 
of the enemies of his soul, Ps. lvii. 4, alluding no doubt to the legal princi- 
ples of condemnation, that their tongue is a sharp sword; and again, Ps. 
Ixiv. 3, ““who whet their tongue like a sword,” preparatory to a work of 
legal destruction. The spirit of truth and the spirit of error have each their 
respective swords ; but the two-edged sword seems to be the peculiar weapon 
of the Holy Spirit; and this we have already described as divine revelation 
by the written word with its twofold sense, ($ 33.) 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. Νὰ 


Υ. 19. Iknow thy works, and where οἶδα τὰ ἔργα σοὺ καὶ ποῦ κατοικεῖς, ὅπου 
thou dwellest, (even) where Satan’s seat ὃ ϑρόνος τοῦ σατανᾶ " καὶ κρατεῖς τῷ ὕνομά 
(is): and thou holdest fast my name, and RPE shan Ty Coe he 
hast not denied my faith, even in those ay?) ac. AE 19? Lda yd ae ca per My bef 
days wherein Antipas (was) my faithful Ταὶς μέθαις ἐν αἷς ντίπας ὃ μάρτυς μου ὃ 
martyr, who was slain among you, where πιστὸς, 0g ἀπεκτάνϑη πὰρ υμῖν, ὁπου ὁ σα- 
Satan dwelleth. TUES κατοικεῖ. 

§ 59. “1 know where thou dwellest.’—To say that the Divine Spirit, 
here speaking, knew that the angel of the church dwelt in the church, or 
that the church of Pergamos was located in Pergamos, would be to suppose 
the enunciation of a mere truism. ‘This dwelling must refer, not to locality, 
but to position. Speaking of a system personified—I know thy position. 
This seems to be said in extenuation—as if allowance were made for a cer- 
tain disadvantage under which this angel laboured—as one who of necessity 
dwells in a place where he is under restraint from the action of a hostile 
power. 

‘ Where Satan’s seat,’ or throne, ‘is,—that is, the seat of his power: ὁ 
ϑρόνος tov catave,—the throne of the Satan. The seat of the accuser’s 
power is where the law is in force; for where the law is fulfilled, the 
legal adversary, or accuser, can have no power. ‘The disadvantage, there- 
fore, under which this system labours is, that it admits in some degree at 
least the continuance of the legal economy. Its position supposes the requi- 
sitions of the law to be still unsatisfied—an admission widely differing from 
the representation of the apostle Paul, Rom. vi. 14, “‘ Ye are not under the 
law, but under grace ;”’ and Rom. vii. 4 and 7, “‘ Wherefore, my brethren, ye 
also are become dead to the law.” “ We are delivered from the law, that 
being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of 
the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.” Opposite to this is the error, 
that the law continues in force, not merely as a rule of conduct, or guide to 
what is pleasing in the sight of God, but as a system of penal ordinances, 
involving the treatment of the disciple on his own merits, and thus subject- 
ing him to the power of the accuser. 

‘ And holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith.’—Notwith- 
standing the false position, as we may call it, of this system, there were two 
commendable characteristics in it: the holding fast or wielding the name 
of Christ, as a weapon of defence ;—trusting in his name, and pleading the 
power of his name, and not denying the faith. Such a general sentiment of 
trust in Christ we often find in individual disciples, mingled with some 
erroneous views influenced by the spirit of legality. ‘‘ If thou shalt confess 
with thy mouth (it is said, Rom. x. 9) the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine 
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” This 
holding fast the name of Christ, may correspond with the confession of that 
name spoken of by Paul ; while Paul’s belief of the heart corresponds also 
with the not denying the faith. From the context of this passage in 


J 


ez INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


Romans, it is evident that Paul contemplates but an imperfect knowledge 
of truth on the part of the disciple, who may yet draw the assurance of 
his salvation from these two simple elementary tokens of divine favour. 
Such an imperfect view of the scheme of salvation, may be supposed to be 
possessed by the angel of the church of Pergamos. Represented as a disciple, 
it might be said of him, with the heart he believed unto righteousness, (or 
justification,) and with the mouth he made confession unto salvation, giving 
professedly and confessedly the glory of that salvation to that name, of 
which it is said, there is none other given amongst men whereby we can be 
saved. 

ᾧ 60. ‘ Even in those days wherein Antipas (was) my faithful martyr, 
who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.—The first was is supplied 
by our translators, probably to make the sentence correspond with the use 
of the relative who, preceding the second was. It would be taking much 
less liberty to suppose the name Antipas to have been originally written in 
the genitive; which requires only a dropping of the final s. On this 
supposition the sentence might be read, in those days of Antipas, the faith- 
ful witness of me, who was slain on your account, where Satan dwelleth ; 
that is, under the legal dispensation—the peculiar position of the accuser. » 

The preposition παρὰ translated among in our common version, and apud 
in the Latin version of Leusden, might have been rendered for, or on account 
of, which meaning it also sometimes has, (Rob. Lex. 541.) The name 
Antipas is composed of the preposition 47z/, which sometimes signifies for, 
in the place of, and πᾶς, all. The appellation Antipas thus signifying in the 
place of all, or instead of all: pro omnibus, (Leusd. onomas.)—leading to 
the suggestion, that-this name is put for Christ himself in his vicarious char- 
acter—add to which the term, rendered here fazthful martyr, is precisely the 
same in the original as that rendered, Rev. 1. 5, the faithful witness, ὁ μάρτυς 
ὁ πιστός, a title peculiar to Christ—God the Holy Spirit here speaking of 
God manifested in the flesh—the personification of the Deity in Jesus Christ 
—the word made flesh—being the faithful witness, or representation of Jeho- 
vah. The word rendered by our translators even, is the common conjunc- 
tion καὶ (and) ; which, when repeated as it is here, may be rendered by also. 
The whole sentence is susceptible of being paraphrased as follows : and holdest 
my name, and hast not denied my faith in those days also of Antipas, my 
faithful witness, who was slain in your behalf under that dispensation of, 
the law which is characterized as the habitation of the accuser. Christ, the 
true Antipas, having placed himself in this position, pro omnibus, in behalf of 
all men, especially of those that believe. ‘This we suppose to be spoken of 
a system represented by an angel, whose fidelity under the circumstances 
alluded to may be considered an opposite of the conduct of one who, in a 
parallel situation, denied his master three times before the cock had crowed 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. xi 


‘thrice. * Notwithstanding this fidelity, however, there were defects in the 
system, arising probably from the peculiarity of the influence adverted to in 
the first part of the verse—a consequence of dwelling where Satan’s seat is. 


V. 14. But I have a few things against “422 ἔχω κατὰ σοῦ ὀλίγα, ὅτι ἔχεις ἐκεῖ 


on spear " a των Rhea. κρατοῦντας τὴ» διδαχὴν Μαλαύμ, ὃς ἐδίδασκε 

ΠΤ ΕΣ stambling ΔΑΝ hetare τῷ Βαλὰκ βαλεῖν σκάνδαλον ἐνώπιον τῶν 
5 rr “ -- .» ΄ ~ > ΄ . \ 

the children of Israel, to eat things sacri- ©!” Ἰσραήλ, φαγεῖν εἰδωλόϑυτα καὶ πορ- 

ficed to idols, and to commit fornication. γεῦσαι. 


§ 61. ‘A few things,’ &c., small in number, but evidently not unimpor- 
tant in character. ‘The Pergamean system has within it certain principles, 
figuratively spoken of as persons, inculcating in a spiritual sense that which 
Balaam taught in a literal sense. 

‘The doctrine of Balaam,’ &c.—Balaam was sent for by Balak, king 
of the Moabites, (Numbers xxii. and xxiii.,) to curse Israel, with the promise 
of great rewards for so doing. His desire of obtaining these rewards was but 
too evident. The spirit of prophecy, however, was so strong upon him that 
he could do no otherwise than declare the truth committed to him to speak : 
but what he could not do as a prophet, he readily did for the compensation 
promised as aman. He taught Balak how to bring the Israelites into a snare 
of such a character as he knew must necessarily be followed by disastrous 
results to that favoured people, at least of a temporary nature. Acting in 
this, no doubt, upon his knowledge of the rule of divine providence towards 
them, that their transgressions should be visited with the rod, and their 
iniquities with stripes, although the loving kindness of their God would not 
be utterly taken from them. 

‘A trap,’ or stumbling-block, as the term is employed here, must be 
something causing those affected by it to err from the faith. If meat, says 
the apostle, 1 Cor. viii. 13, make my brother to offend—that is, place a 
stumbling-block before him, “I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, 
lest 1 place a stumbling-block before my brother.” As if he had said, as 
appears from the context, speaking of the liberty of the people—I will not 
use my freedom, if my use of it lead a less enlightened brother to suppose 
that I do that which I do not believe myself at liberty to do, and thence 
prompt him to do the same thing without my belief’ of freedom—thereby 
leading him to sin against his own conscience ; for whatsoever is not of faith 
is sin, (Rom. xiv. 23.) Here was a doctrine of self-denial, the opposite of 
that of Balaam, who, to gratify his desire of gain—for a reward, it is said, 
(Jude 11)—hazarded the welfare of those whom, as a prophet of the Most 
High, he should have regarded as brethren. 

‘ Things sacrificed to idols.’—The sin of the children of Israel, is spoken 
of as the eating of things offered to its idols ; not, however, merely in eat- 
ing the things, (as we learn from 1 Cor. vili. 7,) but in eating them as 


}xii INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


things offered to idols—participating in the act of idolatrous worship. As 
it is said, | Cor. x. 18, “ Are not they which eat of the sacrifices, partakers 
of the altar?” Their offence was idolatry itself. 

In a spiritual sense, he who places his hopes of salvation upon any other 
merit than that of Christ, makes such merit, or the source from which such 
merit emanates, an idol, or object of religious worship. If he trust to his own 
righteousness, he must necessarily ascribe his salvation to his own merit. 
In doing so, he depends upon himself and upon his own ability for that sal- 
vation, the glory of which he takes to himself, feeling indebted to himself 
alone even for his eternal happiness. While working out his salvation, as he 
considered it, he was actuated by no motive but that of serving and glo- 
rifying himself; and now having, as he supposes, effected this object, his 
obligations of gratitude and love, in his estimation, are to himself. His own 
self is his idol of worship; and all his works, however good they may 
appear outwardly, are but so many sacrifices offered to his idol. His error 
is not in performing works, but in doing them as things offered to an idol. 

§ 62. There is a similar analogy between the crime of fornication and 
the error in doctrine illustrated by it. As the illicit indulgence into which 
the Israelites were betrayed through the teaching of Balaam, is the opposite 
of the lawful enjoyments of the marriage state,—the type or figure of the 
mystic union between Christ and his people,—so the criminal intercourse 
alluded to, in a spiritual sense, as a matter of faith, is a reliance upon other 
means of eternal happiness than those of a union and identity with Christ— 
righteousness of his righteousness, and merit of his merit; as the wife, in 
relation to her husband, is accounted one and the same person, bone of his 
bone, and flesh of his flesh, (Gen. ii. 23.) The spiritual body of the disci- 
ple’s righteousness being taken out of that of his Redeemer’s, as the woman 
was taken out of man. 

The teachers spoken of as holding or wielding the doctrine of Balaam, 
in the Pergamean Church, we suppose to symbolize principles leading the 
disciple astray from views of faith requisite to the true worship of God, and 
to an undivided reliance upon the merits of Christ: principles personified 
as teachers, professing, no doubt, to hold the name and not to deny the faith, 
while the tendency of their doctrine is that here described. 

Tn allusion to errors of this kind, apparently, the apostle Paul speaks οἱ 
those who cause offences, (τὰ σκάνδαλα, stumbling-blocks,) Rom. xvi. 17, 18, 
as persons serving not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly ; making use 
of good words and fair speeches to deceive the simple—teachers actuated by 
selfish and mercenary views, and probably inculcating principles of a corres- 
ponding character ; self-righteous principles, perhaps, sustamed by literal con- 
structions of the language of revelation—teachers, forsaking the right way and 
going astray, as it is said, 2 Peter ii. 15, following the way of Balaam, who 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. ‘ aii 


loved the wages of unrighteousness—principles diverging from the line of 
truth, and representing the divine plan of salvation as an economy of wages, 
instead of an economy of grace. 


V. 15. So hast thou also them that Οὕτως ἔχεις καὶ σὺ κρατοῦντας τὴν διδαχὴν 
hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, τῶν "γικολαϊτῶν ὁμοίως. Or, according to 


which thing 1 hate. ae c ᾿ 
τὰ the common editions, 0 μισῶ. 


§ 63. This last ὁ μισῶ, is probably the most correct reading; as it 
corresponds with the expressions before made use of on occasion of mention- 
ing the same doctrine. The word ὁμοίως, on the contrary, after the χαὶ at 
the commencement of the verse, would appear almost a pleonasm ; unless 
we suppose it is intended to refer us back to what is said of this doctrine in 
the address to the Ephesian angel. The result in such case would be the 
same as if we adopted the expression, I hate. 

We have already noticed the character of this Nicolaitan doctrine, 
(5 45,) that it was probably something seducing the mind from the true 
faith, as the appellation signifies something overcoming the people. We 
have also noticed that the verb translated hold, signifies also to wield ; as in 
the use of a weapon of offence or defence. The holders of this doctrine 
being, not merely passive believers, but those who taught its principles 
polemically—or if principles themselves are spoken of, they are such 
as maintain these Nicolaitan views. 

‘Which thing I hate.’-—Some light is thrown on this expression by com- 
paring it with Jude 23, ‘“ Hating the garments spotted with the flesh.” 
μισοῦντες καὶ τὸν ἀπὸ τῆς σαρκὸς ἐσπιλωμένον χιτῶνα. Flesh, as we have 
before noticed, is a figure of moral perfection ; as, in the human form, it is 
essential to physical perfection. The flesh of Christ represents his righteous- 
ness; flesh generally, as of created beings, represents human pretensions to 
righteousness—the supposed or pretended moral perfections of man. The 
garments spoken of by the apostle, are without doubt garments of salvation— 
means of salvation to protect the soul and cover the shame of guilt, as the 
literal garment protects and covers the human body. The only garment of 
this spiritual kind without spot, is the perfect robe of divine righteousness 
obtained by imputation. A garment of salvation, spotted by the flesh, is 
a supposed robe of divine righteousness, intermingled or spotted with 
a certain portion of pretended human perfection—a robe partly of Christ’s 
righteousness, and partly of man’s merits. 

This pretension of dividing with Christ the glory of redemption, must be 
peculiarly hateful to him, who has declared that he will not give his glory to 
another, Is. xlii. 8, and xlviii. 11, and it should be equally hateful to every 
disciple jealous of the honour of his Master. The Christian is thus especially 
called upon to hate this garment spotted by the flesh: while the doctrine 


xiv INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


represented by this garment is declared to be peculiarly hateful to the Holy 
Spirit. This peculiar error of mixing up our own merits with those of our 
Saviour, and claiming, as it were, at least a part of the honour due to him, 
seems to partake of the robbery for burnt offering spoken of, Is. lxi. 8. It 
may also be typically alluded to in the prohibition, Lev. xix. 19, “Thou 
shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled 
of linen and woollen come upon thee.” 


Vs. 16, 17. Repent; or else I will come 
unto thee quickly, and will fight against 
thee with the sword of my mouth. He 
that hath an ear, let him hear what the 
Spirit saith unto the churches. To him 
that overcometh will I give to eat of the 
hidden manna, and 1 will give him a 
white stone, and in the stone a new name 
written, which no man knoweth, saving 
he that receiveth it. 


Ἱετανόησον οὖν" εἰ δὲ μή, ἔρχομαί σοι 
ταχὺ καὶ πολεμήσω MET αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ ῥομ- 
φαίᾳ τοῦ στόματός μου. “O ἔχων os ἀκου- 
σάτω τί τὸ πνεῦμα λέγει ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις" TH 
γἰκῶντι, δώσω αὐτῷ τοῦ μάννα τοῦ κεκρυμ- 
μένου, καὶ δώσω αὐτῷ ψῆφον λευκὴν καὶ ἐπὶ 
τὴν ψῆφον ὕγομα καιγὸν γεγραμμένον, ὃ 
οὐδεὶς οἶδεν εἰ μὴ ὃ λαμβάνων. 


ᾧ 64. “ Repent.’—This term we have already noticed (ᾧ 44) as signifying 
a change of mind or views ; and this we may add, not merely with regard 
to one general view of matters of religion, but with regard to a view, or 
views, of any particular subject. ‘The angels of the churches do not repre- 
sent the heathen, or the unconverted, or opposers of Christianity. On the 
contrary, they are addressed as professors of Christian faith, as those holding 
fast the name of Jesus, and not denying his faith—as those who have borne, 
and have been patient, and have laboured for his name’s sake, and yet they 
are called upon to repent; that is, to change their minds, or views, in 
respect to certain points of doctrine, or, as systems to expurgate their sys- 
tems of certain errors. They are not threatened with the loss of their souls, 
or with eternal perdition, if they do not repent, or thus change their views ; 
but they are threatened in one case with the removal of the candlestick, or 
church, with which the angel is connected; and in the other, with the 
speaker’s coming and contending against them with the sword of his mouth. 
As a general rule, therefore, we may say that repentance, μετάνοια, is a 
change of mind; but to understand in what respect it is spoken of asa 
change of mind, we must take into consideration the circumstances of each 
case under which the term is used. In the present case, the angel, or 
system of Pergamos, was to change in respect to the errors represented by 
the teachers of the Balaam and Nicolaitan doctrines. 

“1 will come unto thee quickly,’—that is, suddenly, ($ 4,) intellectually 
equivalent to a sudden development of truth. 

‘ And fight against thee. —The contention of truth with error. The 
instrument—“ the sword of my mouth,’’—the sword of the Spirit, which is 
the word of God, with its twofold interpretation, the two-mouthed sword of 
the mouth of God. The weapons of our warfare, says the apostle, are not 


wa 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. Ιχν 


carnal, (2 Cor. x. 4,) they are not material, of course ;—not only so, they 
are not literal—* They are mighty to the pulling down of strong holds,” 
but their might is not in the letter, but in the spirit of revealed truth. 

§ 65. “Τὸ him that overcometh will 1 give to eat of the hidden manna.’ 
To the overcoming principle, as we have supposed it to be, will be given 
the manifestation of its participation in the element of eternal life, designated 
as the hidden manna. “Iam the bread of life,’ said Jesus, “I am the 
bread which came down from heaven. Your fathers did eat manna in the 
wilderness and are dead.”’—The literal manna could not preserve them from 
death, it could prolong life only for a time, but the hidden or spiritual manna 
secures eternal life. ‘ ‘The.bread which I give is my flesh, which I give 
for the life of the world.”—The moral perfection, the righteousness of 
Christ, are given for the salvation of the world. “ Except ye eat the flesh 
of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you:’’ equiv- 
alent to the declaration, Except ye participate in the righteousness and 
atonement of Jesus Christ, ye can have no hope of eternal life. “ Whoso 
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up 
at the last day.” —To whomsoever the merit of Christ’s righteousness and of 
his atonement is imputed, to them the assurance is given of a new existence. 
“ For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.”"—The right- 
eousness of Christ, enjoyed by imputation, is a means of sustenance for 
eternal life, as his atonement is the means of saving the sinner from eternal 
perdition. ‘“ He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in 
me, and I in him.”—The disciple participating by imputation in these 
merits of Christ, is identified or counted identic with him in the sight of 
God ; they in him, and he in them. This is the bread that came down 
from heaven, and those that participate in this bread shall live for ever. 
Here three substances, manna, bread, and flesh, are severally spoken of as 
figures of the means of eternal life. 

God so loved the world that he gave his own Son, that whosoever 
believeth on him should not perish, but should have eternal life, (John iii. 
16.) Jesus Christ gave himself, we are also told, (1 Thess. v. 10, and Gal. 
i. 4,) that we might live together with him. Christ himself, therefore, must 
be the hidden manna, as he is the spiritual bread of life, to be participated 
in by the overcoming principle (ὁ νικῶν). 

He gave himself, his flesh and blood—But we know that literally his 
body saw no corruption ; although the spirit separated from the body on the 
cross, that spirit and that body, on the third day, were again reunited. Jesus 
reassumed the same material body, the same flesh, and the same bones ; 
consequently we must presume that when he speaks of giving his body, 
and of the eating of his flesh, he alludes to something else than the material 
objects bearing these names ; and this something else we suppose to be, the 


6 


Ixvi INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


body of his merits. His flesh representing his righteousness or moral per- 
fection, and his blood being the figure of his virtual propitiation in behalf 
of the sinner—as the physical blood is the essential of natural life; and 
flesh, not only as an article of food, like bread, is a means of sustaining life, 
but is also essential to the beauty of the natural body. The beauty of the 
Lord consisting in the flesh of his moral perfection, his righteousness ; in 
allusion to which it is said, Is. xxxii. 17, Thine eyes shall see the King in 
his beauty ; and Ps. xc. 17, Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon 
us: and as the want of this nghteousness on the part of the disciple is 
spoken of by the prophet under the figure of leanness—Is. xxiv. 16, “ From 
the uttermost parts of the earth have we heard songs, glory to the righteous ; 
but J said, My leanness, my leanness, wo is me !” 

Such is the hidden manna—typically represented by the literal manna 
under the old dispensation, and symbolically set forth under the new dis- 
pensation in the bread of the last supper :—that bread representing literally 
the physical flesh of Christ ; but spiritually, his righteousness, which, as 
imputed by sovereign grace to those who are made participators of it, may 
in the strongest sense be pronounced the true bread, or hidden manna, 
which comes down from heaven. 

This hidden manna, it is said, will be given to him that overcometh ; that 
is, we suppose, ὁ 0, the principle overcoming the requisitions of the law, 
will be manifested to be a part of this arrangement by which the righteous- 
ness of Jehovah is imputed to the disciple ; for, in fact, it is this which gives 
to the overcoming, the power to overcome. 

ᾧ 66. ‘ And will give him a white stone.’—This is supposed to be an allu- 
sion toan ancient custom of delivering a white stone to such as were acquitted 
on trial, in token of a full and public pardon, or absolution, or justification. 
Stones, it is also said, were used by the ancients in criminal processes as 
votes or ballots ; a white stone implying acquittal, and a black one condemna- 
tion :—corresponding as a token with the result ascribed, to a participation of 
the hidden manna .The means of obtaining forgiveness, and those of obtain- 
ing eternal life, are generally coupled together in the Scriptures, showing two 
things to be essential to future happiness: an atonement to save from the 
punishment of actual transgression, and a positive righteousness to furnish a 
title to reward. Christ died for our sins ; but propitiation alone would only 
save from punishment. Our great mediator and advocate has done more. 
He offers his own righteousness in our behalf, that we may inherit eternal 
happiness as the reward of his merits—a reward apparently alluded to, Col. 
ul, 24. Of this process of justification, as well as of pardon, the white stone 
may be the token. 

It is scarcely correct, however, to represent a person charged with crime 
as both acquitted and pardoned. For he that is acquitted, or pronounced 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. Ixvii 


innocent, needs no pardon ; as it is only after actual condemnation that the 
accused can be said to be an object for the exercise of mercy. Justification 
and pardon have nothing in common with each other; accordingly, in the 
Scriptures, these are two distinct views of the same act of divine goodness— 
two distinct processes of the same exercise of sovereign grace. 

The sinner in himself, standing on his own merits, and obnoxious to the 
rigour of the law, is condemned—even the sentence of his execution is pro- 
nounced. In this position he is an object of mercy ; this mercy may be 
exhibited as a pardon, forgiving all his iniquities—blotting out his transgres- 
sions as a cloud, and as a thick cloud his sins (Is. xliv. 22) : or as a ransom, 
in allusion to the fate of a captive or rebellious subject whose life is about to 
be taken from him, unless ransomed or bought off by some friendly power, or 
by a propitiation reconciling the offended sovereign to the guilty rebel ; or as 
an atonement, in which the punishment to be suffered by the criminal is borne 
by another party in his behalf. 

If, instead of this, we contemplate the disciple as justified, we must sup- 
pose him innocent, not guilty—innocent even in the sight of a heart-search- 
ing God. This can only be imagined by supposing the sinner taken as it 
were out of himself, and adopted, and substituted in the place of one who 
is perfectly righteous. Such is the process with the disciple, when in divine 
judgment he is accounted one with Christ—identified with him ; the right- 
eousness of Christ and the merit of Christ being accounted that of his fol- 
lower. Here justification takes place of condemnation ; as it is said, (Rom. 
viii. 1,) there is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. 
In this view, the figures of pardon, atonement, or propitiation, or ransom, 
are not called for. ‘The disciple is supposed in Christ to be tried, and to be 
found perfect, wanting nothing: not only exempt from guilt, but even hav- 
ing that righteousness which entitles him to the reward of eternal life. 

It is evident that both these views exhibit the same action of divine 
mercy, and the same instrument by which that mercy is exercised. 

‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.’—Here is 
the one gift, or act of grace. ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world 
unto himself.””—Here is the one instrument, Christ, by which this grace is 
exercised. “Ηρ, Christ, died for our sins, according to the Scriptom re 
‘He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities.”— 
Here is one mode in which the gift of God’s only begotten Son is repre- 
sented as operating—one mode in which the reconciliation spoken of is 
effected. He, Christ, ‘‘ who knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might 
become the righteousness of God in him.”—Here is another mode of illus- 
trating the benefit of the same gift, and of explaining the process of the 
same reconciliation.* 


* Some further illustration of this exercise of divine mercy may be found in the 


Ixvin INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


The gift of the white stone may correspond with either of these repre- 
sentations :—in the one case being a token of pardon; in the other, of 
acquittal. 

White appears to be a general figure, in the Apocalypse, for moral per- 
fection or righteousness. Stones, amongst the ancient Hebrews, were em- 
ployed as weights, as we find from Prov. xi. 1, where the word translated 
weight, signifies a stone. Christ, himself, is repeatedly spoken of as a stone, 
a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, &c. It would seem, therefore, that 
this white stone is but another figure for Christ himself, or his righteousness. 
The giving of the white stone, is thus a consequence of the giving of the 
hidden manna; the one being a token of the other; the hidden manna 
representing the means by which the judgment against the criminal has been 
satisfied, and the white stone occupying the place of what is technically 
termed a ‘satisfaction piece. So, obtaining the crown of life, Rev. τ. 10, 
may be viewed as a consequence of participating in the fruit of the tree of 
life, Rev. ii. 7; the enjoyment of one benefit involving that of the other. 

§ 67. ‘And in the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth 
saving he that receiveth it.—According to the Greek, the reading should 
be upon (ἐπὶ) the stone. The name is not concealed in the stone. It may 
be imprinted upon the surface ; but no one knows or understands the impres- 
sion, except the recipient. The verb translate know, from Eide, signifies, 
primarily, to see. So the name on the surface of the stone, may be plainly 
written, or inscribed ; but no one can see it, whose eyes are not opened to a 
spiritual discernment of it. This new name is no doubt the same as that 
promised to the conquering, (τῷ νικῶντι,) in the address to the angel of 
the church of Philadelphia, where it is spoken of as the name of the 
speaker, ‘my new name.”” Applying this to the passage under considera- 
tion, we should read, and to him that overcometh, or to the overcoming, I 
will give a white stone, and wpon the stone my new name, which no one 
knows but the recipient. If we suppose the stone to be a token of justifi- 
cation under the figure of a sealed weight, the name upon the stone may 
be considered the name of him who vouches for the correctness and suffi- 
ciency of the weight ; and, consequently, it is the name which gives to the 


form of petition prescribed, Matt. vi. 9: Forgive us our debts, or trespasses, as we 
forgive those indebted, or who have trespassed against us. We do not forgive 
where the party indebted is able to pay, or where the trespasser is able to compen- 
sate—we forgive only where the debtor is unable to pay, which is all that we are 
required to do. So, we are taught to ask the divine forgiveness on the same prin- 
ciple—that is, because we are wholly unable to pay. So, if the debtor or trespasser 
have a friend able and willing to respond in his behalf, we accept the satisfaction 
made by the surety, and discharge the debtor ; and accordingly, in praying God to for- 
give us as we forgive others, we virtually pray him to accept the satisfaction Christ, 
our surety. has made in our behalf, and to forgive us for his sake. 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. Ixix 


stone its peculiar importance. So, he who knows the name with which the 
weight is sealed, or certified, places his confidence accordingly in it. In the 
same manner, the disciple, recognizing the name of his Saviour in the token 
of his justification, places his faith and confidence in its sufficiency, while to 
others who do not know this name, such confidence is altogether incompre- 
hensible. As it is said, Ps. ix. 10, “ And they that know thy name will 
put their trust in thee.” Or, we may say, the name upon a stone is the 
name of the stone. So, as we have supposed this white stone to represent 
Christ, or his righteousness, his name, or a name corresponding thereto, we 
may expect to find imprinted upon the stone. The name itself will thus 
show us what it is that the stone represents. 

It is predicted of the Brancn, Jeremiah xxiii. 6, This is bis name, 
whereby he shall be called, THe Lord our RIGHTEOUSNESS, or rather 
JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS ; and, in speaking of the same branch, (Zech. 
iii. 8, 9,) mention is made of a stone as a token or evidence of the removal 
of iniquity,—the stone and the branch being apparently equivalent symbols. 
It is true that it is also said of Jerusalem, Jer. xxxiil. 16, “She shall be 
called the Lord our righteousness ;” but this it is evident must be in the same 
manner as a wife is called by the name of her husband, corresponding with 
the declaration, Is. liv. 5, “Thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of Hosts is 
his name.” 

There are other names by which, according to the prophets, Christ is to 
be called, but perhaps none may be so safely denominated his new name, as 
this, JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Of no other appellation given to the 
Saviour can it be said, perhaps, so especially, that it is a name known or 
appreciated only by those, whose enlightened faith enables them to rely 
upon this name, and upon all that is indicated by it. As it is said, Ps. ix. 
10, And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee; and Ps. v. 12, 
Let those that love thy name be joyful in thee :—the trusting in this name 
importing the faith alluded to in the prediction, Is. xlv. 24, ‘Surely shall 
one say, In Jehovah have 1 righteousness and strength.’’* 


* This construction of the white stone supposes, it will be said, the speaker, Christ, 
to promise the giving of himself to the overcoming. Admitting this, the promise finds 
a parallel in that made in the epistle to the angel of Thyatira, (Rev. ii. 28,) in which 
the morning star is promised to him that overcometh ; while, at the close of the Apoc- 
alypse, we find Jesus himself expressly declaring, that he is the bright morning star, 
(Rev. xxii. 16,) ὃ ἀστὴρ ὃ λαμπρὸς ὃ πρωϊνός. 


Ixx INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


Epistle to the Angel of the Church of Thyatira. 


Vs. 18, 19. And unto the angel of the Καὶ τῷ ἀγγέλῳ τῆς ἐν Θυατείροις ἐχκλη- 
church in Thyatira write: These things gjyq γράψον" τάδε λέγει ὃ υἱὸς τοῦ ϑεοῦ, € 


saith the Son of God, who hath hiseyes νον τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὑτοῦ ὧς ολόνα πυ- 
like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are “4” TOUS CPU GAMOUS AUTOU ὡς PLoye 7 


like fine brass. I know thy works, and 906, καὶ οἱ πόδες αὐτοῦ ὅμοιοι χαλκολιβάνῳ 

charity, and service, and faith, and thy οἶδά σου τὰ ἔργα καὶ τὴν ἀγάπην καὶ τὴν 

patience, and thy works; and thelast(to πέστιν καὶ τὴν διακονίαν καὶ τὴν ὑπομονήν 

be) more than the first. σου, καὶ τὰ ἔργα σου τὰ ἔσχατα πλείονα τῶν 
TEO OT OW. 

§ 68. ‘ These things saith the Son of God.’—Here is wherewith to iden- 
tify the speaker with the form seen amidst the golden candlesticks,—dis- 
tinctly pomting out to us the one like unto the Son of man, to be, in fact, 
the Son of God. At the same time, the words at the close of the address, 
‘He that hath an ear, &c, let him hear what the Spirit saith,’ show us 
that what is said by Jesus, the Son of God, is equivalent to what the Spirit 
saith; the revelation throughout emanating from the same source. The 
difference in the form of expression is worthy of notice : “‘ The Son of God,” 
not one like unto the Son of God ;—in the first instance, under a human 
form assuming a human character, (Phil. ii. 6, 8;) but now announcing him- 
self to be what he really is, the Son of God, with power, (Rom. i. 3 and 4.) 

‘I know thy works, and charity,’ (love,) ‘and faith, and service, and 
thy patience, and thy last works to be more than thy first works.’-—Such 
seems to be the sense of the passage. There is first a general declaration of a 
knowledge of the works of the system, such as is made to all the angels, 
and then a varticular declaration of what is known in respect to these works. 
The angel, or system, has even increased in works, or in a zeal for works ; and 
there seems to be a degree of praise bestowed for its love, and faith, and service, 
and patience. It is not reproached with having forsaken its first love, as was 
the case with the Ephesian angel ; neither are we to suppose, on the other hand, 
that it was perfect in love, or that it excelled in the other qualities named. 
It evidently was not entirely wanting in them. It had faith, but this faith 
was not without its blemish, or its deficiency, as a matter of doctrine. Its. 
service would seem to be a part of its works ; but the word διακονίαν prob- 
ably refers more particularly to the ministry of the angel, or the influence 
of the system in the work of evangelization. Its patience, ὑπομένα, we sup- 
pose to be its firmness in the polemical contest in which it is engaged, as a Ps 
system, or messenger of the Gospel. The term ὑπομἔνᾳ, translated patience, 
from the verb ὑπομένω, signifying primarily the sustaining of a hostile attack, 
—hbearing up, as under a shield against the shock of the enemies’ weapons: 
sustentatio qui impetus et incursus alicujus rei sustinetur, (Suiceri Lex.,) an 
endurance to the end, spoken of in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark,—the 
patience, in which the followers of Jesus are directed to possess, or to build 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. lxxi 


up (edify, condo) their souls, or minds, Luke xxi. 19. Here is a great deal 
of praise implied, while the closing declaration, ‘I know thy last works to 
be more than the first,’ shows that whatever error the angel, or system, has 
fallen into, it has not diminished in its activity, or zeal, as to works. It may 
be, however, that the words τῶν πρώτων apply to all the preceding qualities 
—under either construction, the angel seems to be distinguished for works. 


V.20. Notwithstanding, Ihave afew  7AAX ἔχω κατὰ σοῦ, ὅτι ἀφεῖς τὴν γυναικά 
things against thee, because thou suffer- σου Ἰεζάβελ, ἣ λέγουσα ἑαυτὴν προφῆτιν καὶ 


est that woman Jezebel, which calleth 5 δάσκει καὶ πλανᾷ τοὺς ἐμοὺς δούλους πορ- 
herself ἃ prophetess, to teach and to β΄ οτος’ - ae ΤΣ 
γεῦσαι καὶ pays sidwhoduta. 


duce my servants to con mit fornication, 
and to eat things sacrificed to idols. 


§ 69. ‘ Notwithstanding, or but, I have against thee that thou sufferest,’ 
&e.—The term ὀλίγα, rendered a few things, is not in all editions of the 
Greek. With it, the idea conveyed is, that there may be more than one 
thing to be complained of—without it, the complaint seems to be confined 
to this « Jezebellian influence. According to the reading of some editions, as 
above, this Jezebel would seem to be figuratively spoken of as the wife of 
the angel—ziv γυναικά cov, thy wife, or thy woman—whether this be correct 
or not, the allusion must be 10 the wife of Ahab, King of Israel ;—there 
being something analogous between the influence of this woman over her 
husband, and the influence of that which is here represented by her over 
the system of doctrine figuratively addressed as the angel of a church. 
The word translated seducef signifies primarily, to cause to err—to turn 
from the right way, to pervert/ (in errorem impello.) This Jezebel being 
suffered, not only to teach the elements of falsehood, but also to carry out 
her doctrines, in a general perversion of truth. 

The term prophet, or prophetess, was originally applied to those who 
professed to interpret the things uttered by the oracles, as coming from the gods, 
(Rob. Lex. 656,) not so much the foreteller of future events, as the inter- 
preter of the foretellery (ὁ μάντις.) In this sense the term was probably 
understood by the Greeks and Romans in the times of the apostles, and was 
thence applied amongst Christians to their religious teachers, as interpreters 
of the sacred writings; and even to the doctrines themselves, as deduced 
from those writings.* Accordingly, we suppose this Jezebel to represent a 
professed interpreter of revealed truth ; or rather, a principle of such inter- 
pretation—a construction—not of a single individual, but of a sect per- 
haps, or, as we sometimes say, of a school. The construction, however, 
and not the school of human individuals literally, is represented by this mis- 
chievous woman. As the angel represents a system of doctrine, so here is 


* Apud veteres, προφήται dicebantur fanorum antistites, oraculorumque interpretes. 
In Nov. Test. προφητεύειν de eo dicitur qui scripta sacra interpretatur seu enarrat, 
(Suiceri Lex.) 


Ixxil INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


a false construction permitted to insinuate itself into the system, and thus 
to pervert, or lead away, the true principles (my servants) to the formation 
of false doctrines, or erroneous views. ‘The error in contemplation, had, it 
seems, the same tendency as that of the doctrine, or school, of Balaam, 
already noticed—something hostile to an implicit dependence upon Christ, 
as by a spiritual union with him ; idolatrous, also, as in effect serving 
some other object of worship than God, the only Saviour, (ὃ 61.) 

The action of the spiritual Balaam seems to be less direct, or more insid- 
ious than that of Jezebel. He gains his object by throwing a stumbling- 
block in the way of truth. The disciple is offended, or shocked, at the 
enunciation of some principle which he does not understand, and falls, in 
consequence, into an opposite error; or he is captivated by some plausible 
appearance of religious principle, which in its tendency leads him away from 
the true means of salvation. Jezebel, on the contrary, assumes to be an 
interpreter, and in this capacity openly and authoritatively promulgates 
error, (ex cathedraé.) As a false construction, or system of construction, 
employed in the interpretation of the word of God, coerces all adopting 
such construction into the erroneous views resulting from it. 

The infamous woman whose name is here typically used, was the 
daughter of a heathen prince; and by her coming into power, in the king- 
dom of Israel, the whole body of the people was led into idolatry. She, 
accordingly, furnishes an appropriate figure of some foreign principle, or 
mode of construction, pretending to favour a purer worship of the Deity, but 
in reality tending to rob God of the honour and service peculiarly his. We 
say pretending, for we may take it for granted, that the advocates of idolatry 
did not introduce their false Gods amongst the Hebrews as false. They pre- 
tended, of course, that their idolatry was the only true worship, and as their 
idolatrous rites favoured the licentious inclinations of the worshippers, these | 
last were easily led to believe what they wished to be true. So the advo- 
cates of idolatry, in later times, under pretence of being themselves the 
upholders of the true worship, persecuted the early Christians—even the 
apostate Emperor Julian, professing to be a convert from Christianity to 
Paganism ; so, too, the Grecian philosopher, Socrates, was condemned to 
death as an infidel, because he treated the mythology of his day with the 
contempt it deserved. 


Vs. 21, 22. AndI gave her space to Καὶ ἔδωκα αὐτῇ χφόνον ἵνα μεταγοήσῃ, 
repent of her fornication, and she repented “αὶ οὐ ϑέλει μετανοῆσαι ἐκ τῆς πορνείας αὖ- 


not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, 
; : ' εἰς κλίνην τοὺ 
and them that commit adultery with her ria ᾿Ιδού, βάλλω αὐτὴν a lipegligiioton 


into great tribulation, except they repent μοιχεύον τοϑ μετ' αὐτῆς εἰς ϑλῖψιν μεγάλην, 
of their deeds. ἐὰν μὴ μετανοήσωσιν ἐκ τῶν ἔργων αὐτῆς. 


ᾧ 70. ‘I gave her time to repent, and she is not willing to repent.’ 
—The last verb is in the present tense, in our edition of the Greek, remind- 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. Ixxiii 


ing us, if correct, that we are to transport ourselves forward in the reading 
to the final development of truth—the day of the Lord—when error, having 
prevailed for a season, is overthrown ; corresponding with what is said of the 
mystery of iniquity, 2 Thess: 11. 7: And she will not change, or she has not 
changed,—not merely in the time of the apostle, but up to the time con- 
templated in the revelation. The term repent, we have before noticed 
(ὃ 44) as signifying a change of mind or views. This error has had space 
to operate its own change, but it is not in the nature of error to change — 
itself. Such a result must be brought about by some external action upon it. 

‘Behold I will cast her into a bed,’ εἰς κλίνην, or upon a bed. This 
is supposed to be a bed of sickness, (Rob. Lex. 379.) But we find by the 
Septuagint that the word translated bed, sometimes signifies a bier; as 
2 Sam. ii. 31, “ And King David followed after the bier, (ὀπίσω τῆς κλίνης,) 
and they buried Abner in Hebron.” ‘The menace is therefore equal to the 
threatening of death :—I will cast her upon a bier—I will bring her to the 
grave ;—she has had space to repent; she has not repented, or will not 
repent ; I will now finally destroy her. 

‘ And them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation..—This 
figure of illicit intercourse we have already supposed to represent the 
opposite of a simple reliance upon the merits of Christ; as adulteration, 
or mixture, is the opposite of that which is pure, or unmixed, (¢ 62.) The 
false construction represented by Jezebel, is to be entirely destroyed ; but 
the principles influenced by this construction are capable of being reclaimed, 
and restored to their original and legitimate use,—a change spoken of 
under the figure of repentance: meantime, till this change takes place, 
these principles will be brought into a state of extreme compression (ϑλῖψις), 
so as to incapacitate them from doing further injury by their perverted 
action. ‘The false construction, or interpretation, being arrested—Jezebel 
being destroyed—the elements of truth (my servants) are no more perverted 
—no more made to participate in the promulgation of idolatrous doctrines. 
They must now be employed in the cause of truth, in which cause only 
they are capable of action; or they must be like persons in prison, and 
even in chains: but they are not cast upon a der, or brought to entire 
destruction. 

‘Except they repent of their deeds.’-—Principles being personified as 
persons, the operations of principles in the promulgation of false views are 
spoken of as deeds, or works : being in fact the works of principles in matters 
of doctrine. In their perverted state, they have been operating as persons 
deprived of their reason, and their restoration to their proper use is accord- 
ingly spoken of as a change of mind, μετάνοια, or as the change taking place 
in the intellect of one who, having been deranged, is subsequently restored 
to his right mind, (¢ 44.) This construction of the terms deeds and 


lxxiv INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


doctrines, is confirmed by comparing together the 6th and 15th verses of 
this chapter, as also the 22d and 24th. The deeds and doctrine of the 
Nicolaitans, and the deeds and doctrine of Jezebel, evidently signifying 
in both cases elements of doctrine, or doctrinal views. So by comparing 
verse 20 with verse 22, we perceive that what is called adultery in one, 
is termed fornication in the other; the terms, for the purpose of illustra- 
tion, being used as equivalents. 


V. 23. And I will kill her children with Καὶ τὰ τέχνα αὐτῆς ἀποκτεγῶ ἐν ovate 


death ; and.all the churches shall know so) sodigoucnsiectcaacheus dain, stu does 
= = L Ob EXKANHOLHL, OTL EYW 
that lam he which searcheth the reins χ " ῥ 4 


> ue ~ 1 \ , Ν 4 

δ τος εἰμι ὁ ἐρευνῶν νεφροὺς καὶ καρδίας, κ - 
and hearts; and I will give unto every τε ἐν τ PEpQOUS κὰν HAQCIUS, Hab oy 
one of you according to your works. pad i sili 6 Bi Bi csi ah BS ge ck 


ᾧ 71. “1 will destroy her children with death,” would be, perhaps, a 
better rendering.—These children we may presume to be, figuratively 
speaking, illegitimate children, the offspring of the illicit connexion 
between Jezebel and those denominated “my servants.” In other words, 
they are the issue of the false construction put upon true principles, or 
something equivalent thereto—erroneous deductions from these perverted 
elements of truth, and consequently, like the false construction itself, to be 
destroyed. 

‘Children are an heritage of the Lord.’’—So are righteousnesses or 
merits; those of Christ being the inheritance left by him to his followers. 
Children are thus figures of merits, or supposed merits; legitimate children 
being one of the figures of the righteousness, or merits, resulting from 
a union with Christ. ‘Happy (Ps. cxxvii. 5) is he who hath his quiver 
full of them: he shall meet his adversary in the gate.’ Illegitimate 
children represent supposed righteousness, pretended merits, causes of 
shame and reproach. The children of Jezebel we may suppose, ac- 
cordingly, to be the pretended merits or righteousnesses of human invention, 
resulting from the erroneous interpretation given to certain doctrines, or 
elements of revelation. ‘These are said to be destroyed by death; death 
being, in a spiritual sense, the result of the action of the law upon every 
work, or principle, subjected to its action, and incapable of meeting all its 
requirements. The pretensions to merit, or grounds of justification, drawn 
from the Jezebellian construction, are of this character. They will be 
manifested to be incapable of meeting the requisitions of the divine com- 
mand; and consequently, as soon as subjected to this test, they are de- 
stroyed with death :—children, in a spiritual sense, destroyed by death in 
the same sense—pretensions to merits destroyed by legal condemnation. 

§ 72. ‘ And all the churches shall know that I am he which searches 
the reins and the heart.’—Here is a manifestation resulting from the opera- 
tion just described. The Jezebellian construction supposes the production 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. Ixxv 


of certain merits, or righteousnesses, equal to a fulfillment of the requisitions 
of the law. The law, spiritually discerned, is therefore brought to act with 
all its power upon them—they are tried and condemned. They are tried 
by examining into the secret springs of action. 'The motives whence these 
works or merits, as they are supposed to be, emanate, are sifted, and are 
all found to originate from an impure source. ‘There is no love of God 
in them—not one of them has proceeded from love to him,—they are 
all selfish, and mercenary, and vain-glorious ; or they are amalgamated with 
principles of this character, contaminating the whole mass. This trial 
is supposed to be public. The Churches are spoken of as spectators. 
They discern the process; they notice the nature of the investigation ; 
and hence they perceive that he who has conducted the whole, or rather 
who presides as judge over the whole, is He who searcheth the reins and 
the heart :——‘ The searching,’—the operation continually going on. The 
idea is thus suggested that this revelation itself may be an instrument of 
exhibiting the fallacy of all human claims to righteousness, by showing the 
connection between the works upon which these claims are founded, and 
the motives whence they originate. The words, I am he, at the same time 
remind us that the speaker,—the Son of God, in form like the Son of man, 
—the Spirit speaking to the churches, is also the Righteous God spoken 
of, Ps. vii. 9, “ Who trieth the reins and the heart.” I, Jesus, who am 
addressing the angels of the churches, preparatory to unveiling myself, am 
he who looketh upon the heart, as it is said, John ii. 25, “‘ He needed not 
that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.” [ also 
am He who, in this unveiling of myself, am about to show the real character 
and motives of the human mind, and to exhibit the fallacy of all human 
pretensions to merit. 

ᾧ 73.‘ The reins and the heart.’—The heart is usually taken for the seat 
of affection, passion, or desire, both in a good and bad sense, in contradistinc- 
tion to the mind; as if the. latter were something which decided coolly 
and dispassionately, while the former was governed only by a sort of animal 
impulse. This, however, does not appear to be the use of the figure 
designed in the Scriptures. The heart and mind are there, perhaps without 
exception, almost interchangeable terms; at least the former is frequently 
put for the latter, as a tree may be put for the fruit of the tree—the 
thoughts of the heart must constitute the mind. The heart seems to be 
spoken of rather as the fountain of thought, however, and the mind as the 
reservoir formed from the fountain. The difference appears to be princi- 
pally this: that the mind is entirely an immaterial term ; while the heart is a 
material term, employed as the figure of something immaterial—the heart 
represents the mind. A physical organ, the functions of which are known, 
is employed to represent an intellectual organ, whose functions are not so 


]xxvill INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES 


contemplation requires. As the physical heart is the source whence the 
blood circulates, so, analogous with this, the metaphysical heart may be 
taken for the fountain of motives directing the whole current of our thoughts. 
Out of the heart, it is said, (Matt. xv. 19,) proceed evil thoughts, such 
as murders, adulteries, &c. If we trace back the evil thoughts originating 
these crimes, we shall find their source in the love of self, the desire of self- 
gratification : whether this gratification be attainable in the shape of sensual 
indulgence, avarice, or self-aggrandizement, the imagination of man’s heart 
is only evil, and that continually ; because the rulmg motive of his conduct 
is selfishness—the desire of serving, pleasing, and glorifying self. 

§ 76. In the animal, the heart performs all its functions solely for and 
within the body in which it is placed; the blood going out by the arteries, 
and returning by the veins, ina routine of its own. So the thoughts 
and desires of the human mind, emanating as they do from the love of self, 
go out and return, as we may say, with no other end in view than that of 
self-gratification. Nor is this confined to matters of the present life. If the 
motive of a man’s actions, even in his religious conduct, be to secure his 
own eternal happiness, such a motive must be as selfish, and as much con- 
fnned within the routine of self-seeking, as if his views were directed to 
objects of present gratification ; although there is more wisdom in his choice, 
his motive of action is equally selfish. The heart of man is deceitful, and 
desperately wicked (Jer. xvii. 9) ;—and this, not so much in those whose 
recklessness prompts them to acts of open fraud and violence, for there is 
not much deceitfulness with them; but the deceitfulness of the heart is in 
him who thinks he is serving God, when he is only serving himself—who 
counts himself acting for the glory of his Creator and Redeemer, when he 
is only going about to secure his own eternal well-being, and to promote, 
as he supposes, his own future glory. He may be diligent in prayer and 
fasting, scrupulous in the observance of every moral obligation, of every rite, 
and ceremony, and of every holy day ; he may be unremitting in his zeal ; 
he may be distinguished for the excellence of his doctrinal views ; he may 
give all his goods to feed the poor; and yet, if the secret motive of his whole 
conduct be to secure his own eternal felicity, self-gratification 15 his object— 
he has not the love of God in him; and if he thinks it to be otherwise, 
this is only a’ further proof that his heart is deceztful above all things. He 
does not know it—the difficulty consisting not in the desire of unlawful 
indulgence, for this he can detect, this he knows to be wrong, and here he 
is not deceived ; but in his ignorance of the selfishness of his own motives, 
he is deceived, because he thinks he is serving God, when he is really 
serving mammon. Self-interest enters into all his motives, combines with 
them, contaminates and adulterates them, and thus renders them all impure 
and unclean in the sight of Him from whom no secrets are hid ; so the same 


{INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. ΙΧΧΙΧ 


selfishness, proceeding from the heart or fountain of motive, like the circu- 
lation of the blood, pervades the whole moral system ; and the whole man, 
in the sight of a heart-searching God, has reason to cry within himself, 
Unclean, unclean! 

§ 77. By the same rules of analogy, the reins, or kidneys, as some of 
the inmost organs of the material body, may be, and indeed are, usually 
considered figures of the most secret thoughts and purposes; but as_ the 
mention of these in Scripture is frequently coupled with that of the heart, 
it seems more reasonable to suppose the different figures to refer to different 
objects of the same class, than to view them both as referring precisely to 
the same thing or things. 

The reins are located in the region of the loins, and the two seem to be 
used occasionally in Scripture, one for the other: as it is said of the Mes- 
siah, Is. xi. 5, ““ Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithful- 
ness the girdle of his reins.” The Septuagint has the words τὰς πλεύρας, 
(the sides,) instead of reins. ‘The difference, however, seems to be princi- 
pally that the reins apply to the internal part, and the πλεύραι, or sides, to 
the external part ; the loins comprehending both, and both requiring the 
same girdle,—as justice, or righteousness, and faithfulness, or fidelity to 
one’s engagements, are moral qualities involved in each other. The impor- 
tance of the loins, in the animal structure, is derived from both the external 
and internal economy. 

The loins are scripturally spoken of as the seat of strength; and the 
strength of man, in a spiritual sense, is his ability to meet the responsibility 
of a position under the law—to furnish merits equal to the requisitions of 
the law. The real strength of the disciple, in this particular, is the righteous- 
ness or merits of Christ—Strong in the Lord and in the power of his 
might, (Eph. vi. 10, Is. x]. 10); the whole community of the redeemed 
being sustained, in this spiritual sense, by the loins, or sides, of the Almighty 
Redeemer, (Is. Ixvi. 12.) 

But there is a pretended strength supposed to be derived from some- 
thing meritorious in man. The self-righteous disciple considers himself 
possessed of a strength, in his own loins, and in his own reins, capable of 
sustaining the burden of his own transgressions of law, and of bringing 
forth merits of his own to meet its requirements; and it is not ull he is 
convinced of sin, and his eyes are opened to the deceitfulness of his own 
heart, that he perceives his reins to be consumed within him, (Job xix. 27,) 
and his loins to be filled with a loathsome disease, (Ps. xxxviil. 7.) No 
sooner are the motives of all his actions exposed, than the folly of his pre- 
tensions to righteousness, or merit, is equally exhibited-—his inability to 
meet the law is manifested. He that searcheth the reins, is he that investi- 
gates the pretensions to this ability: He tries us as silver is tried ; and in 


Ixxx INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


doing so, he necessarily lays affliction (compression) upon our loins, Ps. Ixvi. 
10 and 11. To search the reins is equivalent, therefore, to searching into 
the soundness of all pretensions to righteousness; as trying, or searching, 
the heart, is é¢quivalent to searching into the secret motive, the primum 
mobile, of conduct. 

§ 78. ‘ And I will give unto every one of you according to your works.’ 
—A similar declaration is made by God himself, Jer. xvii, 10: “1, Jehovah, 
search the heart, I try the reins, even to give to every man according to his 
ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” ‘This is the language of 
the law, as it was set forth by Moses and the prophets under the old dispen- 
sation; as it was commented upon by Jesus, in the sermon on the Mount ; 
and as it is appealed to by Paul, in the introductory portion of his Epistle 
to the Romans, (Rom. ii. 6-10.) But these churches, in the ordinary ac- 
ceptation of the term, were not under the law, but under grace. We can- 
not suppose any individual of the Christian community, in a literal sense, to 
be capable of abiding this test; for which reason, it is said, 2 Tim. i. 9, 
of the same God, that ‘ He hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, 
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, 
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” 

We must bear in mind, therefore, that works, in the apocalyptic sense, 
(τὰ gya,) are principles, or elements of doctrine, (ὃ 70.) These are to 
undergo the scrutiny in question, and as they are true or false, such will be 
the manifestation concerning them. This construction appears to be con- 
firmed by the subsequent verse. 


Vs. 24,25. But unto you I say, and “Tui δὲ λέγω, τοῖς λοιποῖς τοῖς ἐν Ova- 


unto the rest in Thyatira, as many a8 μείροις, ὅσοι οὐκ ἔχουσι τὴν διδαχὴν ταύτην, 
have not this doctrine, and which have « >» ι of ὦ 
οἵτινες οὐκ ἔγνωσαν τὰ βαϑέα τοῦ σατανᾶ, 


ay ne will bed eae eS Pi (ὡς λέγουσιν") οὐ βάλλω ἐφ᾽ ὑμᾶς ἄλλο Ba- 
burden; but that which ye have already, 05° πλὴν ὃ ἔχετε, κρατήσατε ἄχρις οὗ ἂν 
hold fast till I come. ἥξω. 

§ 79. “Τὸ you, the rest in Thyatira.’—The conjunction and is not in all 
editions of the Greek. Without it, the rest in Thyatira is in apposition to 
you : signifying, not to the rest besides you, but to you, the rest. The angel 
of this church, or, as we suppose it, the system, is lauded for its doctrines, or 
principles, with one exception : that of this Jezebellian doctrine, or the influ- 
ence which this false construction, or interpretation, has upon certain ele- 
ments of the system. This is implied in the general tenor of the address, 
and is here confirmed. All the elements of this system not influenced by the 
Jezebellian error, being subjected to no further constraint; they are only 
required to hold fast, or to continue as they are. 

‘As many as have not this doctrine.’—Here, the subject of animad- 
version is expressly declared to be one of doctrine. The works spoken of 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. Ixxxi 


are consequently, works of doctrine, as we have just now supposed ; and 
these works of doctrine, not members of the church, in a literal sense, are to 
_ be treated according to their merits or demerits. Those which have not 
this doctrine, we suppose to be principles unperverted by this false interpreta- 
tion of the false prophetess—* Which have not known the depths of Satan ;” 
—having the doctrine of Jezebel, and knowing the depths of Satan, being 
nearly equivalent terms. The depths of Satan we may suppose to be the 
deceitful errors, tending to place the disciple in the position (abyss) subject- 
ing him to the power of the accuser ;—the doctrine of Jezebel, and these 
deceitful errors of Satan, both having the tendency alluded to by the 
Psalmist, when he says: “TI sink in deep mire, where there is no standing,” 
(Ps. Ixix. 2;) or according to the Septuagint, “I sink into the mire of the 
deep.” So Ps. cxxx. 1,3, “ Out of the depths, (ἐκ βαϑέων) have I cried unto 
thee, O, Lord: Lord, hear my voice.” “If thou, Lord, shouldst mark ini- 
quities, O Lord, who shall stand ?” 

Not to have known these depths, or these artifices of the legal adversary, 
is apparently not to have been contaminated by them—not to have been 
under their influence ; the sense of the word translated know, being that 
gathered from its use as a euphemistic expression, (Rob. Lex. 126, γινώσκω 
8.) Principles not affected by these satanic errors, as spoken of, are those 
which have not known them. 

“ΑΚ they say,’ uti dicunt, or, as it is said; or, as it is sometimes said ; 
referring to this peculiar use of the term know. The rendering of the 
words ὡς λέγουσιν by, “as they speak,” seems to imply that these depths 
speak, and that the Thyatirans are praised for their ignorance of what is 
spoken, which does not seem so consistent with the general tenor of the 
address. 

“1 will put upon you none other burden,’ &c.—The language reminds 
us of that of the apostolic epistle to the disciples at Antioch, Acts xv. 28, 
in reference to the conduct of some teachers, who were for enforcing an 
observance of circumcision, and the keeping of the law: “It seemed good 
to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these 
necessary things.” So we suppose the burden in this case to be a matter 
of doctrine; the burden in each of these cases being that spoken of in the 
subsequent part of the sentence: “ No other burden than these necessary 
things,” to wit, “ that ye abstain from,” &c.—“ No other burden than that 
which ye have,” to wit, “ hold fast till I come ;” equivalent to the charge 
elsewhere—“ Be thou faithful unto death ;” or equal to what is sometimes 
said to be a patient waiting for Christ. The verb translated hold fast, 
may signify, however, a wielding of power. In Latin, imperium obtineo, 
impero, dominor, (Suicerus.) Hence it may signify here, continue to use 
your influence—operate as heretofore ;—not as though the angel were already 

7 


ΙΧΧΧΙΙ 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


perfect, (Phil. iii. 12,) but that, such as he is, he is to continue—occupying 
the same position—to keep his post, till the period for the perfect develop- 


ment of truth. 


Vs. 26, 27, 28. And he that overcom- 
eth, and keepeth my works unto the end, 
to him willI give power over the nations: 
(and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; 
as the vessels of a potter shall they be 
broken to shivers:) even as I received of 
my Father, and I will give him the morn- 


~ ~ ” 1 

Kai ὃ νικῶν καὶ ὃ τηρῶν ἄχρι τέλους τὰ 

ἔργα μου, δώσω αὐτῷ ἐξουσίαν ἐπὶ τῶν 
> τῳ \ αἱ By ‘ oO ἐνὶ 

ἐθνῶν: καὶ ποιμανεῖ, αὐτοὺς ἐν ῥάβδῳ σι- 

- ‘ ‘ 

δηρᾷ, ὡς τὰ σκείη τὰ κεραμικὰ συντρίβεται, 
c ” 3 ~ , 

ὡς κἀγὼ εἴληφα παρὰ TOU πατρός μου" 

- ‘ ' ‘ - , 
καὶ δώσω αὐτῷ τὸν ἀστέρα τὸν πρωΐνον. 


ing-star. He that hath an ear, &c. Ὃ ἔχων οὖς, κιτ.λ. 


ᾧ 80. He that overcometh, or the overcoming, ὁ νικῶν---γθ suppose to 
be an overcoming principle of faith figuratively spoken of, as a disciple hav- 
ing such faith, (ᾧ. 46.) 

He that keepeth, or the keeping my works—he that keepeth or 
adhereth to my doctrine. ‘The principle, or the system of faith, in which all 
the elements of doctrine peculiar to the work of redemption, are perfectly, or 
faithfully found. This system shall triumph, or shall be manifested to be 
triumphant. Here we find the term works (ἔργα) especially applied to 
matters of faith. We can understand it in no other sense. 

“1 will give power over the nations..—No one can suppose each indi- 
vidual disciple of Jesus Christ, however favoured, or however excelling in 
faith, to have here the promise of a political or ecclesiastical power over the 
nations of the world; nor can we suppose the term nations, as here used, 
to signify literally political bodies, or assemblages of human beings. 

The word translated nations, is the same that is rendered Gentiles, 
Rev. xi. 2; the translators of our common version having almost indis- 
criminately rendered the same Greek word sometimes Gentiles, and some- 
times nations. The difference in fact is not material, and would not be 
worthy of notice, were it not that with the term Gentiles, we are accus- 
tomed to associate the idea of something opposite to Jews ; while with the 
term nations, we lose sight of this association. In the Latin, as in the 
Greek, the appellation is the same (gentes ) in both cases; so also in the 
Spanish and Italian. We must be governed therefore by the context, and 
not by these two different words, in the ideas we associate with the terms. 
In this passage we might read, [ will give him power over the Gentiles, 
perhaps with as much propriety as we read (Rev. xi. 2) that the outer 
court of the temple was to be given to the Gentiles. 

There is another difference in the ideas we associate with these terms, 
which is not sanctioned by such difference in the original term, either Greek 
or Latin. We suppose the word nations to be the appellation of a number 
of different bodies, or collections of persons ; while to the term Gentiles, we 
attach only the idea of one common mass of human beings—the aggre- 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. Ixxxiii 


gate of all persons not Jews or Christians, (Webster.*) In the first case, 
the nations, as separate and independent political powers, represent corres- 
ponding separate and distinct spiritual powers—so many powers of the 
earth, or, as we suppose, of the system or economy represented by the earth. 
In the last case, the term Gentiles would be supposed to express the aggre- 
gate power of all principles opposed to the Economy of Grace. The result 
is nearly the same: the nations, as a figure, corresponding with the tribes 
of the earth; and the Gentiles, as we ordinarily understand the term, cor- 
responding, as a figure, with the inhabitants of the earth: both represent- 
ing the collected power of earthly, anti-evangelical principles arrayed 
against the truth, but finally brought into subjection to it. 

§ 81. If the nations or Gentiles, whether in the aggregate or as dis- 
tinct bodies, be considered a figure of something opposite to that which is 
represented by the Jewish people, then we are to associate with this idea of 
anti-evangelical, or hostile principles, the peculiar character of uncircumcis- 
ion ina spiritual sense ; elements of self-righteous doctrine being figura- 
tively spoken of as human beings, vainly depending upon their own moral 
goodness, or upon something meritorious in themselves, as a covering of their 
guilt, and asa shelter from the wrath to come. Whether we view the 
nations as saving powers of divers earthly systems, or the Gentiles as the 
saving power of the earthly system; they both belong to the same uncir- 
cumcised class of self-righteous elements, opposed to that system of grace, 
by which God alone can have the glory of man’s salvation. These all, 
* however, are to be manifested as subordinate, and subject to the overruling, 
overcoming principle: the principle of salvation through grace (ὁ νικῶν) 
being manifested to predominate over every other ; that is, to have power over 
the Gentiles or nations. 

‘ And he shall rule them with a rod of iron,’—despotically—an ascend- 
ancy admitting of no dispute, either as to right or as to power—something 
irresistible ; as the principle of sovereign grace sets aside every other prin- 
ciple. God is a sovereign—He has a right to do as he pleases with his 
own, and every thing is his; He gives freely, and when he does 50, the 
question of merit does not at all come under consideration. The rod of iron, 
we suppose to be the revealed word, in its proper sense. 

§ 82. ‘ As the vessel of a potter shall they be broken to shivers.’— 
Strange language this, if to be applied to human beings, from the mouth of 
Him who came “not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” The 
nations in the sight of the Most High are but as grasshoppers—man is but 

GFA 
* This lexicographer supposes the term Gentile to be derived from the Latin 


gentilis, civilized. But it is certainly much more easy to trace it directly from the 
root gens, gentis, plural gentes—nations in general. 


Ixxxiv INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


a worm. God sendeth forth his Spirit, and the inhabitants of the earth are 
created, in the order of their generation; He withdraweth his Spirit, and 
they return to their dust. Literally, generation after generation of nations 
has been broken in pieces, since the utterance of this declaration ; but this 
we do not suppose to be the subject under contemplation. 

The figure here employed—the vessels of a potter—reminds us of the 
illustration given to the prophet, (Jeremiah xviii. 2-4,) “Arise and go 
down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. 
Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he wrought a work on 
the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand 
of the potter: so he made again another vessel, as seemed good to the 
potter to make it.” And now, says another prophet, (Is. Ixiv. 8,) “Ὁ 
Lord, thou art our Father, we are the clay, and thou our potter: and we 
are all the work of thy hand.” “‘ Hath not the potter power over the clay ?” 
says an apostle, (Rom. ix. 21,) or, as the Most High himself expresses it, 
(Jer. xviii. 6,) in the passage just now quoted—“ O house of Israel, cannot 
I do with you as this potter? Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, 
so are ye in my hand.” 

The house of Israel, we suppose to be put typically for the Legal Dispen- 
sation ; a figure exhibiting what may be called the first experiment of the 
plan of salvation. Here was the first potter’s vessel: it was marred—it 
proved to be insufficient—it was destroyed, broken ito pieces, as the 
sovereign Maker had a perfect right to do with it ; while in the economy of 
grace he makes another in its place, as it seemed good to him. The break- 
ing of these nations into pieces, by the rod of iron, corresponds with the 
sovereign action of the potter in destroying the first vessel, and making a 
new one. The legal dispensation is set aside—its elements* are destroyed, 
broken in pieces—and this by the irresistible action of the principle of 
sovereign grace. ‘The marred vessel, intended only for a temporary pur- 
pose, is broken to pieces, and a new one is formed. Here there is despot- 
ism; but it is the despotism of divine mercy. There is nothing here incon- 
sistent with the character of Him, who came to seek and to save them that 
were lost. ‘The enemies of the sinner’s soul, and not the sinner himself, are 
thus broken into shivers, at least in the apocalyptic sense. 

§ 83. ‘ As I have received of my Father.’—This carries us back to the 
remarkable passage, Ps. ii. 8, 9, “ Ask of me, and I shall give thee the 
heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy 
possession. ‘Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash 
them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Or, as it is expressed in the Septua- 


* That is, the elements of self-righteousness peculiar to the legal system,—the 
house of Israel, as a figure, in the prophecy, being equivalent to the nations of the 
Apocalypse.—See Romans ii. 28, “ He is not a Jew,” &e. 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. ‘ Ixxxv 


Zint, δώσω σοι ἔϑνη τὴν κληρονομίαν σου, καὶ τὴν κατάσχεσίν σου τὰ πέρατα τῆς γῆς, 
ποιμανεῖς" αὐτοὺς ἐν ῥάβδῳ σιδηρᾷ, ὡς σκεῦος κεραμέως συντρίψεις αὐτούς :—the 
word rendered nations in the Apocalyse, being the same in the Septuagint 
as that translated the heathen in our version of the Psalms ;—the nations, 
gentiles, or heathen, being understood to be something in contradistinction 
to the Jews, or to the chosen people of God; and both passages being 
susceptible of the same spiritual understanding. 

The words—even as I received of my Father—are supposed to be imme- 
diately connected in sense with the latter part of the 26th verse, the inter- 
mediate matter being thrown into parenthesis. Whether this be so or not 
is immaterial, if the construction just given to the passage be correct. We 
have no occasion for supposing the disciple, still less every disciple, to pos- 
sess power over the nations in a literal sense ; and still less, that he is to 
exercise this power, by breaking these nations, over whom he is placed, into 
pieces. We must take the whole passage to refer to the ultimate predomi- 
nance of a certain principle of evangelical truth, over a multitude of opposing 
errors. However defective our mode of analysis may be, the result, we 
think, cannot vary far from the true meaning of the passage. 

‘ And I will give him the morning-star..—We find, at the conclusion of 
the book, Rev. xxii. 16, that Jesus Christ expressly declares himself to be 
the bright and morning star. ‘The promise of the speaker is thus to give 
himself to the overcoming principle. The giving of the star, however, may, 
by a figure of speech, be the giving of the benefit—the general influence of 
the star ; as it is said, apparently in allusion to the same star, the star of 
day, or day-star, (Mal. iv. 2,) “ And to you that fear my name shall the 
sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.” The disciple, in the 
exercise of faith, in his heart or mind, perceives the day to dawn and the 
day-star to arise, in proportion as he is enabled to appropriate this sun or 
star to himself, as the Lord Ais righteousness. 

In the apocalyptic sense, however, we do not suppose it to be the dis- 


* motwarsis—this rule or sway, as the Greek term implies, is that exercised by a 
shepherd over his flock. “The Lord is my shepherd,” (Sept. Κύριος! ποιμένει με) 
Pe Sees de. Fh: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod (ῥάβδος) and thy staff they comfort 
me.” Here the same instrument, (the shepherd’s rod or crook,) spoken of as an object 
of dismay to the heathen, affords matter of comfort to one in the position of the 
psalmist. The valley of the shadow of death being, as we suppose, the condition of 
the disciple under the threatening of the law—the overshadowing of Sinai. The rod 
and staff necessary to sustain all passing through this valley, must be the revealed 
word of God, or the promised way of salvation revealed in that word. This brings 
us to the knowledge of Jehovah, as the Lord our righteousness—the predominating 
principle of our faith. This same revealed word, in its proper sense, must be the rod 
of iron breaking in pieces every principle of doctrine, or element of error, opposed to 
the system of sovereign grace. 


Ixxxvi INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


ciple himself directly, that receives this promise. The overcoming principle 
of faith, or doctrine, is to be manifested as comprehending a reliance upon 
the imputed righteousness of Christ. This doctrine of imputation of Christ’s 
merits, is to be manifested as belonging to the predominating principle, or 
system—the one eventually to be exhibited as identified with the other. 
So, the doctrine of salvation by grace, through faith, comprehends the 
principle of the substitution of Christ, in the place of the sinner; and so the 
imputed identity of the disciple with his master, is comprehended in that 
power of adoption, by which, in the sight of God, the follower of Jesus is 
contemplated, or appears as in the beloved. 

Such is the principle, we may suppose, upon which the Christian’s faith 
is to be formed; and of which it is said, 1 John v. 4, This is the victory that 
overcometh the world—our faith. The earnest subject of inquiry being 
this: Do I possess the faith here set forth /—do I depend upon this predom- 
inating principle? Not, Am I hereafter to rule over the nations, or am ἢ 
to break them in pieces as a potter’s vessel. 

‘He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear,’ &c., ($ 46.) 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. Ixxxvil 


CHAPTER IIL 


Epistle to the Angel of the Church in Sardis. 


_ V.1. And unto the angel of the church Καὶ τῷ ἀγγέλῳ τῆς ἐν Σάρδεσιν ἐκκλη- 
in Sardis write: These things saith he σίας γράψον: τάδε λέγει ὃ ἔχων τὰ ἑπτὰ 
that hath the seven Spirits of God, and , τ fics ah be Pe Ce aa ae τ 
the seven stars; I know thy works, that fe de perl del adie andi! id hap ian a 
thou hast a name that thou livest, and art οἷδά σου τὰ ἔργα, ὅτι ὁνομὰ ἔχεις OIL ζῇς, 
dead. καὶ νεκρὸς εἶ. 

§ 84. ‘He that hath,’ &c.—Here the speaker, as having the seven 
Spirits of God, is identified with him which is, and which was, and which 
is to come; with the Alpha and Omega, declaring himself to be the 
Almighty, and having the seven stars; also, with the one “like unto the 
Son of man,” (Rev. i. 4-16;) and consequently he is the same who 
declares himself to be the Son of God, (Rev. ii. 18.) Having, or holding, 
the seven stars, he appeals to his right of control over the seven angels, or 
systems ; an appeal apparently the more called for, in this address, as its 
language is almost altogether that of rebuke; while the reference to the 
seven spirits recalls to our minds, that he is also the source of grace and 
peace, (ᾧ 8.) 

‘1 know thy works.’—The declaration implies, as we have before sup- 
posed, something equivalent to that of the knowledge of a person’s charac- 
ter, whether good or bad,—I know thy character—I know the character 
and tendency of thy whole system ;—the works of the angel being the opera- 
tions of its doctrinal principles. On former occasions something good was 
known of the works of the angels; here they are known, as it subsequently 
appears, to be deficient. 

‘That thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.’-—Some editions 
read τὸ ὄνομα, the name, which seems to be the sense; as if it were said, 
«1 know thy whole character: thou hast the name of living, or of being 
alive—such is thy reputation—but thou art really dead.” The system of 
faith of this church, we may suppose to be of such a character, as to be in 
high repute amongst men: but “God seeth not as man seeth; for man 
looketh upon the outward appearance, while God looketh upon the heart.” 

The work of God, is to believe on him whom he hath sent, (John vi. 
28 ;) and this belief we may presume to imply confidence and trust. _ If he, 
whom God has sent, comes as a Saviour, to believe in him, is to trust in his 
ability and willingness to save. “ΤῸ believe in him, is to believe all that he 


Ixxxvill INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 

declares of himself. It is placing implicit confidence in him ; as a traveller 
about to cross a stream will not trust himself upon a bridge, unless he believe 
in its sufficiency. We may imagine a system of faith, in which there is 
much appearance of Christian profession, or of adherence to Christ as a 
teacher or example, but in which there is an entire deficiency of this confi- 
dence or trust in him for salvation. 

‘That thou livest and art dead.’—* I am the resurrection and the life,” 
said Jesus ; “‘ he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; 
and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die,” (John xi. 26.) 
Here we are told what it is to five. On the other hand, it is said by an 
apostle, Rom. vii. 9, “ I was alive without the law once, but when the com- 
mandment came, sin revived, and I died.” Here, again, we learn what it is 
to be dead. To be under the law, is to be in a state of death; not to be 
under the law, is to live, or to be in a position, or state, of life. "ΤῸ believe 
in Christ, therefore, in the proper sense of the term, is equivalent to being 
delivered from this state, or position, of legal death. This kind of faith we 
may presume to be that in which the angel of the church of Sardis is want- 
ing ; or rather, the system, personified as an angel, is wanting in this work, 
or tendency, of placing the disciple in such a position in Christ—not under 
the law, but under grace, (Rom. vi. 14.) The principles of this system, for 
the most part, have a tendency, probably, to bring the disciple back to his 
position under the law—dependent upon his own merits, and consequently 
obnoxious to the sentence of condemnation, (Rob. Lex. 63 ;) while, accord- 
ing to man’s judgment, we may suppose it to have the name or reputation 
of being the true way of life, or of salvation. 


Vs. 2, 3. Be watchful, and strenethen 
the things which remain, that are ready 
to die: for I have not found thy works 
perfect before God. Remember therefore 
how thou hast received and heard, and 
hold fast and repent. If therefore thou 
shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a 
thief, and thou shalt not know what hour 
I will come upon thee. 


§ 85. ‘ Be watchful.’—Rouse from this state of deadness. 


Tivov γρηγορῶν, καὶ στήρισον τὰ λοιπὰ 
ἃ ἔμελλον ἀποϑανεῖν. οὐ γὰρ εὕρηκα σου 
τὰ ἔργα πεπληρωμένα ἐνώπιον τοῦ ϑεοῦ 
μου. Πνημόγνευε οὖν πῶς εἴληφας καὶ ἤκου- 
σας, καὶ τήρει χαὶ μεταγόησον. ἐὰν οὖν μὴ 
γρηγορήσῃς, ἥξω ἐπὶ σὲ ὡς κλέπτης, καὶ οὐ 
μὴ γνῷς ποίαν ὥραν ἥξω ἐπὶ σέ. 


The verb 


rendered watchful, signifies the opposite of lying down, or sleeping. As 
it is said, Eph. v. 14, ‘‘ Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, 
and Christ shall give thee light.” Watchfulness, and rising from the dead, 
being here equivalent terms. 

‘Strengthen’ the remaining things which are about to die, or perish.— 
Alluding, we suppose, to certain principles, or parts of the system, in dan- 
ger of perversion, and which need strengthening by farther knowledge of 
the truth ;—corresponding with the desire expressed by the apostle, Rom. i. 

7 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. ΙΧΧΧΙΧ 


11, “ For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift 
to the end ye may be established.” 

‘The things that remain,’ &c.—The word things is not in the original, 
but the words τὰ λοιπά, (the rest,) in the neuter plural, imply things, not 
persons; not the disciples that remain and are ready to die, but principles 
tending to that position in matters of faith, already described as a position 
of death, (ὁ 71.) 

‘For I have not found thy works perfect’—completed, complete, or ful- 
filled, as the original purports ; in allusion, perhaps, to a full, or just meas- 
ure: the matter under consideration being, not a moral perfection of char- 
acter, but a correctness of doctrine, according to the measure, or standard, 
of Christ—* the perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of 
Christ,” Eph. iv. 13; with which standard every system of doctrine is to be 
compared. 

‘ Remember, therefore,’ &c.—This is an admonition to go back to first 
principles ; equivalent to that remarked upon in the address to the angel of 
the Church of Ephesus, (ᾧ 43:)—the holding fast the truth, and the 
repentance, or change of mind, as to that which is false, being particularly 
with reference to the erroneous views of the system, constituting its dead- 
ness. 

‘If, therefore, thou shalt not watch, I will come upon thee as a thief,’ 
&c.—If thou dost not change in respect to this tendency towards the 
position of being dead, I will come as a thief, that is, suddenly, unex- 
pectedly. 

The Lord will come to all; to the disciple fully prepared he comes 
as expected and desired, but to those unprepared he comes as a thief, that 
is, at a moment when least expected. The distinction arises from the 
nature of the case. The disciple in Christ is in a position at all times 
prepared for his Master’s coming ; out of Christ he is never prepared. 
So to those who are alive in Christ, he cannot come as a_thief—they 
cannot be taken by surprise; while to those who are in the position 
opposite to this, that is, to those who are dead, (dead in the law,) to such, 
when he does come, he must come as a thief. This angel, or system, 
is thus personified as a disciple; its watching, or waking state, being 
equivalent to that of an enlightened faith, enabling the believer, trusting 
in the merits of his Saviour, to be at all times ready for his coming: as 
it is said, 1 Thess. v. 4, “ But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that 
day should overtake you as a thief.” It may overtake you; it will over- 
take you ; but will not do so as a thief. 


ΧΟ 


Vs. 4,5.6. Thou hast a few names 
even in Sardis which have not defiled 
their garments ; and they shall walk with 
me in white; for they are worthy. He 
that overcometh, the same shall be cloth- 
ed in white raiment; and 1 will not blot 
out his name out of the book of life, but I 
will confess his name before my Father, 
and before his angels. He that hath an 
ear, &c. 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


PAAR ἔχεις ὀλίγα ὀνόματα ἐν Σάρδεσιν, ἃ 
οὐκ ἐμόλυναν τὰ ἱμάτια αὑτῶν καὶ περι- 
πατήσουσι μετ᾽ ἐμοῦ ἕν λευκοῖς, ὅτι ἄξιοί 
εἰσιν. “Ὁ νικῶν, οὗτος περιβαλεῖται ἐν ἵἱμα- 
τίοις λευκοῖς" καὶ ov μὴ ἐξαλείψω τὸ ὄνομα 
αὐτοῦ ἐνώπιον τοῦ πατρός μου καὶ ἐνώπιον 
τῶν ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ" “O ἔχων οὖς ἀκουσάτω 
τί τὸ πνεῦμα, κιτ.1. 


ᾧ 86. ‘But thou hast a few names,’ &c.—Notwithstanding the general 
deadness of the Sardisean system, there are a few principles in it which 
have not been affected by the perversion calling for this strong animad- 
version :—the term names being put for principles possessing a certain 
power; as a thing done in the name of a prince, or ruler, is something done 
by his authority. ‘There is but one name or power whereby we can be 
saved, but there may be subordinate names, or powers, or principles, 
entering into the composition of the plan of salvation ; as there are opposite 
names, pretended powers, or false principles, typically spoken of, Zech. 
ΧΙ]. 2, as the names of the idols to be cut off out of the land, m the 
day when the fountain is opened for sin and uncleanness; that is, in 
the day when the true means of salvation shall be fully manifested. 

‘Which have not defiled their garments,—Garments of salvation— 
righteousness, or merits, or means of propitiation. The only unspotted 
garments of this kind are those of the merits of Christ. | Principles holding 
forth means of salvation, partly of Christ’s merits, and partly of man’s, 
are represented as disciples wearing spotted or defiled garments, (ἢ 63 ;) 
whereas doctrinal principles, exhibiting the imputed righteousness of 
Christ, as the only robe or garment of salvation, are personified as disciples 
depending upon no merits but those of their Saviour. Principles of this 
character and tendency are said to walk with the speaker; that is, they 
are to be manifested, in accordance with him; for, as it is implied, Amos 
ii. 3, Two cannot walk together except they be agreed. They shall 
walk, too, with him in white. Their character and tendency being in 
conformity with the truth, they shall wear its livery; they shall be 
manifested as belonging to the system of salvation, by imputed righteous- 
ness ;—this imputed righteousness being that which is pre-eminently 
distinguished for its whiteness. 

‘For they are worthy.’—This it is evident could not be said literally of any 
disciple ; there is not one that is worthy of the least of the mercies of God, 
Still less can there be a human being worthy, in himself, of walking in a splen- 
did array by the side of him who is the first and the last—the Almighty ; but 
a true principle, or true element of doctrine, is worthy of the system of truth 
to which it belongs. These principles are worthy, because they are com- 
patible with the leading, predominating truth ; and they are thus compatible 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. ΧΟΙ 


because, in the garments of salvation proffered by them, there is no 
amalgamation of human merit with divine. 

‘He that overcometh shall be clothed,’ &c.—Here the overcoming, 
and those not having defiled their garments, appear to have the same 
promise ; one to walk with Jesus in white, the other to be clothed, or 
wrapped about in white ;—the word translated garment in the first instance, 
and ratment in the last, being the same in the original. The intimation 
seems to be that the doctrinal principles containing, or inculcating, nothing 
inconsistent with the truth of salvation by Christ’s righteousness alone, 
shall overcome ; and thus overcoming, they shall be manifested to belong 
to this great system of truth ; clothed or wrapped about with his imputed 
righteousness—a robe white as the light. 

§ 87. ‘And I will not blot out his name out of the book of life.’—Not, 
we may presume, that the name of a disciple, once in the book of life, 
as an object of divine favour, elect, according to the fore-knowledge 
of God, (1 Pet. i. 2,) can be afterwards blotted out. Paul speaks of those 
“whose names are in the book of life,” Phil. iv. 3, apparently as having evi- 
dence of their true discipleship, and ultimate salvation ; but Paul’s language 
is not like that of the Apocalypse, professedly the language of vision. He 
may be speaking of disciples, while the Spirit, in this revelation, employs 
the same figure in speaking of principles. 'The Apocalyptic book of life we 
suppose to be the divine plan of redemption, with all the elements of truth 
belonging to it. Certain doctrinal principles have the name, or reputation, 
in human estimation, of belonging to this book or plan. Like the angel 
addressed, they have the name of living; eventually, however, they will 
be manifested as not belonging to this plan, which manifestation is spoken 
of as .an erasure of their names. So, although the angel, or system, is 
generally so perverted as to be in a manner dead, yet it is not so dead 
as to be past recovery, otherwise, the admonition would be useless. It 
has some true principles, “ things which remain,” &c.—unperverted truths, 
really belonging to God’s plan or book of life—elements of truth destined 
to be the means of resuscitating the whole system. The manifestation 
of the correctness of these uncontaminated principles, and the means 
of strengthening the others, we may suppose to be part of the design 
of the subsequent revelation, although not expressly so stated. 

‘But I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.’ 
—Corresponding with this is the declaration of Jesus, recorded Luke xii. 8, 
9, « Also I say unto you, whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall 
the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God. But he that 
denieth me before men, shall be denied before the angels.” Whatever 
construction we may put upon these words, the same distinction is to be 
observed heie as just now noticed. ‘The language in Luke is not, like that 


ΧΟΙΪ INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


of the Apocalypse, professedly the language of vision. In this revelation 
accordingly, principles personified are spoken of in the same terms as those 
employed in reference to disciples in the gospels: this confession on the 
part of the divine speaker being a figurative term for ultimate manifestation ; 
as if we should say, When the truths of salvation are fully and perfectly 
developed, then will be manifest what principles belong to God’s plan or 
economy of grace, as well as what disciples are the peculiar subjects of his 
favour ;—this final exhibition constituting a virtual, not an oral confession 
of the fact. 


Epistle to the Angel of the Church in Philadelphia. 


V.7. And to the anvel of the church Καὶ τῷ ἀγγέλῳ τῆς ἐν Φιλαδελφείᾳ ἐκ- 
in Philadelphia write: These things saith 
he that is holy. he that is true, he that 
hath the key of David, he that openeth, yg nts ἃ » : ἀμ ee 
and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and "αὶ οὐδεὶς κλείει, καὶ “deter καὶ οὐδεὶς ἀνοί- 
no man openeth. γει" 


Π if 7 Γ᾿ chan “Er: ) 
πλησίας γράψον tude λέγει ὃ ἅγιος, ὃ ἀλη- 
, εν» ‘ ~ ina = rae , 
ϑινὸς, ὃ ἔχων τὴν κλεῖν τοῦ ΖΙαυΐδ, ὁ ἀνοίγων 


ᾧ 88. ‘ He that is Πο]γ᾽----ὖ aytos—The set apart, as the Greek term 
strictly signifies. An appellation of office, or position, rather than of quality. 
The Greek word ὅσιος, also rendered holy in our common version, seems to 
be expressive of quality only ; as, Rev. xv. 4, where God is spoken of as 
the only holy being. The word ἅγιος, on the contrary, with its derivatives, 
is applied to a great variety of objects—as in the appellation saints, or holy 
ones, given to those who are in themselves sinners, and who are only clean, 
or holy, or saints, as being se¢ apart in Christ. So the verb ἁγιάζω, rendered 
sometimes sanctify, and sometimes hallow, is applied (Matt. xxiii. 19) to the 
gift, or offering, upon the altar, sanctified or made holy by its position, and 
not by any change in its nature. The noun ἁγιασμός, holiness, or sanctifi- 
cation, in like manner must express a character of positzon, not of intrinsic 
quality :—the sanctification of the disciple consisting in his being set apart 
by adoption in Christ ; when otherwise, out of Christ, he would be unholy. 

Jesus Christ was especially set apart to the work of redemption, in refer- 
ence to which we may suppose he here styles himself ὁ ἅγιος, the holy. He 
is the holy in quality also,as God manifest in Christ ; but this is not what 
is under contemplation in this place. In like manner, when the Holy Spirit 
or Holy Ghost is spoken of, τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιος, we are not to suppose the 
existence or action of two spirits of God—one holy in quality, and the other 
not holy ; but the Holy Spirit seems to be the appellation of that peculiar 
agency of Almighty power, which is set apart to the work of redemption— 
that exercise of the power of God, by which all things are made to redound 
to his glory. The holiness of this Spirit is an appellation of office. The 
Spirit of God in the beginning moved upon the face of the waters, Gen. i. 


2,—He divideth the sea by his power, and by his Spirit he hath garnished 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. £68 
the heavens, (Job xxvi. 12, 13;) but these operations are not peculiarly 
those of the Holy Spirit. 

The Spirit of God hath made us, and the inspiration of the Almighty 
gives us understanding ; but the operation of divine power, causing all things 
to work together for our eternal redemption, is peculiarly to be contemplated 
as the spirit set apart—the Holy Spirit. So, when the speaker in this 
passage of the Apocalypse styles himself the Holy, we may suppose it to 
be equivalent to a declaration that he is the Holy Spirtt—the Comforter, 
ὁ παράκλητος, Whose coming is promised, John xiv. 26, and who is now 
about to discharge the function there ascribed to him: that of teaching the 
disciples of Christ, and bringing all things to their remembrance. Keeping 
this idea in view, we perceive a peculiar propriety and force in the declara- 
tion, “‘ These things saith the Holy ;’ the spirit set apart to testify of 
Christ, as declared, John xv. 96 ; the spirit of truth exhibited on the day 
of Pentecost, under the appearance of cloven tongues ; and speaking in the 
present revelation the two-fold language of a mystic vision—the two- 
edged sword from the mouth of divine wisdom, (Rev. i. 16.) 

‘ He that is true..—As the appellation “ he that is holy,” seems to apply 
to the Holy Spirit, so He that is true, probably applies to the first person 
of the Trinity, manifested in the second, corresponding with what is said of 
the identity of the Father and Son, 1. John v. 20—‘“ And we know that the 
Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may 
know him ‘hat is true, and we are in him that is true ; (even) in his Son 
Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” 

§ 89. ‘He that hath the key of David, &c.—The use of this key we 
have already alluded to, (ὃ 37,) in treating of the keys of Death and 
Hell, viz., that it is the instrument or means of unlocking or revealing 
certain mysteries. We suppose the key here mentioned, to be the same as 
that referred to by the prophet, (Is. xxii. 22,) speaking of Christ appar- 
ently under the figurative appellation of Eliakim, (the God of the resurrec- 
tion)— And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder : 
so he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open.” 
A key is said to be sometimes a symbol of power and authority ; but here, 
if not elsewhere, it appears to represent the means of unlocking or devel- 
oping certain mysteries, or mystic predictions. As the key of knowledge, 
Luke xi. 52, we may presume to be what may be called a clue to the un- 
derstanding and proper interpretation of the Scriptures.—“ Wo unto you, 
lawyers, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye enter not in 
yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.” An intimation 
that those professing to discharge the function of expounding the Scriptures 
of the Old Testament, had been in possession of some peculiar key, of the 
use of which they had deprived those whom it was their duty to instruct : 


Xciv INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


no doubt judging that the proper use of such means of interpretation, would 
militate with their substitution of the traditions of men for the command- 
ments of God. 

The key of David, we suppose, accordingly, to be a key to the hidden 
spiritual meaning of the writings of the royal psalmist. As we have sup- 
posed the keys of the kingdom of Heaven (Matt. xvi. 19) to be the appella- 
tion of certain means of unlocking or developing the mysteries of the king- 
dom, so also, we may consider Eliakim’s key of the house of David, to 
be the steward’s key of all that is in the house, or the key of the house- 
holder, alluded to, Matt. xiii. 52. As the apostles, with the keys of the king- 
dom of heaven, were stewards of the mysteries of God, (1 Cor. iv. 1,) so 
Christ is the chief steward of his father’s house; but he is especially said 
to have the key of David, because in him the prophetic meaning of the 
psalms of David is revealed, or opened. As in the application which he 
himself makes of the remarkable passage, setting forth the divinity of the 
Messiah—‘ The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand till I 
make thine enemies thy footstool.” 

The book of Psalms has, throughout, a prophetic allusion to the myste- 
ries of salvation, the power of the law, the helplessness of the sinner, and the 
infallibility of the gracious remedy provided. In addition to which, Chnist 
may be said to have the key of David, as the king of Israel was himself, in 
certain important particulars, the type of him that was to come: the his- 
tory of the spiritual King of Israel, thus serving as a key for unlocking the 
mysteries represented in the history of the literal king. 

ᾧ 90. ‘He that shutteth, (locketh,) and no man openeth, or unlocketh,’ 
&c.; that is, it is in Christ, and in him only, that the mysteries of David are 
developed. No other possesses the Key, for there is no other key than 
himself; and what he has seen fit to develope, no human power can con- 
ceal. At the same time, we are not to expect that this development has 
already taken place to its full extent. As Jesus said to his disciples while he 
was with them, (John xvi. 12,) “1 have many things to say, but ye can- 
not bear them now.’ So the mysterious, the wonderful truths of God’s 
economy of redemption, have been and still continue to be developed to 
men, only as they are able to hear it, (Mark iv. 33.) 

In this verse the speaker appears to reveal himself in his trawne charac- 
ter, as the true God, and as Him of whom David in the psalms, and the 
prophets have spoken ; in which respect the angel of this church may be said 
to be particularly favoured ;—a peculiarity which may have some connection 
with what appears to be the comparatively unexceptionable character of 
this system. 

The name of the city, signifying brotherly love, may also be intended to 
indicate some of the good features of the system: as it is said, 1 John i. 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. ΧΟΥ 


14,—“ We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we 
love the brethren ;” and same Epistle, ii. 10, “ He that loveth his brother 
abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.” His 
conduct or character affords no occasion for taking offence at his profession, 
καὶ σκάνδαλον ἐν αὐτῷ οὐκ ἔστιν. 


» 


V. 8. [know thy works: behold,[have οἷδά σου τὰ ἔργα: ἰδού, δέδωκα ἐνώπιόν 
set before thee an open door, and no man goy ϑύραν ἀνεῳγμένην, ἣν οὐδεὶς δύναται 
can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, xlstous AY bet uni Gale Bae 
and hast kept my word, and hast not de- meray ie ἐδ κε ihadiaiens thats 
nied my name. καὶ ἐτήρησὰς μου τὸν λόγον καὶ οὐκ ρνγήσω 

τὸ ογομὰ μου. 

‘I have set before thee an opened door’—a door which has been locked, 
but is now unlocked—in allusion to the use of a key, as mentioned in remark- 
ing upon the previous verse; the door being put for a certain revelation, or 
means of revelation, by which the views of the angel may be further enlight- 
ened, or confirmed. As if we were to suppose the psalms of David to have 
been locked,—their meaning not being understood previously to the coming of 
Christ,—but subsequently unlocked, by the revelation made of him in the New 
Testament. ‘This development of their true meaning, by the coming of Christ, 
showing the allusions they contain to his doctrines, his sufferings, and his 
works, is, virtually, an opened door—a means of access to the mysteries of 
Christian faith ; as the preaching of Paul and Barnabas is said, Acts xiv. 27, 
to have been an opening of the door of faith to the Gentiles—the door repre- 
senting not the truth itself, but the medium through which the knowledge of 
the truth is to be obtained. 

‘And no one can lock it.—The coming of Christ with its attendant 
revelation having once furnished the means of developing the meaning of 
the psalms, or of the prophets, no one can prevent this development. Pre- 
vious to this, the key of knowledge might be taken away, and access to the 
truth might have been prevented ; but now the door is opened, and it is 
for those that desire it to make use of the privilege afforded them. 

‘For thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not 
denied my name.’—On the principle laid down, Matt. xiii. 12, “ Whosoever 
hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.” This angel 
has a little strength, therefore the means of acquiring more is given him. 
“The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in 
three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened,” (Matt. xiii. 33.) 80, 
where there is a certain degree of knowledge of the truths of salvation, more 
will be added ; provided the revealed word be adhered to, as a rule of faith, 
and the name of Jesus as a banner ;—the denial of his name being equivalent 
to the admission (into a system) of principles tending to deprive him of the 
glory and honour resulting from the work of redemption. With respect to this 
keeping of the word, and regard to the name of the Saviour; a little leaven of 


xcvi INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


truth, we may say, will leaven the whole lump. The accumulation of 
knowledge, from strength to strength, will be all on the side of truth; but 
without this qualification, where the revealed word of God is not the stand- 
ard by which every principle is tested ; and where the name of Jesus, as the 
only name, or power, whereby we can be saved, is Jost sight of, or virtually 
denied the glory due to it; there, a little leaven of error, or of self-right- 
eousness will also leaven the whole lump, until the whole system of faith is 
entirely perverted. 

We may further add, that it is only to those who are sufficiently enlight- 
ened, established, and settled, that it is safe to commit further light ; as it is 
said, Luke xvi. 11 and 12, “If ye be unfaithful in the unrighteous mammon, 
who will commit to you the true riches ;” and if ye have not been faithful in 
that which is another man’s, who will give you that which is your own? 
If when you believe yourselves about to be called to account, as depending 
upon your own merits, you are careless and unfaithful; how can you be 
trusted with the knowledge that your dependence is upon the merits of a 
Saviour, freely given you? If you are reckless under all the terrors of the 
law, how can you be trusted with the knowledge of your position by grace ? 


V. 9. Behold, I will make them of the “Sov, δίδωμι ἐκ τῆς συναγωγῆς τοῦ σατ- 


synagogue of Satan, which say they are γᾷ τῶν λεγόντων ἑαυτοὺς Ιουδαίους εἶναι, 
Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I 


κ 2 > # 2 1 , 3 , 
ἢ : χαὶ οὐκ εἰσίν, ἀλλὰ ψεύδονται" ἰδού 
will make them to come and worship be- 4 ¥ Sov, mor 


΄ > ΄ ε 7] Ἢ , 
fore thy feet, and to know that 1 have %% αὐτούς, ἵνα ἥξωσι καὶ προςκυνήσωσιν 
loved thee. ἐνώπιον τῶν ποδῶν σου καὶ γνῶσιν, ὅτι ἐγὼ 


TY ENTE σε. 

§ 92. Here we are surprised by the declaration that certain persons 
(bearing the name of a people expressly forbidden to worship any other 
being than God) shall be made, even by him who has given them this 
injunction, to prostrate themselves at the feet of the angel of a Church, 
and this in the same vision in which the apostle is charged by an angel 
of God to worship only the Most High, and in a vision in which the 
sin of idolatry is particularly, and repeatedly, held forth as one of the most 
reprehensible character. 

We cannot. get over this difficulty otherwise than by supposing, as 
we have done, the angel of a church to represent a system of doctrines, 
or the spirit, or tendency, of such a system. As we might say in the 
present instance, that a doctrinal system, the spirit or tendency of which 
is that of brotherly love, (Philadelphia,) is peculiarly an object of divine 
favour, to which erroneous principles or elements of doctrine of an opposite 
character must be made to succumb. 

We have already described the principles supposed to be represented 
by these members of the synagogue of Satan, falsely professing themselves 
to be of the circumcision; and have already shown what is to be under- 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. xcvil 


stood by a Jew, in the spiritual sense, (δῷ 51-53.) We suppose these 
Satanic elements of doctrine to be particularly opposed to the system 
figured by this angel, because Satan himself is expressly denominated 
(Rev. xii. 10) the accuser of the brethren ; which is certainly a character 
opposite to that of a system peculiarly designated as one of brotherly love. 
The contrast, at the same time, reminds us that this brotherly love is 
something more than a mere kind regard, or attention to the temporal 
welfare of others. As the accuser of the brethren aims at the legal 
condemnation of the brethren at the bar of divine justice, so the opposite 
system of brotherly love aims at the justification, or propitiation, of the 
brethren at the same bar; a manifestation of the subjection of the elements 
of the Satanic synagogue to the system, or angel of the Philadelphian 
church, being equivalent to an exhibition of the ascendency of the principle 
of propitiation, over every element of accusation. These self-styled Jews, 
who are not Jews inwardly or really, representing doctrines in effect 
auxiliary to the spirit of accusation. 

‘And to know that I have loved thee.—That is, I have loved thee,. 
not them; God’s purpose of mercy being that in which he delights ; and 
a propitiatory system, reconciling his justice with his mercy, being that 
which he loves. The exhibition of this preference thus coinciding with 
what is figuratively spoken of as the coerced prostration of members of the 
synagogue of Satan at the feet of the angel. 


Vs. 10, 11. Because thou hast kept the “Oru ἐτήρησας τὸν λόγον τῆς ὑπομονῆς 


word of my patience, I also will keep thee 
from the hour of temptation, which shall 
come upon all the world, to try them that 
dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come 
quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, 
that no man take thy crown. 


μου, καἀγώ σε τηρήσω ἐκ τῆς ὥρας τοῦ πει- 
ρασμοῦ τῆς μελλούσης ἔρχεσϑαι ἐπὶ τῆς 
οἰκουμένης ὅλης, πειράσαι τοὺς κατοικοῦν- 
τας ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, Ἔρχομαι ταχύ: κράτει ὃ 
ἔχεις, ἵνα μηδεὶς λάβη τὸν στέφανόν σου. 


ᾧ 93. ‘Because thou hast kept, &c., I also will keep thee.’-—Here we 
have another specimen of that play upon words before noticed, ($ 35.) 
The keeping of the word by the angel, in one sense, leading the speaker 
to advert to the keeping of the angel in another sense. This system was 
said to have a little strength ; nevertheless, it is an object of favour with 
Him of whom it was said, Is. xl. 11, “He shall carry the lambs in his 
bosom, and gently lead those that are with young;” a text affording 
encouragement to those who are yet weak in faith, having made but small 
advances in their doctrinal views. ‘They are not on this account to be cast 
off, but, on the contrary, are cherished and nourished with the greater care. 

‘The word of my patience.—This must be the same word as that for 
the keeping, of which the angel was before praised, (v. 8,) “and hast kept 
my word,’ which we have supposed to signify an adherence to the 
revealed word as a standard of faith. The term, translated patience, 

8 


xeviii APOCALYPTIC INTRODUCTION. 


implies an endurance of suffering, and the Greek term λόγος may also 
be rendered doctrine. The word or doctrine of Christ’s endurance of 
suffering, may thus express all that relates to his suffermg for the sins 
of others. Speaking of a system of faith, therefore, to keep the word 
of Christ’s endurance of suffering is equivalent to an adherence to what 
is commonly called the doctrine of the atonement—the word of vicarious 
propitiation. The advance made by this angel in matters of faith was 
small: but it held to the revealed word as a standard, and especially 
to the portion of it setting forth the sufferings of the Redeemer as an 
atonement for the sins of the disciple. On this account the angel or the 
system of faith will be kept, or preserved in the season of trial in con- 
templation. This, perhaps, must be virtually the case. As with the disciple, 
whose views of the plan of salvation are imperfect, he is yet far from 
knowing the length, and the breadth, and the depth, of the love of Christ ; 
but he is steadfast in his belief that the sufferings and death. of Christ 
are the efficient means of his salvation. On this doctrine he relies, and 
with this reliance he is supported, when tried by a contemplation of the 
terrors of the law, and of an approaching judgment. So a system of faith, 
deficient in many respects, may be said to be preserved by the soundness 
of its views in this particular. 

§ 94. ‘The hour of temptation,’ or more properly, the hour of trea, 
which is to come on all the world, to try the dwellers upon the earth. 
Literally, the hour of death is such a season of trial; it comes proverbially 
upon every one, and the faith and hopes of every human being are tried by 
it, either in anticipation, or at the moment of its arrival. We suppose, how- 
ever, the trial in view here, to be one of doctrinal systems and principles ; 
as we suppose the earth to be a figurative expression for some general basis 
of such systems. The world, an order of things, in a spiritual sense, cor- 
responding with this basis, and the dwellers upon the earth, (elsewhere 
styled the kindreds or tribes of the earth, and the inhabitants of the earth,) 
principles and doctrinal elements peculiar to such an order of things, or such 
an arrangement or economy. 

There are three different Greek words rendered world in our common 
version, αἰών, κόσμος, and οἰχουμενή; the two last appear to be in some 
cases interchangeable terms: as, by comparing Matt. iv. 8 with Luke iy. 
5, and Matt. xxiv. 14 with Mark xiv. 9, we find the χόσμος of one evan- 
gelist to be the οἰχκουμενή of another. 

The term οἰκουμενή is not met with in any of the other writings of John, 
and it is used but in two other places of the Apocalypse, viz., Rev. xi. 9, 
where the old serpent is said to deceive the whole world; and xvi. 14, 
where the unclean spirits, like frogs, go forth unto the kings of the earth, 
and of the whole world, to gather them to battle. In reference to a matter 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. xcix 


of taxation, (Luke ii. 1,) and to a certain dearth, which came to pass in the 
days of Claudius Cesar, (Acts xi. 28,) and in the oration of Tertullus, 
Acts xxiv. 5, the signification of the term appears to be confined to the 
Roman empire. In Acts xix. 27, it is applied to the heathen world gener- 
ally, as worshippers of the great goddess Diana ; while, on the other hand, 
Rom. x. 18, it is applied to the people of Israel, wherever they may have 
been in the times of the prophets ; but in Acts xvil. 31, it has evidently a 
universal signification, “‘ Because he hath appointed a day in which he will 
judge the world in righteousness.” So Heb. i. 6, “‘ When he bringeth his 
first begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship 
him ;” and ii. 5, For unto the angels hath he not put into subjection the 
world to come ; this last being apparently an opposite of the world, or order 
of things, that now is; as the Jerusalem from above, Gal. iv. 25, is an 
opposite of the Jerusalem in bondage under the Roman power. 

The term κόσμος occurs but three times in the Apocalypse—twice 
where the foundations of the world are spoken of in reference to a certain 
epoch, Rey. xiii. 8 and xvii. 8; in which the use of the word corresponds 
with that of οἰκουμενή, Heb. i. 6 ; and once Rev. xi. 15, where the kingdoms 
of the world are said to become the kingdoms of our Lord. The term αἰών 
is employed in this book of Revelation only in the plural, expressive of 
eternal duration ; and probably where it is elsewhere used, it is rather appli- 
cable to the period of an order of things, than to the order of things itself: 
as, τὰ τέλη τῶν αἰώνων. ‘“'The ends of the world,” 1 Cor. x. 11, is supposed 
to express the point of time when the old dispensation ends, and the new dis- 
pensation commences, (Rob. Lex. 17,) or, perhaps, simply the point where 
the legal and gospel economies meet each other. 

ᾧ 95. The expression, all the world, amongst the Greeks, may have 
/ commonly signified, every body, every one; corresponding with the use of 
the words tout le monde amongst the French at the present day. But as a 
figure, we may suppose the Roman empire to be an opposite of the kingdom 
of Judea, and the term world, in allusion to this figure, to be put for an 
order of things the opposite of that economy of grace, supposed to be repre- 
sented by the spiritual Jerusalem ; and a perverted view of which may be 
symbolized by Jerusalem, or Judea, in her state of subjection to the Roman 
power. The trial, accordingly, which is to come upon “ all the world,” in 
this apocalyptic sense, is a trial of the principles, doctrines, and elements of 
doctrine, belonging to this worldly economy, or arrangement, (of legal and 
self-righteous principles,) represented by the Roman world or empire ;— 
an order of things, or principles, involving the supposition of man’s depend- 
ence upon his own merits, of his continuance under the law, and of his 
ability to fulfil the law for himself; while the trial, or test to be administered, 
with its results, corresponds with the apostolic predictions, 1 Cor. iii. 13-15, 
and of 2 Peter iu. 10. 


eon’ INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


We may notice in addition, that by the tenor of the verse under con- 
sideration, the dwellers upon the earth, and all the world, are nearly equiva- 
lent terms; and, as we shall find hereafter, these dwellers, or inhabiters of 
the earth, are the peculiar subjects of the woes and plagues, denounced and 
depicted in the subsequent portion of this revelation. 

‘ Behold, I come quickly,’ or suddenly —This coming, and the hour 
of trial adverted to, we suppose to be in effect the same thing—an exhibition 
of Christ in his true character, operating the trial of all human pretensions 
to merit, trying them as silver is tried; that is, by a certain test resulting in 
the exposure of all false means of salvation. 

‘Hold fast that which thou hast.’—Continue, in contending for the truth, 
to wield those elements of faith, for which thou art distinguished ; to wit, an 
adherence to the name of Christ, to the doctrine of his sufferimg, and to his 
revealed word, as a standard of belief, ($ 91.) 

‘Let no one take thy crown.’—That is, the crown allotted thee ; the 
crown, not of thine own righteousness, but that of the righteousness of 
Christ, such as is declared to be laid up for all who love his appearing, 
(2 Tim. iv. 8.) This crown (στέφανος) bemg of the kind granted to vic- 
tors at the games, as distinguished from the diadem or symbol of sovereignty, 
(Ὁ 55.) To the angel of the church in Smyrna, it was said, Be thou faithful 
unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life—Here, the angel is sup- 
posed apparently to be tm possession of the same crown—perhaps virtually 
so, in the peculiar attainments of faith poited out. The crown, as we sup- 
pose, not being the reward itself, but the evidence of the claim to reward : 
as in the case of a condemned criminal to whom a pardon has been pro- 
mised, on condition of his success in a certain gladiatorial combat—he comes 
off victorious—the judges allot to him the crown, or garland, as the token of 
his success ;—this token is to him the crown of life, with which he appeals 
to his sovereign for the promised remission of his punishment. So we may 
suppose the angel (system) of this church, in the contest of faith, to obtain 
a knowledge of, and a firm belief in, the atonement of his Saviour. This is 
his crown of life, which he is exhorted not to part with, and to which he is 
to appeal, in the great day of account, for the blotting out of all his trans- 
gressions, or as respects a system of faith something analogous to this. 


Vs. 12, 13. Him that overcometh, will I 
make a pillar in the temple of my God, 
and he shall.go no more out: and I will 
write upon him the name of my God, and 
the name of the city of my God, (which is) 
new Jerusalem, which cometh down out 
of heaven from my God: and (I will write 
upon him) my new name. He that hath 
an ear, &c. 


c ~ , | ᾿ς > ~ ~ 
O νικῶν, ποιήσω αὐτὸν στύλον ἔν TH ναῷ 
~ ~ σι > ' 
τοῦ ϑεοῦ μου, καὶ ἔξω ov μὴ ἐξέλϑη ἔτι" 
’ > > ‘ 1 ” ~ ~ 
χαὺὶ γράψω ἐπ᾿ αὐτὸν TO OYOMa TOU ϑεοῦ 
1 ~ , ~ ~ 
μου καὶ TO ὕνομα τῆς πόλεως τοῦ ϑεοῦ μου, 
- c , c 
τῆς καινῆς Ιερουσαλημ, ἡ καταβαίνουσα ἐκ 
~ 2 noe ee ~ ~ 
τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ ϑεοῦ pov, καὶ τὸ 
3: ΄ ι ΄ c 2», 5 
ὁγομά μου τὸ χαιγὸ»ν. Ο ἔχων ove, κιτ.}. 


ᾧ 96. ‘ Him that,’ &c.—The words in brackets are supplied in our com- 
mon version rather officiously and unnecessarily,—the reading being better 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. οἱ 


without them. ‘The overcoming I will make a pillar in the temple of my 
God, and out he or it shall no more go, and I will write upon it, (that is, 
upon the pillar,) the name of my God, and the name of the city of my 
God,—of the new Jerusalem,—the coming down out of heaven from my 
God, and my new name.’ 

The overcoming principle of faith, as we have supposed it to be, is 
represented as something of which a pillar may be made, in a temple—not 
a worshipper in the temple, but one of the columns, or supports of the edi- 
fice—something which, being once fixed in its place, is ta be no more 
removed ;—something, also, upon which the name or names of what is 
most important in the character of the edifice are fixed; the edifice itself, 
being one appropriated peculiarly to the offering of sacrifices. 

It is said of James, Peter and John, (Gal. ii. 9,) that they seemed to be 
pullars—that is, they seemed to be authorities ;—their opinions were taken 
as good authority. As in civil matters, we speak of the opinions or deci- 
sions of those high in office ;—so we say of a sound doctrine, in spiritual 
matters, that it is a pillar, or unquestionable authority. Accordingly the 
word στύλος, rendered pillar, (1 Tim. iii. 15,) is supposed to signify a most 
important doctrine, (Rob. Lex. 709 ;) although, in this passage, the term 
is evidently used in apposition to that rendered church, (ἐκκλησία,) which is 
also put in apposition to the house of God, elsewhere, said to express “ the 
whole body of the worshippers of God,’ Rob. Lex. 496. But we can 
hardly suppose this body of worshippers to be spoken of as the support and 
basis of the truth. We are more inclined to believe, even in this passage 
of the Epistle to Timothy, that the house, or temple, of God, the church of 
the living God, and the pillar and ground of the truth, are but different ex- 
pressions of the same doctrine, or system of doctrine ;—the house of God 
being put, not for the worshippers, but for that in which they worship ; and 
the term church, not for the human beings collected together, but for that 
which constitutes them a “ Church of the living God.” That is the doc- 
trinal system, or arrangement of principles, corresponding with the new cov- 
enant denominated by Paul, (Gal. iv. 26,) “ the mother of us all.” As we 
sometimes speak of the platform of a church ; with this difference, however, 
that “the church of the living God” is God’s platform of doctrine, and not 
man’s. So the Apostle, immediately after having used the terms, “the 
house of God,” “ the church of the living God,” and “ the pillar and ground 
of the truth,” as equivalents, appears to apply to that which it signified by 
these three terms, the further appellation of “the mystery of godliness ”’— 
τὸ τῆς εὐσεβείας protjgiov—the mystery of right veneration—a mystery, 
showing the way in which only God can be truly worshipped ; something 
involving, as it appears, the whole doctrine of Christ, as “God manifest 


Cli INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the gentiles, 
believed on in the world, received up into glory.” 

This mystery we may suppose to be the pillar and ground of the truth 
—the authoritative doctrine ; and such we may also suppose the overcoming 
principle to be made ; and we may say, in Revelation, ‘ He that overcometh 
shall be made the pillar,” with as much propriety as it is said in ‘Timothy 
that the Church is the pillar ; there being, according to the original, no arti- 
cle, either definite or indefinite, in either of these passages. 

ᾧ 97. There are two Greek words, στήλη and στύλος, rendered in our 
common version by the term pillar. The first is said to be Doric,* and is 
found only in the Septuagint, where it seems to be applied to columns, or 
pulars, as memorials, statues, or images ; while the other is applied to pil- 
lars as supports, or in an ordinary sense. As στήλη is not to be found at all 
in the New Testament, it seems probable that, in the time of the apostles, 
the term στύλος was used indiscriminately for both these objects, as we use 
the term pillar. Admitting this to be the case, the pillar in the house of 
God, instead of signifying a stay, or support, or foundation, may represent, 
in the Apocalypse, an instrument of commemoration—something bearing 
testimony, or witness, or a memorial ; the pillar in the house of God cor- 
responding, perhaps, with the ark of the testimony in the literal temple. 

Jacob took the stone, upon which his head had rested in the wilderness, 
and set it up for a pillar; not only as a witness to what might be called his 
covenant ; but he even adds, “" And this stone, which I have set up for a 
pillar, shall be God’s house ;” or, as it is in the Septuagint, ‘* shall be to me 
the house of God,” ἔσται μοι οἶκος Θεοῦ, (Gen. xxviii. 22.) 

The people of Israel were forbidden to raise up a pillar, (στήλη;) appa- 
rently, as an object of trust, a representation of Deity, (Lev. xxvi. 1.)— 
Absalom reared up a pillar and called it by his own name, 2 Sam. xvii. 18, 
to perpetuate the remembrance of himself. Solomon erected two pillars of 
brass in the temple at Jerusalem, to which he gave names—not to sustain 
the edifice, but apparently to bear testimony to some peculiar attribute of 
the temple, 1 Kings vu. 15. 

So we may suppose ὁ γικῶν, the overcoming, to be made an everlasting, 
unceasing memorial of that to which it bears testimony ; of which we may 
judge better by considering the names to be inscribed upon this pillar, or 
column. 


‘In the temple of my God.’—We suppose “the temple of my God,” 


* Στήλη, Dor. lapis e terra exstans, qui vel munitionis gratia, vel in signum erec- 
tus. Plerumque accipitur pro cippo, seu columna, que in sepulchris statuebatur, aut 


in qua federa inscribebatur, aut alia que posteritati mandare cuperent.—(Suiceri 
Lex.) 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. cil 


in Revelations, and the house or church of the living God, in Timothy, to be 
so termed in contradistinction to the temples, or houses of all other objects of 
worship, and as applying to a spiritual temple, in contradistinction to the 
temple, or house, made with hands, at Jerusalem ; which, even in Solomon’s 
time, was but a type of that arrangement of truth by which, and in which, 
those that worship the Father, are enabled to worship in spirit and in truth, 
(John iv. 23,) or in a truly spiritual sense. 

ᾧ 98. The worship of God is the service of God, and nothing can be 
done, strictly speaking, in his service, unless the motive of action be to 
serve him, ($¢ 61, 76.) If a man’s motive in performing an act of devo- 
tion, as it is commonly called, be to promote his own eternal well-being, he 
is, in this performance, only serving, or worshipping, himself: his own 
glory, his own happiness, are the ends which he has in view ; and to his 
own merit he proposes to ascribe the successful result of his efforts. There’ 
may be different modes of exhibiting this service of self; from the long 
prayers, severe fastings, punctilious observance of days, and rites, and ordi- 
nances of the pharisaical devotee of every land, down to the self-immolation 
of the most unenlightened superstition ; but in all, the character of the error is 
the same. A peculiarity of the gospel plan of salvation, on the other hand, 
is, that it not only secures the eternal happiness of the believer, while it gives 
the glory and praise of that happiness to God, but it likewise places the 
disciple in such a position of faith, that the performance of all his duties 
necessarily emanates from the pure motive alone, of serving his God—the 
God of his ‘salvation. Believing himself placed, entirely by an act of sove- 
reign grace, in such a position in Christ as to be dependent solely upon his 
Redeemer’s merits for all that he needs in this life or in the life to come, 
he feels himself to have no motive of action left, but that of grateful love 
—a pure, unmixed desire to serve, and please, and glorify his divine bene- 
factor—the only motive by which the blessed in heaven can be actuated 
throughout eternity. In this position in Christ, the disciple is set apart— 
sanctified—by being, in a spiritual sense, in the temple, or house of God, as 
contradistinguished from all other positions or temples. Here, in Christ, all 
that he does is made an act of worship, not by his doing it, but by the posi- 
tion in which it is done. Christ is pre-eminently the temple—the disciple 
in Christ, is in the temple; and identified, or accounted, one with Christ, is 
also himself the temple—corresponding with the saying of the apostle, (1 
Cor. iii. 17,) “The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” 

The patriarch, as we have noticed, according to the Septuagint, said, of 
the stone upon which he had rested, and resting upon which he had enjoyed 
his beatific vision, and which he set up as a memorial—* It shall be to me 
the house of God ;” so Christ, the stone upon which the disciple rests, and 
which affords him the vision of heavenly communion, is to him the house, 


civ INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


or temple of God. ‘To this stone he looks, as the Israelites of old looked 
to the temple in offering their petitions to the throne of grace, (2 Chron. vi. 
21.) What the stone column is in the temple, the position of the believer 
in Christ is to the heavenly arrangement by which he is sanctified, or set 
apart ; and as the patriarch, in all his wanderings, called to mind the memo- 
rial which he had set up in Bethel, (Gen. xxxi. 18,) the disciple, in every 
trial of his faith, looks to his position in Christ, as affording the assurance 
that he will conquer, and more than conquer, through him in whom he 
is able to do all things. So we may say, ὁ νικῶν, the conquering, or over- 
coming principle, is manifested to be the column in the spiritual temple of 
God: a column, in effect, identic with the temple ; the promise corres- 
ponding with that of the giving of the white stone, (δῷ 66, 67,) and of the 
gift of the morning star, (ᾧ 83.) 

§ 99. ‘ And he shall go no more out.’—As the disciple, once in Christ, 
never afterwards loses this position. The two brazen pillars in Solomon’s 
temple, Jachin and Booz, were broken in pieces and taken to Babylon at the 
time of the captivity. Whatever they represented, it must have been some- 
thing of a transitory character—something like the elements of the legal dis- 
pensation—to continue only for atime. But here is a pillar never to be 
moved. As the glory of this latter house, (Christ,) is to exceed the glory of 
the former, so the permanency of this position in Christ, or of this principle 
of identity with him, once manifested, is to continue, not merely for a time, 
but for eternity. 

‘ And [ will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the 
city of my God—of the new Jerusalem—the coming down out of heaven 
from my God, and my new name.’—Here we are reminded of the new 
name to be written in, or upon, the white stone, Rev. ii. 17. Our remarks 
upon that stone applying, perhaps, even more directly here, ($$ 66, 67.) 

Different reasons may be assigned for giving names to certain objects, 
such as showing proprietorship, or selection ; but in placing an inscription 
upon a pillar, or column, in a public edifice, the usual design is that of 
making the pillar an instrument of magnifying and giving distinction to that 
which is put upon it. As edicts and Jaws were made public in ancient 
times by affixing them toa column in some public place of resort; and 
as Absalom erected a pillar, and gave his own name to it, to perpetuate, as 
he vainly supposed, his own glory ; so the distinction given to this pillar 
in the temple of God is that of constituting it an instrument of proclaim- 
ing the glory of God: as it was said to the favoured people of God, Ezek. 
XXXvi. 22 and 23, “Thus saith the Lord God: I do not this for your sakes, 
O house of Israel, but for mine own holy name’s sake, which ye have pro- 
faned amongst the heathen whither ye went, and I will sanctify my great 
name.” 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. ev 


On a first reading, we are inclined to suppose three several names to be 
alluded to here ; but the whole tenor of Scripture teaches us that all glory, 
honour, and power, are to be ascribed to one name alone ; and that whatever 
variety there may be in the instruments, by which this great name is held 
up for our contemplation, the employment of all of them must result in 
magnifying the one name of the sovereign God, Zech. xiv. 9. The name 
of my God, the name of the city of my God, and my new name,—must be 
in effect, therefore, one and the same name. The Supreme Being is called, 
and calls himself in Scripture, by different names ; the holy city has also 
different names ; and to the speaker in this revelation, Jesus Christ, several 
appellations are given, and this even in the same passage, (Is. ix. 6.) If, 
however, we can find a name applied, or predicted to be applied, in the 
sacred writings, to all three of these distinguished objects, we may suppose 
this to be the new name to be inscribed upon the pillar. 

§ 100. The essential and peculiar name of the Supreme Being is Jehovah ; 
it is rendered in a multitude of places in our common version by the term 
Lorp, in capitals ; and in the Septuagint, by Κύριος : (vid. Concord. Trom. 
Tom. I. 944, nin: Jehova, nomen Det proprium ; the number of places in 
which it occurs being so many, that only a few examples are there given: ex 
infinitis feré locis aliquot hic speciminis ergd enotantur.) This name was 
held in so great reverence by the ancient Hebrews, as to have acquired for 
it the appellation of the ineffable, or unspeakable ; and probably it was not 
at all expressed by the Jewish translators of the Septuagint, from an appre- 
hension of literally profaning this sacred name amongst the heathen. The 
compilers of our common version appear to have been governed by the same 
apprehension, although they have ventured occasionally to introduce it,—as 
Ps. Ixxxii. 18, “That men may know that thou whose name alone is 
Jenovan, art the Most High for evermore.” Many other passages, how- 
ever, where the title Lorp is used in capitals, would strike us much more 
forcibly, if this proper name were read, as it might be, with the greatest pro- 
priety, instead of that substituted for it—as, Is. xli. 8, “I am Jenovan, 
that is my name ;” and Ps. xv. 5, “ Jenovan is the portion of mine in- 
heritance and of my cup ;” and Ps. Ixxi. 16, “I will go in the strength of 
the Lord Jenovan; I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine 
only.” The places in which this combination of the title with the proper 
name occurs in the Old Testament, rendered in the Septuagint by Κύριος 
κύριος, (Latin, dominus dominus—English, Lord God,) are so many, that 
of these only the chapter and verse are cited in the Concordance of 'Trom- 
mius. We can have no hesitation, therefore, in considering this name as 
particularly the revealed name of the Deity; that which he has chosen 
especially to apply to himself, with reference to the whole purport of Reve- 
lation. 


ΟΥ̓] INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


Let us now compare with this the words of the same sovereign Being, 
Jeremiah xxiii. 5, 6, “‘ Behold, the days come, saith the Lorp, that I will 
raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and _ prosper, 
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah 
shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely : and this is his name whereby 
he shall be called, Tue Lorp ovr rIGHTEOUSNEss ;” or, more properly, 
JeHovan our righteousness. ‘There can be no question but that this is he 
of whom it is said, Zech. vi. 12, “ Behold the man whose name is the 
Brancu ; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the 
temple of the Lord ;’—that is, the temple such as we have supposed it to 
be, in a spiritual sense—that which affords a position for the true worship 
of God, and a virtual access to the throne of Grace. The Branch predicted 
to spring from the roots cf Jesse, (Is. xi. 1-10,) being the beautiful and 
glorious Branch, the bearimg of whose name alone is sufficient to take away 
every reproach, (Is. iv. 1, 2.) But it is so generally admitted that this 
“righteous Branch” is no other than Christ, that further quotation of text 
to establish this pomt appears unnecessary ; there can be no question, 
therefore, but that to Christ also belongs this appellation of Jehovah. 

We have now to compare with these a passage still more extraordinary, 
Jer. xxxiil. 15, 16, “In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch 
of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he shall execute judgment and 
righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jeru- 
salem shall dwell safely ; and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, 
’ or, according to the Hebrew, as in the pre- 
ceding case, ‘ Jehovah our righteousness.” 


the Lorp our righteousness ;’ 


Here Judah and Jerusalem are used as nearly convertible terms ; the 
literal city, Jerusalem, being the capital of the literal kingdom of Judah,— 
one, the kingdom, comprehending the other,—and one, the capital, being 
located in, and giving its character to the other: the house of Judah 
being put for the kingdom of Judea. So, in a spiritual sense, Judea, 
Tovdaia, signifying the praise of the Lord, (Leusden, O. S.,) and Jerusalem 
the vision of peace. We may say that the praise of the Lord com- 
prehends the plan of his redeeming mercy, while that plan of mercy 
(vision of peace) gives its character to his praise; as his glory com- 
prehends his goodness, and his goodness gives its peculiar character to 
his glory. In reference to this apparently it is said, Is. Ix. 6,7, “Ye 
that make mention of the Lord keep not silence, and give him no rest, 
till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth ;” that 
is, until he so make the plan of redemption known that its development 
shall result in his praise. ‘It is then of the plan, or economy, of redemp- 
tion, under the figure of Judah, or Jerusalem, that the prophet here speaks ; 
and to this vision of peace is to be given the august name, Jehovah our 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. eth 


righteousness, not the multitude of human beings commonly called the 
Church of Christ, but that which constitutes this multitude the Church 
of Christ, viz., the covenant, or testament of grace, spoken of, Gal. iv. 26, 
as the opposite of the covenant of works, and, figuratively, as the Jerusalem 
which is above, which is the mother of us all—the holy, or new Jerusalem, 
—the Lamb’s wife,—of the Apocalypse ;—the object seen by John 
to come down from heaven as a bride adorned for her husband, being that 
of which it is said, Is. liv. 5, “Thy Maker is thine husband, the Lord 
of hosts (Jehovah of hosts) is his name, and thy Redeemer the Holy One 
of Israel.” So, as the wife bears the name of her husband ; as the disciple 
is baptized into, and bears the name of his master; as the people of Judea 
were said to be called by the name of the Lord; as the seven women 
(seven churches) spoken of, Is. iv. 1, desire to be called by the name of 
one man (the Redeemer) to take away their reproach; the spiritual 
Church, or heavenly Jerusalem, is represented, also, as bearing the name 
of her Maker and Redeemer, her divine spouse, being with him also called 
JeHovaH our righteousness. Corresponding with this, a city frequently 
bears the name of its founder, not to honour the city, but that the founder, 
or builder, may be honoured by the city, as Ezek. xlvii. 35, “ And 
the name of the city from that day shall be Jenovan THERE.” 

Here, then, we have one name applicable to three several objects, 
corresponding with that to be inscribed on the pillar, in the spiritual temple : 
the name of my God, the name of the city of my God, and my new name. 
The overcoming principle, ὁ »xr, is to receive the name of Jehovah our 
righteousness, and this with peculiar propriety, as it is by virtue of this 
name, or of the element of truth involved in it, that the victory is gained, 
for the.acquisition of which, he that overcometh is thus distinguished. 

As it is said, Is. xlv. 22-25, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all 
the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else ;” “Surely, 
shall one say, In Jenovan have I righteousness and strength : “In 
Jenovan shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.” 

‘He that hath an ear, let him hear,’ &c. (ᾧ 46.) 


Epistle to the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans. 


V. 14. And unto the angel of the church Καὶ τῷ ἀγγέλῳ τῆς ἐν Auodinsig ἐκκλη- 


ο Laodiceans (or of the church in if Ig 
enti iitens (rese things saith oe veayor As μαι bed 4 : mg 
; 


the Amen, the faithful and true ‘Witness, 
the beginning of the creation of God. 


§ 101. ‘The Amen.’—This appellation is said to signify the truth, ex- 
pressed, as it is here, in the substantive form, (Rob. Lex. 29.) Truth is a pe- 
culiar attribute of Jesus Christ, as well as of the Holy Spirit; He was full of 


ὃ πιστὸς καὶ ἀληϑινός, ἡ ἀρχὴ τῆς κτίσεως 
τοῦ ϑεοῦ. 


ΟΥ̓ INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


truth, John i. 14; He declared the truth, and he styles himself the truth, 
John xiv. 6; at the same time, he himself gives the name of the Spzrit 
of truth, to the promised Comforter, John, xvi. 13. As an adverb, the 
word expresses so let it be: an assent to the divine will, or an expression 
of that will, equivalent to a declaration of the purpose of God, somewhat 
corresponding to the introductory language of human edicts, “ Be it 
enacted.” 

‘The faithful and true Witness.’—The faithful witness, identifying 
the speaker with the Antipas of Rev. ii. 18, as well as with Jesus Christ 
expressly, Rev. i. 5; and the true, identifying him also with the possessor 
of the key of David, Rev. i. 7; and, as we have already suggested, with 
the promised Comforter, the witness, or testifier of Jesus, spoken of, 
John xv. 26. 

‘The beginning of the creation of God.’—The originator, the first 
cause, (Jones Lex. Art. ἡ ἀρχὴ, p. 287; Causa, origo, Suiceri Lex.) Not 
the first thing created, but the Creator himself, corresponding with the 
account given of the word, John i. 1-3. So ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος, Rev. xxi. 6, 
cannot be the first thing and the last thing created, but the cause and 
design, or end in view, of that which is the subject of consideration : 
Christ being both the first and the final cause of the economy of redemption ; 
the sinner being brought into existence for the Redeemer, and not the 
Redeemer for the sinner: as “ The man was not created for the woman, 
but the woman for the man,” (1 Cor. xi. 9.) 

Vs. 15, 16. I know thy works, that thou Οἷδά σου τὰ ἔργα, ὅτι οὔτε ψυχρὸς εἰ 


art neither cold nor hot: I would thou οὔτε ξεστός. ὄφελον. ψυχρὲς ἧς ἢ ζεστός. 


wert cold or hot. So then, because thou 
; g 
art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, Οὕτως, ὅτι χλιαρὸς εἶ καὶ οὔτε ψυχρὸς ou 


I will spue thee out of my mouth. ζεστός, μελλω σε ἐμέσαι ἐκ τοῦ στύματός μου. 


§ 102. ‘I know,’ &c.—This strong language is evidently to be applied to 
the spirit of a doctrinal system, personified as a disciple of that heartless cha- 
racter, which leaves it doubtful whether he is to be treated as a friend or as 
a foe. There is a profession of faith in Christ, and, therefore, no actual 
hostility ; at the same time there must be in the system an entire want of 
the elements of gratitude, essential to that love, or charity, without which 
we are nothing. 

‘IT would that thou wert either cold or hot.’—Not that the coldness, 
or the enmity, is absolutely desirable, but that it is better to contend with 
an open and decided foe, than with an insidious adversary, wearing, 
perhaps, the mask of moderation, professed neutrality, or even friendship ; 
as we might say of one whose negative character, or mode of speaking, is 
such that, according to the common saying, we never know where to find 
him: I would that he would show himself to be either one thing or the 
other. 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. ἐλ 

‘Because thou art lukewarm.’—The Greek term, rendered lukewarm, 
does not occur in any other passage, either of the New Testament, or of the 
Old, according to the Septuagint; but that which renders this doctrine so 
extremely loathsome, in divine estimation, appears to be indicated in 
the subsequent verse. No illustration is necessary to give force to the 
language used. We may presume the subject of reprehension to possess 
to an extreme the hatefulness of character ascribed to the Nicolaitan 
doctrine, (ὃ 63,) although, perhaps, more specious in appearance. 

The verb translated I will, μέλλω, is one of those expressing, not so 
much the disposition to do a thing, as the unavoidable necessity of doing 
it; a necessity arising from the nature of the case ; something that is to be, 
or will be, as an effect follows its cause. The spirit under contemplation 
from its lukewarmness is so nauseating that it cannot be retained ; it must 
of necessity be repudiated, and that with disgust. 


_Vs. 17, 18. Because thou sayest,Lam Ὅτι λέγεις" ὅτι πλούσιός εἶμι καὶ πεπ- 
rich, and increased with goods, and have λούτηκα καὶ οὐδενὸς χρείαν ἔχω, καὶ οὐκ 
need of nothing; and knowest not that. Be AP en clot +6 ἐλ 
thou art wretched, and miserable, and “τ ° aay bee gE. <a 
poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel 08 #04 πτῶχος καὶ τυφλὸς ear eer eo 
thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, συμβουλεύω σοι ἀγοράσαι mag ἐμοῦ χρυ- 
that thou mayest be rich; and white rai-  gioy πεπυρωμένον ἐκ πυρός, we πλουτήσηῃς, 
ment, that thou mayest be clothed, and καὶ ἱμάτια λευχά, ἵνα περιβάλῃ καὶ μὴ φα- 
that the shame of thy nakedness do not ἜΤ ΡΝ ΡΣ ΣΝ ΣΤΥ \ 
appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye- gon ἢ a 7 78 epi ΟΣ Δ δεν 
salve, that thou mayest see. κολλούριον, ἐγχρῖσαι τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς σου, 

ἵνα βλέπης. 

ᾧ 103. ‘ Because thou sayest,’ &c.—Here is a strong contrast between 
the erroneous supposition, and the real fact. In a literal sense, it would 
not be possible for any other than a maniac to fall into a mistake of this 
kind, to the degree here described. What, however, is impossible in 
a literal sense, is very possible in a spiritual sense ; or rather, the individual 
labouring under this error in religious matters is, quoad hoc, the real 
maniac, the victim of monomania. 

1 am rich, and have become rich.’—The language of one boasting, not 
only of actual possessions, but of his own acquisition of them. The pos- 
session of what he accounts the reward of his own labours: “I am rich, I 
have enriched myself.” 

Wealth, in a spiritual sense, must be that which furnishes the means of 
obtaining eternal happiness. ‘ The redemption of the soul is precious,” 
(Ps. xlix. 8.)—‘ The ransom of a man’s life is his riches,” (ᾧ 50.)—“ Skin 
for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life,” (Job ii. 4.) For 
what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own life, 
especially his eternal life? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his 
life or soul ? Mark vii. 36. 


Those who believe themselves to have in their own merits, or righteous- 


ΠῚ 


cx INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


nesses, or acts of propitiation, the means of securing eternal life ; and who 
look back to their own-works, as the process by which these means have 
been accumulated, are such as in effect say within themselves, ‘I am rich, 
I have made myself rich.” 

‘ And have need of nothing.’—*“‘ I need no other merit, no other right- 
eousness than my own—no other propitiation or atonement, than that which 
I have made, or can make for myself-—God is just; I have fulfilled the law, 
I have done all that he requires of me, I claim eternal life from his justice. 
If I cannot obtain it by a righteousness of my own, I will not have it. If 
in some things I have come short of my duty, in others I have more than 
compensated for these short-comings. I have never injured any one. If I 
have done wrong, my repentance, or penitence, my sufferings in this life, my 
reformation, my acts of charity and kindness, my industry, my liberality to 
certain objects—even my faith, or profession of faith, my zeal for the 
cause of religion and morality—all these, or some of them at least, have 
paid the penalty of my transgressions, and purchased the favour of my 
God.” Such is the language of the self-righteous contemner of the blood 
of the Covenant. Such the presumptuous delusion peculiar to the doctrinal 
system in contemplation. Labouring under this mistake, cherishing this 
error, rolling the sweet morsel under their tongues, the victims of infatua- 
tion derive a certain degree of support, in this life, from the spirit of this 
system, even in view of their last great change ; when they might rather 
apply to themselves the warning admonition, “‘ Wo unto you that are rich, 
for ye have received your consolation,” Luke vi. 24. 

ᾧ 104. ‘And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable,’ or 
rather, the wretched and the miserable-—The one above all others wretched, 
&c.—Those thus supposing themselves rich and at ease, being those on this 
account the poorest and most miserable ; while others most sensible of their 
own unworthiness and destitution, are the really rich. 

The error is one of ignorance, however. ‘The deluded subject does not 
know, or, according to the Greek, does not see, perceive, or understand, his 
real position. His case, corresponding with that of the apostle, who, even 
while madly persecuting the followers of Jesus, obtained mercy, because he 
did it ignorantly, in unbelief, 1 Tim. 1. 13; and because in him an exam- 
ple was to be given of the long-suffering of the Saviour towards others equally 
misled. 

‘The wretched,’ zaiaézwpog-—The condition of one suffering under 
extreme hardship, as the term is employed in the Septuagint, Ps. xxxvii. 6, 
“Tam troubled, (Ἐταλαιπώρησα,) 1 am bowed down greatly : I go mourning 
all the day long.” The reason for which was previously given in the 4th 
verse: “For mine iniquities are gone over my head: as a heavy burden 
they are too heavy for me.” So James v. 1, “ Go to now, rich men, weep 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. ΟΧῚ 


and howl for your miseries, ἐπὶ ταῖς ταλαιπωρίαις ὑμῶν, that shall come upon 
you.” Your riches—your supposed merits—are corrupted, or prove to be 
corrupted, and your garments—your supposed garments of salvation—are 
moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver—your supposed means of redemp- 
tion—are cankered, and the rust of them shall be witness against you, and 
shall eat your flesh—your supposed moral perfection—as it were fire. ‘The 
evident corruptibility of the pretended means of redemption, showing the 
vanity of these pretensions to moral perfection. The coming misery, or 
wretchedness, consisting in the manifestation of the real state of destitution, 
as it is said: There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sin- 
neth not, (Eccl. vii. 20.) : 

‘And the miserable,’ 6 ἐλεεινός.---- The one to be pitted—the real subject 
of compassion. These terms, wretched and miserable, appear to be used 
one for the other; but there is this difference, that one expresses the conse- 
quence of the other. The truly wretched being objects of pity, because 
they are wretched. 

‘And poor.—As poverty is the converse of riches, and as_ being 
poor is the opposite of being rich, our remarks on the latter condition are 
perhaps sufficient to illustrate the former. “ Blessed are the poor in spirit,” 
it is said, Matt. v. 3, 4; but this, it is plain, was not the poverty of the 
Laodicean angel. He was wretched, but he did not mourn ; and therefore 
he is rebuked instead of being comforted ; so he was poor, but not in spirit, 
and therefore the kingdom of heaven is not to him. He is admonished, 
however, not for being poor, but for not knowing his poverty. The change 
to be wrought is a matter of knowledge and understanding. He is to learn 
that in himself he is poor, and that in Christ only he can be rich. So ina 
system, the element of doctrine to be inculcated is that of the real destitu- 
tion of the disciple, so far as it depends upon any merit or righteousness of 
his own. 

‘ And blind.’—Dull of apprehension, not perceiving one’s own state. 
The angel is not reproved for his blindness, but for professing to see while 
he is blind. As it was said of the Pharisees, John ix. 41, “If ye were 
blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see, therefore your sin 
remaineth.” The Laodicean angel, or system, appears to resemble the 
blind guides spoken of, Matt. xxiii. 16—26, who by a species of casuistry, 
not uncommon in later times, aimed at bringing the law down to a certain 
standard of their own, enabling them and their followers, as they supposed 
to fulfil all its requisitions. The angel here is avowedly a disciple of Christ, 
professing to know him, but in matters of faith denying him, (Titus i. 16.) 
ἐς For judgment,” said Jesus, (John ix. 39,) “Lam come imto the world, 
that they which see not may see,” they that see not their need of salvation, 


cxii INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


might see it, and “ they which see might be made blind,’ that they who 
profess to see might be manifested to be blind. 

§ 105. “* And naked.”—It is said of our first parents, Gen. ii. 7, that 
immediately after eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and 
evil, their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked. ‘The 
eating of the fruit of the tree did not cause their nakedness, but it gave 
them the knowledge of it. ‘The person who does not know the difference 
between good and evil, is capable of performing both good and bad actions. 
An idiot for example may chance to do something right, or something wrong ; 
but he is not considered entitled to reward for the one, or held accountable for 
the other. Suppose him, however, to be suddenly gifted with a sound mind. 
From that moment he is responsible for all his actions. He is then in an 
accountable position. Although the maniac may maliciously take the life 
of a human being, he is not chargeable with crime, because he does not 
know the difference between good and evil. Still the murder, as it would 
otherwise be called, is in itself an evil action, and the bad disposition which 
caused the murder exists in him, as much as if he had known the legal con- 
sequences of his conduct. He is naked, although he knows it not. 

So we may suppose it to have been with our first parents; the evil 
disposition, which we call the depravity of nature, existed in them before 
their tasting of the tree of knowledge. They were “naked,” but they 
knew it not; no sooner, however, did they taste the forbidden fruit than 
they became convinced of the evil of their own hearts, and of their guilt 
in the sight of God; while by this knowledge itself they were placed 
in the position of accountability for every thought, word, and deed ; so, 
it is said, sin was in the world previous to the promulgation of the law, 
but sin is not imputed where there is no law, (Rom. v. 13;) the law is 
not the cause of the sinful act, but it gives the character of sinfulness to 
the act; without the law man is naked, unworthy, and without righteous- 
ness, or merit, in the sight of God; but he does not know that he is so, 
till the knowledge of the law convinces him of sin; of this, however, we 
have had occasion to treat elsewhere, (ὃ 48.) 

The angel of the Laodicean church, as the representative of a church, 
or system, cannot be supposed to be in that state of ignorance of good and 
evil, which exonerated Adam and Eve, while in Paradise. As a disciple 
of Christ, the angel must represent one converted, one having experienced 
a conviction of sin under the law :—once convinced of sin, of righteousness, 
and of judgment, and professing to be a follower of Jesus as a Saviour. 
But we must suppose him (the angel) to have fallen into some error, or 
delusion, the tendency of which is to represent the Christian as having 
a righteousness of his own. Whatever may have been his former belief, 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. cxili 


he now supposes himself to be clothed, not with the imputed righteousness of 
his Saviour, but with an intrinsic goodness, or perfection, tnparted to him 
—an imparted perfection, making him righteous in himself. His ignor- 
ance is not that of one not knowing the distinction between moral good 
and evil, or that of a heathen community, without any knowledge of law 
but that which the light of nature and experience affords; nor that of 
a Jewish assembly, acquainted with the literal purport only of the re- 
vealed lay. The angel of the Laodicean Church knows the law, we may 
presume, as it was expounded in the sermon on the mount, and as it 
is enlarged upon in all the preaching of Christ and his apostles; but 
what he is ignorant of, is his own heart: he does not know himself ; 
he believes that an intrinsic change has taken place in his own nature, 
by virtue of which he has a merit and righteousness of his own, not 
before possessed. Rich, and enriched, in merits of his own, he now 
depends upon these merits for salvation, and is, consequently, as he thinks, 
in need of nothing. 

The tendency of a faith like this, must be to incline the disciple to 
a belief that his eternal well-being, after all, is wrought out and secured 
by his own merit:—that there is something in himself causing him to be 
the object of divine favour ; some worthiness, some wisdom, some peculiar 
piety, some religious observances, some special good conduct of his own, 
to which he is indebted, or will be indebted even for his eternal well-being. 
He thus makes himself the author of his own salvation ; and in proportion 
as this is done, the love, gratitude, and praise, due to his Redeemer, is 
necessarily diminished. Instead of exclaiming within himself, in view of 
the unmerited favours he has received, ‘“‘ What shall I render unto the Lord 
for all his mercies?” his gratitude goes no farther than that expressed by 
the self-righteous Pharisee, (Luke xviii. 11,) “ God, I thank thee that I am 
not as other men.” 

As he who believes himself to be forgiven much, loveth much—he 
who believes himself to be forgiven little, loveth little, Luke vi. 47—he 
is lukewarm ; his system of faith is even worse than that represented by the 
Nicolaitan ; there is more hypocrisy in it, while it loses sight almost 
altogether of the obligations due to Jehovah himself, as the only author 
and giver of salvation—a salvation emanating from sovereign grace alone, 
(Is. xlviii. 11.) 

ᾧ 106. ‘I counsel thee,’ &c.—Because thou art under this delusion 
of believing thyself rich, therefore I counsel thee. 

‘'To buy of me gold tried in the fire’—pure gold, which has withstood 
the trial of the divine word; the opposite of the base metal in thy posses- 
sion, which thou supposest to be gold, and which has not yet been so tried 
as to have its character manifested ;—the true means of redemption—the 

9 


exiv INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


merits of Christ, who was himself the truth; who gave himself a ransom ; 
in whom alone that durable wealth, or righteousness, is to be found, which 
it is for the lovers of wisdom to prefer, Prov. viii. 18. 

‘To buy of me,’—that is, on the terms proclaimed by the prophet, 
Is. lv. 1, “ Ho! every one that thirsteth; come ye to the waters, and he 
that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and 
milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend your 
money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satis- 
fieth not?” The word rendered buy, however, in this passage of Revelation, 
might, perhaps, be as correctly, and more appropriately, translated procure, 
—‘ I counsel thee to procure of me,”—as it is a term coming from a place 
of public resort for supplies, and does not necessarily involve the idea of 
giving an equivalent for what is procured; besides, advice to one just 
declared to be wretchedly poor, to purchase gold, seems hardly admissible 
even as a figure. 

‘And white raiment.—Not merely raiment, but white raiment. An 
allusion to the garment of him whose raiment, when he was manifested in 
glory, was white as the light; also the white raiment promised to the 
overcoming, in the address to the angel of the Church in Sardis. Not 
merely a covering, but a glorious covering—a wedding garment, such as 
will qualify the guest to appear in the presence, and at the supper of his 
divine Master—not the frail fig-leaf covering of man’s invention, the first 
effort of human presumption, Gen. ii. 7; not the rags of self-righteous- 
ness, adding only to the uncleanness of those assuming the filthy attire, 
(Is. lxiv. 6;) but the perfect raiment of a Saviour’s merits, “woven from 
the top throughout ”—a clothing contemplated by the prophet, when he 
exultingly exclaimed, “I will greatly rejoice in Jenovan; my soul shall be 
joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me in the garments of salvation, he 
hath covered me with a robe of righteousness.” 

‘That thou mayest be clothed,’ &c.—Here it is implied that no robe but 
this particular white robe, can furnish a clothing. The emputed righteous- 
ness of Christ is the only robe equal to the case, no other raiment is 
sufficient ; while this is ample, and adapted to the wants of every indi- 
vidual ; corresponding with the provision, of which it is said, he that had 
much had nothing over, and he that had little had no lack, (Ex. xvi. 18.) 

§ 107. ‘The shame of thy nakedness..—Thy guilt; the exceeding 
sinfulness of sin, and thy own entire unworthiness and inability to wash 
away or to conceal this guilt. This is thine own—it is innate—it is some- 
thing in itself unchangeable; although it may be covered over by the 
white raiment just spoken of—“ Not that we should be unclothed, but clothed 
upon,” 2 Cor. v. 4. Although im one sense, or under one figure, Christ 
is said to have become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. ΟΧΥ 


of God in him, by substitution; yet really in ourselves we are still the 
guilty, the wretched, and the truly miserable: depending entirely upon the 
robe, or covering of divine righteousness, to conceal the iniquity of our 
transgressions. Not in the sight of man, for it is a small thing to be judged 
of man’s judgment, but in the sight of Him, who, by his arrangement of 
grace, will look upon us as in the face of his Anointed. 

‘And anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see,’—or 
rather, “ I counsel thee to procure of me eye-salve, to anoint thine eyes, 
that thou mayest see,”—according to the Tittmann edition of the Greek, 
καὶ κολλούριον, ἐγχρῖσαι τοὺς ὀφϑαλμούς cov, ἵνα βλέπῃς. ‘The virtue of this 
unction is in the eye-salve, and not in the action of the angel in applying it. 
The great object to be attained is the possession of the ointment ; the effect of 
which is, to afford a spiritual understanding of all revealed truth ; as, 1 John 
i. 20 and 27, “ But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all 
things.” . . . “The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, 
and ye need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth 
you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, 
ye shall abide in him.” ‘The spiritual knowledge here referred to, being 
that of the disciple’s knowing his posttion in Christ, a position securing his 
safety for time and for eternity. It is, deed, by our coming to Christ, 
leaning on him for salvation, and inquiring into his true character, his 
offices, and our relation to him, or true position in him, that we obtain 
sight, in the sense here contemplated. In this respect, the eye-salve so 
desirable, may perhaps be found in this book of Revelation—a develop- 
ment of truth properly understood—the object of David’s petition, (Ps. 
exix. 18,) “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things 
out of thy law.” 


Vs. 19, 20. As many as I love I rebuke 
and chasten: be zealous, therefore, and 
repent. Behold, I stand at the door and 
knock: If any man hear my voice, and 
open the door, [ will come in to him, and 


Ja. ® Cf at af -gh\P Ἀ ΄ 
᾿Εγὼ ὅσους ἐὰν φιλῶ, ἐλέγχω καὶ παιδεύω" 
, ἣν ΄ 3 ΄ 
ζήλωσον οὖν καὶ μετανόησον. ᾿Ιδού, ἕστηκα 
Ν ‘ [4 \ 7 7 2 ΄ 
ἐπὶ τὴν ϑύραν — i pl al dlc ἀκούσῃ 
τῆς φωνῆς μου καὶ ἀνοίξη τὴν ϑύραν, εἰς- 


will sup with him, and he with me. ἐλεύσομαι πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ δειπνήσω μετ 
αὐτοῦ καὶ αὐτὸς ust ἐμοῦ. 

§ 108. “ Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,’ Heb. xu. 6.—This 
angel, however severely reproved, is not cast off, neither is the church 
excommunicated. It is admonished, as a tenderly beloved child may be by 
its parents—it is still loved. The reproof itself is urged as an evidence of 
this love ; and yet, in the whole account given of the character of this 
angel, or system, there is nothing lovely in it; but, on the contrary, some- 
thing even nauseous. We can only account, therefore, for this parental 
affection of the speaker, on the principle, that his love is ἃ matter of free 
and sovereign grace ;—* Herein is the Jove of God manifested, that while 


exvi INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


we were yet sinners Christ died for us,” Rom. v. 8. Herein is love, not 
that we have loved God, but that he first loved us, (1 John iv. 10-19,) and 
herein we may say is his love still manifested, that while the deluded disciple 
is lukewarm in his feelings of gratitude, he is notwithstanding the subject of 
divine pity, forbearance, and even love. . 

7 rebuke,’ &c.—The word rendered rebuke, implies the effort to con- 
vince one of error—so, that rendered chasten, is of the character of the repri- 
mand, or correction given to a youth at school ;—“ God so loved the world 
that he sent his only Son, not to condemn the world, but that the world 
through him might be saved,” John ii. 16, 17; at the same time it is the 
office of the promised Comforter to rebuke, to reprove, or to convict the 
world (ἐλέγξει τὸν κόσμον) of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, (John 
xvi. 8.) Accordingly, in these addresses to the churches, we find this Com- 
forter, the Holy Spirit, discharging these peculiar functions of his office ; 
the errors of these seven angels being such as we may suppose prevalent 
throughout the whole body of the visible Christian church, and the reproof 
as general, or as universal, as the occasion for it. 

‘ Be zealous, therefore, and repent,’—or, more strictly, be fervent, there- 
fore, and change your views. Be fervent, in place of being lukewarm. The 
term rendered zealous, or fervent, coming from a verb signifying to boil. 

Repentance we have already noticed (¢ 44) as a change of mind; as 
if it were here said, Change these delusive views or notions of your own 
riches and self-sufficiency, for a proper sense of your real poverty and desti- 
tution—change this opinion of your need of nothing—of your having merits 
enough of your own—and come to me for the wmputation of those merits, or 
of that righteousness which you really need. Such a repentance or change 
of views, involves, we may say, a change from ]ukewarmness to fervour ; as 
a system of faith possessing features tending to undermine the gratitude due 
to the Redeemer must lose this character, as soon as these peculiar features 
are exchanged for such as have an opposite tendency. ‘The use of the term 
repentance in this place, affords another proof that its meaning is to be taken 
in connection with the circumstances of the case. ‘The Laodicean angel is 
not a pagan, or infidel, or Jew, but a Christian, entertaining certain mis- 
taken views; this repentance is, therefore, a change in respect to these 
views. 

§ 109. ‘ Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.’-—This may be con- 
sidered a general proposition, applicable to the case of all interested in it ; 
although, on the present occasion, especially applied to the Laodicean angel. 
It may be an intimation of readiness to grant the supplies just spoken of, 
and to meet the change of views recommended. As one who has placed 
himself at the door and knocks, is waiting and even impatient to be admitted, 
so Christ, the Saviour, by the Holy Spirit, is ever ready to reveal himself, 


“INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. Cxvii 


to make himself known and understood, where there is a door, or avenue 
of faith, to admit of the revelation. So too in a system of faith, the tend- 
ency towards truth will meet with a corresponding development of truth, 
tll the whole is fully revealed. 

But we may also consider the declaration, ‘ Behold, I stand at the door, and 
knock,’ as equivalent to the announcement,—Behold, I am come ; I am here. 
As it was said on other occasions, “repent, or else I will come,”—* hold 
fast till 1 come,” Rev. ii. 5, 16, 25,—*I will come as a thief,’—* Behold, 
Tcome quickly,” iii. 3, 11,—it is here said, Lo, here Tam. The time of mani- 
festation, which had been approaching only, is now declared to have come. 
Error, as it is exemplified in the character given to this angel, has now reached 
its maturity: the degree of error being equivalent to the falling away, or apos- 
tacy, spoken of 2 Thes. ἢ. 3, as necessarily taking place before the coming 
of the day of Christ—the parousta, or manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
as it is termed in the first verse of the same chapter. The nature of the 
Laodicean falling away corresponding, also, with the effect ascribed to the 
abounding of iniquity (ἀνομίας), Matt. xxiv. 12, on account of which it is 
said the love of many shall wax cold, that is, become lukewarm, or cool.* 

‘If any one hear my voice and will open the door.—To hear is to 
understand—to take what is said in its proper sense and meaning. So the 
system represented by a disciple thus hearing, must be one formed on a 
spiritual understanding of the language of divine revelation. 

§ 110. ‘TI will come in to him, and sup with him.’—Supper is said to 
have been the principal meal with the Hebrews, (Rob. Lex. 136,) some- 
hing equivalent to dinner with the moderns. ΤῸ sup with any one, was to 
baste at principal meal with him. ‘To eat with any one, according to the 
ancient notions of hospitality, was to enter into a species of covenant or 


* This abounding of iniquity, we are aware, is usually supposed to consist in an 
extraordinary increase of immorality throughout the world; while there can be no 
doubt but that practical immorality has diminished, and continues to diminish, taking 
mankind as a whole, in the ordinary sense. But we may easily conceive of a falling 
off amongst Christians, in matters of faith, while the moral state of the whole world, 
compared with what it was 2000 years since, is very essentially improved. 

It is in the church, and not out of the church, that we are to look for this preva- 
lence of iniquity, and its consequent lukewarmness: and it is in matters of faith and 
doctrine, countenanced and sustained by the church, that we are to expect it, and not 
in matters of moral conduct, which both the opinion of the church and that of the 
world would discountenance. The iniquity referred to, therefore, Matt. xxiv. 12, we 
conceive to be a divergence, or going astray from the direct or straight line or rule of 
truth in matters of Christian faith and doctrine, (deriv. νόμος with & privative: see 
Rob. Lex. art. Wouos.) As if it had been said, ‘and because error—the error of self- 
righteousness especially—shall abound, the love of many (disciples) shall wax cold ;’ 
corresponding with the views we have thrown out, of the operation of this kind of 
error in the production of lukewarmness, or want of gratitude for the gift of salvation. 


CXVill INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


pledge ; the host binding himself to his guest, and the guest in return being 
bound to his entertainer; the two parties being thus to a certain degree 
identified with each other—brought into strict communion. ‘The eating of 
bread and salt, among some rude nations of Asia, is still considered a pledge 
of intimate connection, even between parties previously at enmity. Bread 
and salt being both necessaries of life, the eating of these two is put for eat- 
ing in general, or rather for a dwelling together, as members of one family. 
We may consider this promise to sup or dine, equivalent to a promise of the 
like intimate connection, in a spiritual sense, corresponding with the language 
of the same speaker while manifest in the flesh :—‘“ If any man love me he 
will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto 
him, and make our abode with him,” John xiv. 23. 

As to sup with Christ is to be in communion with him, we suppose this 
communion to consist in partaking by imputation of his righteousness, and 
of his propitiation ;—the spiritual bread or body of Christ, and the spiritual 
cup of blessing, or blood of Christ, alluded to 1 Cor. x. 16, “'The cup of 
blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? 
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ ? 
for we being many are one bread, and one body, for we are all partakers of 
that one bread,’”’—the true bread from heaven, the hidden manna, upon 
which we have already had occasion to remark, (ὃ 65.) As the believer 
is thus accounted to participate in the merits of Christ, so we may say, prin- 
ciples of faith are recognized, or manifested to be identified with the teaching 
and meaning of the Holy Spirit, co-operating and according with that Spirit. 


Vs. 21, 22. To him that overcometh Ὁ νικῶν, δώσω αὐτῷ καϑέσαι μετ ἐμοῦ 
will I grant to sit with me in my throne, ἐν τῷ ϑρόνῳ μου, ὡς κἀγὼ ἐνίκησα καὶ ἐχά- 


even as I also overcame, and am sit down ὁ 
: é 3 LO μετὰ TOU πατ ὃς μου ἐν τῷ ϑρόνῳ αὖ- 
with my Father in his throne. He that “ ὭΣ θόνῳ αὖ 
τοῦ. “O ἔχων οὐς, κιτ.1λ. 


~hatl an ear, &c. 

§ 111. ‘To sit with me in,’ or upon, ‘ my throne,’ &c.—This is following 
out the idea of the communion just alluded to. The disciple participating 
in the merits of his Redeemer, accounted justified in Christ, is accounted 
also glorified in Christ, and in this sense may be said to sit with him on his 
throne, enjoying a manifestation of his exaltation, or triumph, over the 
powers of legal condemnation. So if we suppose 0 γικῶν, the overcoming, 
to be the doctrinal principle of justification, through the imputed righteous- 
ness of Christ, this principle, by being manifested as the overcoming one, will 
be also manifested to share with Christ in the manifestation of his supremacy. 
The exaltation of Christ is the manifestation that he is the Saviour, Heb. 
1. 3, vill. 1, and xii. 2, and the exaltation of the overcoming (ὁ νικῶν} is the 
manifestation that it is the saving principle. As Jehovah says of himself, 
Is. ΧΙ. 11, “Lam the Lord, besides me there is no Saviour ;” and, xlv. 22, 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. ΟΧΙΧ 


“ Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth : for lam God, and 
there is none else;” and as it is said of Christ, Acts v. 31, ‘‘ Him hath 
God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour:” so Jesus says of the saving 
principle, that it shall be manifested to rule or reign with him, as he is 
manifested to rule or reign with his Father, especially as the only Saviour, 

§ 112. We may be better able to assign an appellation to this principle, 
after having gone through with our examination of this book. We have 
supposed it to be the principle of salvation, by imputed righteousness. If, 
instead of this, we term it the principle of salvation by sovereign grace, 
we may consider the two as nearly equivalent terms ; one being necessarily 
involved in the other. We content ourselves at present with the supposition 
that ὁ »xa»—the overcoming—is a principle upon which the disciple is 
saved, and not the disciple himself. 

The term ὁ νικῶν, the overcoming, is found nowhere else than in the 
Apocalypse, except 1 John v. 5 ; and the use of the verb φνικάω, is peculiar 
to the writings of John, being found elsewhere only, Luke xi. 22, where 
there is a physical overcoming alluded to, and Rom. iii. 4, where the contest 
is of a legal or judicial character, and Rom. xii. 21, where it is used in a 
moral sense. Jesus Christ says of himself, John xvi. 33, “Be of good 
cheer, I have overcome the world.” We cannot suppose any thing in the 
epistle of John, or in the Apocalypse, to militate with the glory due to 
Christ, in thus having overcome the world; and when it is said, 1 John v 
4, “'This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith,” we must 
notice that our faith is not said to be the vicror, but the victory. Christ 
has fought the battle—he has overcome the world, and our faith is the 
result of his successful contest. Our faith and confidence in him as a 
Saviour, is the result of that which he has done in overcoming the world. 
So, if the disciple overcome, it must be by some principle of doctrine placing 
him in the position of the victor, (whereby Christ, and not the disciple, has 
the glory,)—a glory finally exhibited to be that of God alone. 

The Supreme Being declares himself to be the only Saviour. His 
manifestation of himself in Christ, shows how he is the Saviour. So, free 
and sovereign grace is the principle which overcomes every obstacle to the 
salvation of the sinner. ‘The development of the doctrine of justification 
through the imputed righteousness of Jehovah, by the intervention of Christ 
shows how this sovereign grace accomplishes its object. 

In the Gospel revelation, Christ is first exhibited as the Saviour; but at 
last he is manifested as identic with Jehovah, and God appears as the only 
Saviour, corresponding with his own declaration in the prophets. So, in the 
development of gospel doctrine, the principle overcoming the powers of legal 
accusation and condemnation, is represented at first to be that of justification 
through the merits of Christ, or of his vicarious propitiation ; but, finally, the 
fundamental principle exhibited 15 that of Grace. 


cxx INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


Both of these particulars correspond with the representation of the 
apostle, 1 Cor. xv. 24 and 25, “ Then cometh the end, when he shall have 
delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father ; when he shall have put 
down all rule, and all authority and power; for he must reign till he hath 
put all enemies under his feet ;” and 28, “And when all things shall be 
subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that 
put all things under him, that God may be all in all ;” or may be manifested to 
be all in all—it being evident that the fact must always have been the same 
—God must always have been all in all. It is only the manifestation of 
this fact, which is a thing to be. 

§ 113. ‘ He that hath ears to hear,’ &c.—Here the addresses to the 
angels of the seven churches close, with the intimation repeated for the 
seventh time, of the spiritual or hidden sense, to be sought for in the language 
employed throughout. 


Summary of the preceding Introductory Addresses. 


In these prefatory expostulations, the speaker approaches each of these 
ministering spirits, or systems, under a different aspect or title. Τὸ that of 
the Ephesian church, he shows himself as the upholder, by the right hand 
of his righteousness, of the seven stars, or of that which is represented by 
them ; walking too in the midst of the churches as a shepherd, or overseer 
of the flock, or as a teacher amidst his disciples. ‘To the spirit of the Smyr- 
nean church, he speaks as the beginning and ending of the economy of 
salvation—the dying Saviour, and the risen Lord. ‘To the angel of the 
church of Pergamos, as the Holy Spirit, the revealer of truth, the sharp 
sword with two edges. To the angel of the church of Thyatira, as the 
Son of God with power, whose eyes behold, whose eyelids try the children 
of men. ‘To the angel of the church of Sardis, as the source of grace and 
peace, as well as the controller of the seven stars or angels themselves. ΤῸ 
the church of Philadelphia, as the Holy One, the truth, the possessor of the 
key of David, or the interpreter of David; and lastly, to the angel of the 
church of Laodicea, as the promised testifier, the Comforter, the convincer, 
the Word, which was at the beginning with God, and was God. Here we 
perceive a gradual development of divine and sovereign character, espe- 
cially in all the various relations of the work of redemption ; identifying the 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in such a manner as to render it impossible to 
suppose the existence of one, without that of the other. 

The several objects addressed, have also their peculiar characteristics. 
The angel of Ephesus is lauded for labour, patience, perseverance, and 
opposition to false teachers ; at the same time this spirit is rebuked for a fall- 
ing off from its first love. 


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. ΟΧΧῚ 


The angel of the church of Smyrna receives consideration for works, for 
peculiar trials, for poverty of spirit, and for contending with certain false 
doctrines, or teachers, professedly Jews, (in a spiritual sense,) but not really 


such. 
The Pergamean angel is praised for holding the name, and not denying 


the faith of Christ, while it is reprimanded for having given some license or 
countenance to two classes of errors, figuratively spoken of as the doctrines 
of Balaam and of the Nicolaitanes. 

The church of Thyatira has praise for works, charity, service, faith, and 
patience. But, beside a general tendency to legality, there is in the system 
a perversion of truth, represented as resulting from the influence of the false 
prophesying or misinterpreting of Jezebel. 

In the case of the angel, or system of Sardis, we find not only a contest 
with error, but a melancholy state resulting from its actual ascendency—a 
name to live while dead—a faith bordering upon a mere outward profession. 

The angel of the church of Philadelphia does not appear to have actu- | 
ally lapsed into error, but seems to be contending with the same class of 
errorists as those encroaching upon the system of Smyrna. Τ1 is in a militant 
state, and needs and receives encouraging exhortation. 

The Laodicean system, on the contrary, so far from maintaining any 
contest with erroneous views, seems to have been altogether a victim to 
their influence ; its odious lukewarmness being not a cause, but a conse- 
quence of the admission of these fallacies. Still the angel, or that which is 
represented by the angel, is not cast off, but is spoken of as an object of 
care and affection. ‘The principal difference in the admonition being in this, 
that while in the other cases the Lord, or Judge, is said to be coming, he 
is here represented as being even at the door, or already come. 

Whether these angels represent successive, or contemporaneous systems, 
there is, evidently, a gradual increase of the subject of complaint ; excepting 
only, perhaps, the case of the church of Philadelphia. In the last instance, 
there is certainly an extreme pointed out, and here the impending correction 
is spoken of as something immediately at hand; corresponding with our 
general experience, that extremes of error become themselves the instru- 
ments of eliciting truth. 

There is a like difference in the rewards promised in each of these cases 
to the overcoming, ὁ νικῶν ; or, as we have it rendered, him that overcometh, 
—or rather, a like difference in the figures employed as illustrations of the 
character of this, perhaps one and the same reward. ‘To one is promised 
a participation of the tree of life; to another, the crown of life; to 
another, the hidden manna, and the white stone, with a new name; to 
another, a most despotic power over the nations ; to another, to be clothed 
in white, and to be indelibly recorded by name in the book of life, and 


ΟΧΧΗ INTRODUCTORY EPISTLES. 


confessed before the Father; to another, to be made a pillar, immovable, 
in the temple of God—a pillar, upon which the name of God, of the Holy 
City, and of the speaker, is to be written ; (not three names, but as we sup- 
pose, one name peculiar to these three objects ;) and to the last, even to the 
overcoming of the Laodicean system, a seat on the throne of him that 
speaketh, even as he occupies the throne of the Father. 

The enjoyment of no one of these rewards is inconsistent with a possession 
of the rest, and they may all be resolved into equivalent figures of the 
manifestation of a certain pre-emimence. It is very plain that they are not 
to be taken in a literal sense, and almost as plain, that they are applicable 
immediately, to something else than to individual disciples. This something 
else, as we have intimated, and as we feel constrained to believe, must be a 
principle, a doctrine of faith, or ruling element of the economy of redemp- 
tion—an overcoming principle, upon which the hope of salvation depends. 
The design, accordingly, of placing it in this prominent point of view, and 
of thus magnifying its importance, by such repeated and varied illustrations, 
is to lead the disciple to search into its true nature and character; that 
by understanding precisely the subject held out for his belief, his own mind 
may be enlightened, his faith confirmed, his hope strengthened, and his love 
—his gratitude—increased. 

Besides the epistles thus addressed to the churches, severally, we find, 
by recurring to Rev. i. 11 and 19, that the whole vision is designed for 
their edification and instruction; and as these seven churches are repre- 
sented as having each their respective trials, each suffering from some 
perversion of truth peculiar to its angel, we may presume the instruction to 
be derived from the whole vision, to call for a setting forth of error on the 
one hand, and of truth on the other, in such a manner, and by- such illustra- 
tions as may be best calculated to correct the errors complained of, and to 
afford the edification required, For this exhibition we are, accordingly, 
now to prepare ourselves. 


THE REVELATION, 


OR 


UNVEILING OF JESUS CHRIST. 


ἀοῳδ ρον 


᾿Αποχάλυψες ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ. 


δῇ die a ro el ἡ ill μ 
oe. ἀῤκῶθες ὕω ὍΝ 


ὙΠ ‘ty wich 
“eh mee ie 
ἢ 


cu? veeabdinieiasoieaihadibitiar i: "αὐ 
ἂν hte. vive, ogy oh pe “αὐ 1" aglow a Ἢ 
ei ili ty: whith a ah γααιν ἘΠ ὰ μὰ 
A ei eB ae ee ee ee eee a 
ca ee a δε lies oi tinge δον yen ae 
ee a 
fk parce ae als ohne ete si eA ieee Wee veo le ih νὴ ie 
ΔΝ, eae 
shamans aa) μὰ δὲ att Ἰδυνδυβό νὰ απ τὰς 
et ; vie ane wR ssi πὰ Nat ΔῊΝ Sait sia bey ial fh ox tite ot δῦ rete 
er Widelleas aidan i: wwentitt mre tps 4oekinite - ὗν μα. Sec 
‘eit ἊΝ bar ia nes Tee ΝΝ ines vy ele So meine inh 
τρφόνθν ae imeniacitile nab γοργά θα titre tie es Sa ‘ment is 
y ee One a ee soe it ἣν 
“αι Κα" ine eh τίν μ προ ener ie 


ΡΣ Δ 


THE REVELATION, OR UNVEILING OF JESUS CHRIST, 


‘Anoxadvyis ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ. 


CHAP TR τῶν ὦ δ 


THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 


V. 1. After this 1 looked, and behold, a Ηϊετὰ ταῦτα εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ ϑύρα ἤνεῳγ- 
door (was) opened in heaven: and the μένη ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, καὶ ἣ φωνὴ ἣ πρώτη, ἣν 
first voice which I heard, (was) asit were > Sage: , cage: 

‘ : : : ἤκουσα ὡς σάλπιγγος λαλούσης met ἐμοῦ, 
of a trumpet talking with me; which said, ὁ ἀξ ΠΣ as: 
come up hither, and I will show thee λέγων ἀγάβα ibe Pe al be hea! ας δὰ 
things which must be hereafter. γενέσϑαι METH ταῦτα. 


§ 114. We are now about to enter upon the main subject of this 
development or unveiling. The style of the work is of the dramatic char- 
acter. The vision is uninterrupted, but there are changes in the exhibition, 
corresponding in some degree with the changes of acts and scenes in a 
dramatic representation. The apostle’s situation, like that of a spectator in 
a public theatre, remains the same, whatever shifting there may be of the 
scenery ; and the objects presented for his contemplation continue to be 
things analogous or parallel to something in real life, but not themselves 
realities. The exhibitions of this sacred drama are all representations of 
things of the same spiritual character, and of nothing else. 

* After this I looked,’ or, rather, after these things I saw,—that is, after 
having seen the exhibition of the Son of man in the midst of the golden 
candlesticks, and after having received the instruction to commit the seven 
addresses to writing, the apostle saw what he is about to describe :—the verb 
translated looked, in this place, being the same as that elsewhere rendered, 
more properly, saw ;—for we may suppose the several exhibitions to be 


* The ordinary division of this Book of Revelation into chapters, as well as verses, 
has been preserved for the facility of reference, although otherwise unimportant. 
The present, although the fourth chapter of the Apocalypse, is but the commence- 
ment of the principal subject of the Vision, and might with propriety, be designated 
as the first chapter of the Second Part. 


4 THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 


successively presented to the apostle’s mind, without any effort on his part 
to look one way or the other. 

“1 saw, and behold a door opened in heaven.’—-Here we may suppose 
an entire change of scene. The seven golden candlesticks, and the one like 
unto the Son of Man holding the seven stars in his right hand, are no longer 
in view : this first act, as we may term it, corresponding with the prologue 
or action of a chorus, sometimes preceding the principal exhibition ; but a 
necessary prelude to prepare the spectator for what he is about to contem- 
plate. The whole of this scenery we may suppose to be now passing away ; 
and instead of it, the apostle sees a door opened in heaven—heaven is not 
yet exhibited to him, but the door, gate, or way of access, is seen. 

The patriarch Jacob was favoured with a vision something like this, 
when “he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top 
of it reached to heaven: and behold, the angels of God ascendmg and 
descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it,” (Gen. xxviii. 
12, 13.) He accordingly denominated the place of this vision the door, or 
gate of heaven. ‘The martyr Stephen saw the heavens opened, and the 
Son of man standing on the right hand of God. 'The Apostle Peter, when 
first taught that the door of faith was to be opened to the Gentiles, saw 
heaven opened, Acts x. 11. From all which passages we may gather, that 
to see heaven opened is to be favoured with an exhibition of the counsels of 
the Most High, in respect to some peculiar subject of revelation ; and to 
see a door opened in heaven, is to perceive a means by which one may be 
admitted to contemplate such an exhibition of the divine purposes. 

§ 115. The physical heavens declare the glory of God, and the firma- 
ment showeth his handy work: in them hath he set a tabernacle for the 
sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, Ps. xix. 1-6. 
Corresponding with this, the spiritual heaven may be denominated that dis- 
play of the economy of redemption, in which the Sun of nghteousness is 
seen coming forth as a bridegroom, rejoicing as a strong man, his reward 
with him, and his work before him, (Is. xl. 10, and Ixii. 11.) 

As in our solar system we see the moon clothed, not with her own 
light, but with the reflected rays of the sun; so in the spiritual system we 
see the church or churches of Christ, or their individual members, shining 
with a light, or glory, not of their own moral perfection, but with the glory 
of the imputed righteousness of the Son of God. Even in the systems 
connected with the fixed stars around us, we may suppose the planetary 
bodies of each to be enlightened by the borrowed light of their respective 
suns: teaching us not that there are so many suns of righteousness, but that 
throughout the universe there is the same exercise of divine goodness, exalt- 
ing the creature to favour by the imputed goodness of the Creator; the 
same exercise of sovEREIGN GRACE being everywhere required. All are 


THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 5 


created by the same Supreme Being. In all there must be the same infinite 
distance between the thing formed and Him that formed it ; all creatures, 
in the estimation of the Deity, being unworthy in themselves, and without 
merit of their own: ‘‘ Yea, the heavens are unclean in his sight, and he 
chargeth his angels with folly.’ The manner in which this truth is revealed 
to other worlds may differ, but the truth itself must be everywhere the same. 

§ 116. Two meanings may be applied to what we term the spiritual 
heaven ; both perhaps issuing in the same result. ‘The immensity of space, 
with all its countless orbs and systems, may represent the economy of 
salvation itself—the purpose of God, as it has always been in his unchange- 
able mind. Or, the visible heaven, as it appears to us,—an immense picture 
of the power of God,—may be a figure of the picture of his redeeming 
power, presented in the volume of revelation. 

In the first case, the door opened in heaven would represent the means 
of admission into the economy of redemption itself, affording the disciple 
admitted, a participation of its benefits; equivalent to the privileges of 
adoption in Christ: as he himself says, John x. 9, 1 am the door, ἡ ϑύρα ; 
by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and 
find pasture. 

In the second case, the door opened in heaven would represent the 
means of arriving at a right understanding of this economy ; the access by 
which the mind obtains an insight into the mysteries of the plan of re- 
demption. Here too, Christ, in what he has done and taught, may be still 
said to be the door—a certain degree of the knowledge of Christ being the 
means of comprehending the mystery of faith—and this door a figure some- 
what equivalent to that of the keys of the kingdom of heaven. This last 
sense, that is, contemplating heaven, or the heavens, asa figure of the 
exhibition of the plan of divine grace, rather than of the plan, or economy 
itself, appears to accord best with the purpose of the Apocalypse; unveil- 
ing, as it does, the mysterious principles of the economy of redemption. 

§ 117. ‘ And the first voice which I heard,’ &c.—or rather, as it might 
be read, “ And behold, the first voice which I heard,” (Rev. i. 10, 11,) was 
now as a trumpet speaking to me. The scene is changed, but the voice, 
or source of revelation, is still the same, and the character of the voice is 
the same—‘‘as of a trumpet.” This frequent allusion to the voice, ‘or 
sound of a trumpet, cannot be without some peculiar meaning, reminding 
us, as it does, of what Paul says of the same instrument, 1 Cor. xv. 52, 
« For the trumpet shall sound ;” and 1 Thess. iv. 16, “For the Lord him- 
self shall descend, &c., with the trump of God.” 

‘Come up hither.—Raise your mind to the contemplation of things, 
or truths, in their spiritual sense. ΤῸ be in heaven, being equivalent to the 
possession of a spiritual understanding—the contemplation of heaveuly 


6 THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 


things, as distinguished from earthly things, alluded to John ii. 12, “If 
I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe 
if I tell you of heavenly things?’ So, to come wp, or to be up, as upon 
a certain elevation, appears to be figurative in Scripture of this peculiarly 
spiritual insight. God revealed himself to Moses on the top of Mount Sinai, 
Ex. xix. 20; and from off the top of Mount Pisgah, Moses beheld the 
promised land, and Balaam in spirit contemplated the coming of Christ 
as “ from the top of the rock,” Numb. xxii. 9. As it is said, also, of the 
exhibition of the source whence the true bread of life is derived, Ps. xxii. 16, 
«« There shall be an handful of corn in the earth on the top of the mountains ; 
the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon ; and they of the city shall flourish 
like grass of the earth. His name shall endure forever: his name shall be 
continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him—all nations 
shall call him blessed.”? Jesus himself is said to have been taken up into 
an exceeding high mountain, when shown all the kingdoms of the world, 
and the glory of them; and it was im a high mountain apart that his 
transfiguration took place, when he was seen in glory—Moses and Ehias 
ministering to him: so we may say that, for the contemplation of things 
in a spiritual sense, we need an intellectual atmosphere above the mists of 
literal interpretation. 

‘And I will show thee things which must be hereafter,—or, rather, 
the things which are to be after these things. ‘The words at the close of 
the verse, rendered hereafter, beg the same as those at the beginning, 
translated after this, and at the commencement of the seventh chapter, 
after these things. The sense of the invitation must, therefore, be this: 
Come up hither, and I will show thee the things which are yet to be ex- 
hibited ; the use of the future tense, or that which is equivalent to it, 
being applicable to the process of representation, and not to events taking 
place at some distant period of time. 


Vs. 2,3. And immediately I was in the 


1 Καὶ εὐϑέως ἐγενόμην ἐν πνεύματι" καὶ 
Spirit: and behold, a throne was set in 


> ΄ , 27 > - > ~ Ἄ 5 δ 
ἰδού, ϑρονος ExELTO ἕν TO) ουρανῷ, καὶ ETLb 


heaven, and (one) sat on the throne, and 
he that sat was to look upon like a 
jasper and a sardine stone: and there was 
a rainbow round about the throne, in 
sight like unto an emerald. 


Ὁ 7 , ἊΣ 
τοῦ ϑρόνου χαϑήημενος, καὶ ὃ καϑήμενος ἣν 
c eer, ᾿ as \ ᾿ x 
ὅμοιος ὅρασει λίϑῳ toons καὶ σαρδίῳ, καὶ 
7 , ~ , co 

ἶρις κυχλόϑεν τοῦ ϑρόνου ὅμοιος ὁράσει 
σμαραγδίνῳ. 


§ 118. And immediately I was in the Spirit,—or rather, I became in 
spirit, (Ὁ 24,)—my mind was opened to see things in their spiritual sense. 
In conformity with the invitation, “come up,” immediately I was up, or 
became so ;—to come up, being equivalent to being 2m spirit: and to be 
in spirit, being in effect to come up. ‘The door opened was in heaven—the 
apostle was invited to come up, of course into heaven; he did come up by 


THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. Ἶ 


being in spirit—he was then in heaven. To be in heaven, therefore, in 
apocalyptic language, is to be tn spirit. So, to see the things of the king- 
dom of God in their proper spiritual sense, is to see heavenly things ; and 
to be in that position of mind, in which a spiritual view is obtained of all 
the mysteries of redemption, is to be, figuratively speaking, in heaven. The 
apostle had been in spirit during the previous exhibition ; but that scene 
had entirely past away, and a new one is now to be contemplated. With- 
out being in spirit, the apostle could not have seen the Son of man in the 
midst of the golden candlesticks ; and, without being én spirit, he could not 
see the things about to be exhibited. 

‘ And behold, a throne was set in heaven.’—Here commences a descrip- 
tion of what we may call the first scene of the second act—the act itself 
continuing ; and the same august assemblage being supposed to be present, 
at least as far as the conclusion of the 12th chapter. So far the scene 
apparently is laid in heaven ; whatever is witnessed on earth, being seen 
as from heaven, or passing before the apostle’s mind, as an exhibition 
in heaven of things on the earth. He does not say, I saw heaven 
opened, as the promise was given to Nathaniel, John i. 51, alluding to 
the greater things to be made known to him: “ Hereafter ye shall see 
heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the 
Son of man.” The apostle is now to be considered in heaven—he had 
come up—he has entered the opened door, and he is describing what he sees 
about him ; he is in spirit—he has a spiritual discernment of heavenly 
mysteries ; but he describes the mysteries revealed in figures, to be fully 
understood only by those who are like himself in spirit, or who possess an 
equally spiritual understanding. 

The word rendered throne, signifies either a throne or seat; but if a seat, 
the character of the seat depends upon the circumstances under which it is 
represented to exist. A king may make use of any seat he pleases as a 
throne ; it is not the seat which gives importance to the king, but it is the 
use the king makes of his seat which gives it the importance of a throne, 
and which makes it the instrument of exhibiting the occupant as a sovereign. 
From what is said in the remainder of this chapter, there is no doubt but 
that the seat the apostle here describes is strictly a throne—a seat marking 
out the pre-eminence and sovereign power of him who occupies it. As such, 
this throne represents some principle exhibiting the supremacy of the Most 
High, showing Him to be a sovereign ; as we find by the homage described 
in the 8th verse, that the one sitting on this throne is no other than the Lord 
God Almighty. 

Justice and judgment are declared to be the habitation of the throne 
of God, Ps. Ixxxix. 14; and a king is spoken of as sitting upon a throne 
of judgment, Prov. xx. 8. In the mixed governments of modern times 

10 


8 : THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 


the judicial authority is so frequently separated from executive power, that 
we are apt to associate with the supremacy of the ruler of a nation but an 
imperfect idea of complete sovereignty. Kings in ancient days, however, 
were judges; a king was then supposed to possess, in his own breast, 
the power of deciding between right and wrong: of this we have a remark- 
able instance in the judgment of Solomon, (1 Kings iii. 25.) The tribunal, 
or seat of judgment, was then identical with the throne. ‘This peculiarity 
is the more to be borne in mind because the exhibition in this scene is that 
of the Deity, in his sovereign judicial capacity especially—the Supreme 
Judge. The plan of mercy is not yet developed, although, as we shall see, 
there is in the splendid array described, an intimation of this divine attribute. 
We may take th t hrone, therefore, here alluded to, as a figure of the element 
of divine judgment. 

§ 119. «And he that sat, was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine 
stone.’——Or rather, in appearance like a stone, jasper and sardine. Not 
like two stones, but one stone, combining in appearance the qualities of 
these two gems. The jasper of the apostle was probably what we’com- 
monly term the diamond ; distinguished for its impenetrability, or hardness, 
its pure transparency, and its brilliancy. It is said to have been of various 
colours, but this variety of colours may have arisen only from the reflected 
tint of surrounding objects. The sardine is supposed to have been the 
modern carnelian, (Rob. Lex. 911}, 677,) deriving its name from its re- 
semblance i in colour to flesh, (sarks ; 5) flesh bemg, as we have before observed, 
a figure of righteousness, or moral perfection. Thus we have, in the 
characteristics of these precious stones, the representatives of inflexibility, 
purity, glory, and righteousness, as the peculiar attributes of the Sovereign 
Judge. These two gems might likewise be supposed to represent the 
strength and beauty which are said to be in the sanctuary of God, Ps. xcvi. 
6; but it may be a question whether the present exhibition is that of the 
Deity in his sanctuary. 

‘ And a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.’ 
—There is no article prefixed to the word translated rainbow, (iris,) and 
we might take the same liberty with it as our translators have sometimes 
taken with the term spirit, and say, The rainbow was round about the throne ; 
but that is not material or necessary here, although it would appear more in 
keeping with the scriptural account of the design of this natural phenomenon. 

Except in the vision of Ezekiel, (ch. i. 28,) the only allusion we have 
to the rainbow in any other portion of the Scriptures than the Apocalypse, 
is in the account given of the covenant made with Noah and his posterity, 
Genesis ix. 11-16; there the bow of God is said to be set in the heavens,* 


* “T do set my bow in the cloud,” &c. 


THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 9 


as a token of assurance that the earth shall no more be destroyed by a flood 
—that the ground should be no more cursed for man’s sake, notwithstand- 
ing the wickedness and evil imaginations of man’s heart were as great as 
they were before this fearful visitation. 

The rainbow was thus a token of the sparing mercy of the Almighty ; not, 
we may presume, that it was first created after the flood for this purpose, 
but having been originally created with the design of this application, its 
purpose was then pointed out. The formation of the rainbow is instrument- 
ally effected by the reflection and refraction of the sun’s rays from the 
falling drops of water ; perhaps we may say, also, by the intermingling of 
these rays with the particles of rain: its beautiful appearance resulting from 
the united action of the sun, and of the element of water. Corresponding 
with this, by the eye of faith, we perceive, in the Gospel display of divine 
mercy, a result of the combined influence of the Sun of righteousness and 
of the fountain opened for the washing away of sin and uncleanness. In 
other words, the imputed righteousness of Christ and his atonement, are the 
two elements of the exhibition of divine mercy, affording the disciple a 
token of his preservation from the merited wrath of infinite justice. As the 
descendant of Noah looked to the bow in the clouds, and as the wounded 
Israelite in the wilderness looked to the serpent lifted up, so the Christian 
looks to the Gospel for an assurance of the covenant mercies of his God. 

§ 120. But the rambow about the throne on this occasion seems to 
_have been wanting in the varied and splendid tints produced by a full and 
perfect action of solar rays. It was of a sea-green colour ;—in appearance 
like an emerald. An appearance more indicative of the element of wrath 
than of that of mercy. Or, if we would carry the analogy further, the bow 
here may be said to reflect the colour prevalent in the clothing of the earth, 
rather than the brilliancy of that celestial orb, so happily a type of Him, 
who is said to clothe Himself with light, (the perfection of righteousness,) 
as with a garment. In this green rainbow, therefore, we may perceive the 
representation of an indistinct conception of the gracious provision of the 
new covenant, not yet supposed to be fully revealed. The scene contem- 
plated, is that of the Deity seated on a throne of judgment ; equivalent to 
the exhibition of the divine character under the old dispensation: the 
token of mercy being a token only of forbearance, and not of free and entire 
forgiveness. The beholders of this rainbow contemplate it as a reflection, 
in part at least, of their own moral perfection ; an intermingling of their 
merits and of their works of propitiation with the merits of their Redeemer— 
the difference of colour arising from a deficiency in the optics of the 
beholder, not in the object itself—as if we were left to frame our views of 
the plan of redemption from the Old Testament alone ; or as if, with the 
New Testament in our hands, we regarded the Gospel only as a part of the 


10 


THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 


old dispensation ; or, as if the apostles on the mount had seen their Master 
ministering to Moses and Elias, instead of beholding, as-they did, Moses and 


Elias ministering to him. 


The law and the prophets were until John ; since that time the kingdom 


of God is preached, (Luke xvi. 16.) 


The law set forth its propitiatory pro- 


visions, but they are legal provisions, and to be met by works of man’s 


performance. 
mercy ; but they were conditional. 


The prophets, too, uttered their conditional promises of 
The rainbow, under the old dispensa- 
tion, was thus in sight like an emerald. 


The Lamb of God had not yet 


made his appearance ; the Book of grace had not yet been opened; the Sun 


of righteousness, with healing in his wings, had not yet arisen. 


But this 


epoch we may suppose to be now about being reached, as we shall see in 


the next chapter. 


Vs. 4, 5,6. And round about the throne 
(were) four and twenty seats; and upon 
the seats I saw four and twenty elders 
sitting, clothed in white raiment; and 
they had on their heads crowns of gold. 
And out of the throne proceeded light- 
nings and thunderings, and voices. And 
(there were) seven lamps of fire burning 
before the throne, which are the seven 
Spirits of God. And before the throne 
(there was) a sea of glass like unto erys- 
tal: and in the midst of the throne, and 
round about the throne, were four beasts 
full of eyes before and behind. 


rw a ~ , ΄ 
Kui κυκλόϑεν τοῦ ϑρόνου Fgovor εἰκοσι- 
' ‘ ΄ r 
τέσσαρες ' καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς ϑρόνους εἰκοσιτέσ- 
' 
σαρὰς πρεςβυτέρους καϑημένους, περιβεβλη- 
r c ~ \ 2 ‘ 
μένους ἐν ἱματίοις λευκοῖς, καὶ ἐπὶ TUS» 
. ? ~ , ~ + 
κεφαλὰς αὐτῶν στεφάγους χρυσοῦς. Kai ἐκ 
- y , 2 
τοῦ ϑρόνου ἐχπορεύονται ἀστραπαὶ καὶ φω- 
εἶ ‘ , ‘ 
γαὶ καὶ βρονταί" καὶ ἑπτὰ hopmudss πυρὸς 
’ , ~ / , “J ‘ 
καιόμεναι ἐνώπιον TOU ϑρόνου, αἵ εἰσι τὰ 
c ‘ , ~ ~ Ψ'. - 
ἑπτὰ πνεύματα τοῦ ϑεοῦ: καὶ ἐνώπιον τοῦ 
΄ Ss , c ’ a 
Foovov ὡς ϑάλασσα ταλίνη, ὁμοία πκρυσ- 
7 Ys. ' Fy , \ 7 
τάλλῳ" καὶ ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ ϑρόγου καὶ κυκλῳ 
~ ig ' ~ U 2 
τοῦ ϑρόνου τέσσαρα ζῶα γέμοντα ὀφϑαλ- 
- ᾿ 3: 
μῶν ἔἕμπροσϑεν καὶ ὁπισϑεν. 


§ 121. We class these three verses together, because they all relate 


more particularly to the throne, and confirm! our apprehension that this 
throne is a seat or tribunal, especially of judgment: the seene presenting an 
exhibition of the Deity and his attributes, as they were contemplated prior 
to the gospel development of sovereign mercy. 

‘And round about the throne four and twenty seats, and upon the 


seats,’ &c.—The word here translated seats, is the same as that just before 


rendered throne ; but it is plain that these seats (ϑρόνοι), are to be distin- 
guished from that which is so repeatedly spoken of as the throne, or seat, 


encircled by the others. 


These twenty-four seats are subordinate thrones, 


but they may still be contemplated as tribunals of judgment ;—as it is said, 


in allusion to the spiritual Jerusalem, Ps. exxu. 5, “There are set thrones 


of judgment—the thrones of the house of David.” 


The figure may be bor- 


rowed from the council of twenty-three elders, said to have been constituted 
at Jerusalem, acting as a judicial assembly, (Cruden. Concord. art. Elder.) 
The number, twenty-four, may be put for the twelve patriarchs and the twelve 


, 


minor prophets, representing so many heads or principles of the old dispensa- 


THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 11 


tion, or, in the aggregate, representing the dispensation itself; or it may be put 
for the twelve patriarchs and the twelve apostles, as a figure of the elements 
both of the old and new dispensations, as it was also promised to the apos- 
ues, Matt. xix. 28, and Luke xxii. 30, that they should sit on twelve 
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. That is, the leading elements 
of truth in the Old and New Testaments are to be virtually the judges in 
matters of doctrine pertaining to the mystery of redemption. The elements 
of the new covenant being associated with those of the old from the begin- 
ning, although not equally developed to human understanding ; as the prin- 
ciples of mercy, as well as of justice, have always been constituents of the 
divine character. In all the provisions, dispensations, and revelations of God, 
they have been manifested; although the manner, in which the elements of 
mercy have been reconciled with those of justice, is developed only in the 
Gospel. 

We incline however to the opinion, that these twenty-four elders repre- 

sent the patriarchs and prophets, or especially the elements of the old dis- 
* pensation, first, on account of their appellation of elders, or presbyters, 
pre-eminently—the elements of the gospel occupying, as we may say, the 
rank of juniors ; secondly, because the present scene, as we have sug- 
gested, is one antecedent to gospel revelation; and thirdly, because, when 
the elements of the old and new dispensations are supposed to co-operate, 
they are represented, as we shall notice hereafter, by the number 144, or 
twelve multiplied into twelve. The twenty-four tribunals, therefore, around 
the throne of the Supreme Judge, may be said to symbolize something 
equivalent to the law and the testimony. 'The twenty-four elders are the 
triers, by which all doctrines are to be tried, as it is said, Is. viii. 20, “If 
they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” 

§ 122. ‘Sitting, clothed in white.—These elders were seen upon their 
tribunals of judgment—not idle, but occupied with the performance of their 
respective functions. So the process of this trial may be said to be in per- 
petual operation. Doctrines and principles are now tried and to be tried by 
the standard of the law and of the testimony, and the truth is and has been 
continually elicited. ‘Truth and error are to grow together until the harvest ; 
but the fields are already white unto the harvest, and the reapers are already 
engaged. The wheat—the truth—is being gathered in, and the tares—the 
errors—are being separated for destruction. 

‘Clothed in white.’—White linen is expressly said (Rev. xix. 8) to be 
the righteousness of saints ; that is, we suppose, the divine righteousness 
imputed to the saints, for there is none other truly white, as already remarked. 
The elements of the law and testimony, acting as triers, appear in the uni- 
form and livery of this imputed righteousness, showing their qualification 
and destination for the office of judges, as the judicial robe is intended to 


12 THE THRONE [IN HEAVEN. 


point out the authority of him who wears it. This white clething accord- 
ingly represents the elders rather as the ministers of this righteousness, than 
as the beneficiaries of it. 

‘ And they had on their heads crowns of gold.’—Tokens of victory— 
crowns, not diadems—crowns of truth, (golden,) capable of withstanding the 
test, or trial of the Assayer ; and tokens of victory in the cause of truth. In 
which cause, each of these judges or triers is pointed out as having been 
triumphant, or as destined to be so; their victory corresponding with that 
attributable to the law and to the testimony, (ὃ 121.) 

§ 123. ‘ And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings, 
and voices,’ or sounds.—Accompaniments corresponding almost precisely 
with those attending the giving of the law, as described Exod. xix. 16 and 
18: ‘“ And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were 
thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice 
of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp 
trembled. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord 
descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of. 
a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.” So, Ps. 1. 3, “Our God 
shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and 
it shall be very tempestuous round about him.” That is, tempestuous with 
thunderings and lightnings. And Ps. xcvii. 2, “Clouds and darkness are 
round about him; righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his 
throne. A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. 
His lightnings enlightened the world; the earth saw, and trembled.” 
These passages cannot but indicate that wherever we find this exhibition 
of thunderings, and lightniags, and noises, or voices, there the Deity is 
manifested, especially in his judicial as well as his sovereign character. 

‘ And seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven 
Spirits of God.’—These must be the same Spirits as those mentioned Rev. 
i. 4, supposed to be emanations, or distinct operations, of the Holy Spirit. 
The same Holy Spirit, under the legal dispensation, a devouring fire, being, 
under the Gospel dispensation, the comforter and source of grace and peace. 
Under the latter aspect, these emanations are spoken of only as seven spirits 
before the throne : under the former, that is, in the judicial representation, 
they are described as lamps of fire burning before the throne ; the process 
of burning, being peculiar to the action of Divine justice,—as Is. iv. 4, 
where the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning are described as being 
in joint operation. This burning may have some allusion to the operation 
of that fire which is to “ try every man’s work of what sort it is.” 

‘Which are the seven Spirits of God.—We have already suggested 
(Ὁ 9) that the peculiarity of this number seven is, that it constitutes an inte- 
ger, being put for the whole of whatever may be represented by it—as 


THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 13 


the seven Spirits of God are equal to the whole Holy Spirit—seven being 
the figure of something perfect, complete, entire. So the seven churches are 
the whole church ; contemplated, perhaps, under seven different aspects. 

There are a number of spirits mentioned in the Scriptures, which may be 
said to be Spirits of God ; or rather, there are a number of appellations of this 
one Spirit. In Gen. i. 2, it is said, “The Spirit of God moved upon the 
face of the waters.” Job. xxvii. 3, “The Spirit ni God is in my nostrils,”’ 
and xxxili. 4, “‘ The Spirit of God hath made me.”’ Here the term is appli- 
cable, in a eam sense, to the creative and preserving power of the Deity ; 
but in most other passages of the Scriptures, there seems to be no distinc- 
tion drawn between the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of God. The first being 
spoken of, Rom. xv. 16, and the last, 1 Cor. vi. 11, as the same power or 
instrument of sanctification. We may presume, therefore, that, by the seven 
Spirits of God, something is to be understood equivalent to seven operations 
of the Holy Spirit—seven peculiar modes in which Divine power is mani- 
fested, with immediate reference to the work of redemption. Such, for 
example, as the Spirit of truth, John xiv. 17, xv. 26, and xvi. 13 ; the Spirit 
of adoption, Rom. viii. 15; the Spirit of promise, Eph. i. 13; the Spirit of 
glory, 1 Pet. iv. 14; the Spirit of grace, Heb. x. 29 ; the Spirit of faith, ii. 
Cor. iv. 13; the Spirit of sanctification, 2 Thess. ii. 13; and 1 Pet. i. 2. 
Not that even these are different operations, but rather that they are 
different figures, under which the same operation is represented ; as, to be 
adopted in Christ, is to be set apart, or sanctified in him. 

These Spirits are ‘‘ before the throne.” They are the chosen means or 
instruments of the Divine Sovereign. The appointed ministers of the 
Supreme Ruler. ‘They are compared to fire and to flame, because, as pow- 
erful exhibitions of the divine word or purpose, they try and consume the 
delusive doctrines of error. These, however, are only our suggestions. 
The appellations above selected are Scripture terms, and it appears reason- 
able, at least, in searching for the character of the Spirits of God, spoken of 
in the Scriptures, that we should gather the meaning of these terms from 
those Scriptures, and not from other sources. 

It may be said, that if, as we have supposed, the exhibition now under con- 
sideration be that of the Supreme Being, in his judicial character especially, 
these lamps, or spirits, should be of the same character. But, as we have: 
before remarked, the attributes of God must have been the same from all 
eternity ; and the elements of mercy, as well as those of justice, have always 
formed a portion of these attributes. Besides, we have the express declara- 
tion, Rev. i. 4, that grace and peace come from the seven Spirits before the 
throne ; and these seven lamps burning before the throne, are declared to be 
the seven Spirits of God. They are attributes of his sovereignty, even on. 


14 THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 


the tribunal of justice, although their beneficent operation may not be there 
exhibited. 

§ 124. ‘ And before the throne a sea of glass like unto crystal ,’—or, more 
strictly, a transparent sea like unto crystal—the artificial substance, glass, 
not being generally known in the time of the apostle: and the word rendered 
in our common version ef glass, being, as it will be perceived, an adjective, 
and not a substantive, and applicable to any pellucid material. 

The only other place in which the term crystal is made use of in the New 
Testament, as applicable to a body of water; is at the close of this vision, 
(Rev. xxii. 1 :) ‘And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as 
crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” 

Collating the two passages, we are struck with the difference, that, 
although both these elements are compared for transparency to the same 
substance, and both are mentioned in immediate connection with the throne, 
they differ in this, that one is a sea, and the other a river. The difference 
is not in their appearance, but in their essential qualities ; sea-water being 
incapable of sustaining life, and ill adapted even to the purpose of purifica- 
tion, while pure river-water is peculiarly suitable for both these purposes. 
The peculiar characteristic of the sea is its destructive power: the charac- 
teristic of a stream of pure and wholesome water is its life-giving and 
fructifying capability. Fresh water is indispensable for animal life; it 
cleanses, too, without destroying: as a figure, it thus happily represents 
the indispensable element of salvation, the atonement of a Redeemer—cleans- 
ing the soul from the guilt of sin, while it preserves the eternal life of the 
sinner. 'The water of the sea, on the contrary, so far from allaying the 
sensation of thirst, increases the distress occasioned by it; while it can 
cleanse only by washing away the objects exposed to its action, as a deluge 
may purify the surface of the earth by sweeping every thing before it. The 
sea and the waves roaring, (Luke xxi. 25,) are thus figurative, in Scripture, 
of the threatenings of divine justice ; the sea itself representing the element 
of the destruction pronounced by the law upon every soul of man that doeth 
evil. As, in a literal sense, it was only the voice of Jesus that could quiet 
the tempest to which his followers were exposed, so, in a spiritual sense, 
it is only by his redeeming and atoning power, that the progress of God’s 
avenging justice can be stayed; and, while labourmg under the alarm of 
a guilty conscience, so it is only in proportion as the disciple hears the 
blessed voice of his Redeemer, that he can feel his apprehensions allayed. 
The sea before the throne thus represents the provision for meeting the 
requisitions of vindictive justice. The element of punishment forms, as we 
may say, a prominent feature in this solemn exhibition of judicial array ; 
as in ancient criminal courts the lictors, or executioners of the sentence of 


THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 15 


the law, were present with the judge, perhaps as much to exhibit the 
power of the supreme authority, as to carry its decisions into effect. 

This sea of glass was in a quiescent state ; for the water of the sea, 
when violently agitated, is not clear: so the preparation only for executing 
the sentence of the law, whatever that sentence may be, and not the 
execution of it, is here represented. The divine power to punish is shown, 
but fearful and destructive as the operation must be, it is restrained by the 
forbearance and long-suffering of the Sovereign. The sea was clear as 
crystal : so it is an essential to the character of God that he should be clear 
when he judges, (Ps. li. 4.) ‘The clearness and impenetrability of crystal, 
may thus represent the perfect purity and inflexibility of divine justice. 

Consistently with our remarks upon the preceding figures, it may be 
said, that we ought, even here, to suppose some representation of the 
purpose of divine mercy, existing from all eternity in the mind of an un- 
changeable Being, such as Jehovah declares himself to be, Mal. iii. 6; 
“For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not con- 
sumed.” And we do find this in the nature of the figure selected to 
represent this element of justice. 

The action of the natural sun extracts from the sea the pure particles 
of water; these particles, exhaled, are condensed and form clouds. The 
clouds are carried to the shores, and, intercepted by the high lands, 
accumulate and fall in showers upon the earth; more especially in the 
mountainous regions, whence, by innumerable streams they descend in 
rivers, replenishing the springs and fountains, and affording the means of 
purifying and sustaining every living thing. So, from the action of the Sun 
of righteousness, even upon the element of vindictive justice, originates that 
life-giving, soul-cleansing supply, whence issues the fountain spoken of by 
the prophet, (Zech. xii. 1,) and the river of life seen by the apostle, (Rev. 
xxii. 1.) The provision of mercy, as well as of justice, is there, before the 
throne ; but the book developing the mystery is not yet opened. 

§ 125 * And in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, 
four beasts full of eyes, before and behind.’—The term beasts, employed in 
this place, in our common version, is unfortunate and injudicious. Unfortunate, 
because we associate with this English appellation something in a bad 
sense ; whereas it is plain that these four attendants of the throne are 
subjects to be contemplated with favour and veneration. It is injudicious, 
because it is the term applied to the horned and idolatrous monsters after- 
wards described; while in the original t these very different animals are 
designated by different appellations: that of ζῶα, signifying living things, 
or creatures, being given to the four animals around the throne; and that of 
ϑηρίον, a wild, unclean, or ferocious beast, being the appellation assigned to 
the animals seen to proceed from the sea and earth, Rev. xiii. 1 and 11. 


16 THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 


The term ζῶα is that employed in the Septuagint translation of Ezekiel’s 
vision, (Ezek. i. 5,) rendered in our common version by the living crea- 
tures, which appellation would have been much more appropriate for these 
four animals seen about the throne. The term ζῶον, plural ζῶα, is met 
with but ‘in three passages of the New Testament, exclusive of the Apoca- 
lypse, and in only one of these, (Heb. xiii. 11,) unaccompanied with an 
adjective, specifying its character. In that passage it is very evidently 
applied to animals, Levitically clean—the beasts, as the word is there 
translated, being supposed to be those slaughtered in sacrifice, and con- 
sequently clean. On the other hand, the term ϑηρίον is applied, Mark i. 13, 
to the wild beasts of the wilderness; Acts x. 12, to unclean animals; Acts 
xxvill. 4 and 5, to the serpent that fastened upon Paul’s hand; Tit. i. 12, 
to the Cretians, χαχὰ ϑηρία, evil beasts, or unclean animals; and James 
i. 7, to wild beasts. 

We accordingly suppose these four living creatures, intimately con- 
nected with the throne, to be opposites of wild or destructive, or Levitically 
unclean animals; and to represent four principles, or elements, sustaining, 
or subordinate to that principle which exhibits especially the sovereignty of 
God, or which, as a tribunal of justice, designates its occupant as the 
Supreme Judge. Their number, four, corresponds with that of the living 
creatures seen in vision by the prophet, and their eyes before and behind 
correspond in some degree with the four faces of Ezekiel’s living creatures, 
enabling them to regard on all sides around them. So, too, in this vision of 
the prophet, the firmament above, or upon the heads of the living creatures, 
was in appearance like crystal,—“ the terrible crystal,” as we have rendered 
it—and above this firmament (or sea) of crystal, was the likeness of 
a throne, with the likeness as the appearance of a man above it, together 
with the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain. 

The two visions have so strong a resemblance, that perhaps the proper 
understanding of one would afford a key to the other. We can only at 
present, however, approximate an explanation, by supposing them both to 
vepresent a manifestation of the judicial character of the Deity. The four 
living creatures in both instances, symbolizing, no doubt, four attributes, or 
elements of divine sovereignty. 

‘Full of eyes before and behind, —The eyes of the apocalyptic animals, 
before and behind, mark them out as having a retrospective as well asa 
prospective action—looking to the past as well as to the future—perhaps 
characterizing their relation to the old and to the new economy ; the four 
faces of Ezekiel’s animals, representing a similar ubiquity of regard. 


THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 17 


V.7. And the first beast was like a lion, Καὶ τὸ ζῶον τὸ “πρῶτον ὅμοιον λέον τι, χαὶ 
and the second beast like a calf, and the ὃ 

4 τὸ εὖτε 0» ξῶον ὁ ὃ τς uo. {) καὶ τὸ τ i- 
third beast had a face as a man, and the ᾿ μὲ Wisin id 9 


ε ᾿ τον ξῶον ἔχον τὸ πρόφωπον ὡς ἀνϑρώπου, 
fourth beast was like a flying eagle. 


καὶ τὸ τέταρτον ζῶον ὕμοιον ἀετῷ πετο- 
μένῳ. 


§ 126. ‘ And the first beast,’ &c.—So it is said of the living creatures of 
Ezekiel’s vision, ‘“ As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of 
a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face 
of an ox, on the left side ; and they four had also the face of an eagle.” The 
word translated a calf, in the Apocalypse, being the same in the Septuagint 
as that which we render, in Ezekiel, by the term ox. These living creatures, 
however, we must bear in mind, were not in either case the animals them- 
selves toto corpore. There was only something in their appearance resem- 
bling these animals, as the physiognomy of man is supposed to show his char- 
acter; so the living creatures of Ezekiel are said to have the faces of the 
animals alluded to, that is, the characteristics in a spiritual and scriptural 
sense. 

The lion is cited, in Scripture, particularly as an object of fear and dread, 
on account of his ferocity and strength. What we call the nobler qualities 
of the animal are not there noticed. So, Deut. xxxiii. 20, ‘Gad dwelleth 
as a lion, and teareth the arm with the crown of the head ;”’ and, Judges 
xiv. 18, “The men said, What is stronger than a lion?” Lions were also 
instruments of divine wrath for the punishment of disobedience, 1 Kings 
xiii. 24-26, and xx. 36. The king’s wrath, and the fear of the king, are 
said to be as a roaring lion, Prov. xix. 12, and xx. 2; and the roaring of 
a lion is repeatedly alluded to as something peculiarly intimidating. Hence, 
we may suppose the living creature like a lion, to represent the principle 
of vindictive justice; as, to be given to the lion, or to be amongst young 
lions, is a scriptural figure, for being on the brink of destruction. We may 
suppose this beast, or living creature, accordingly to represent the power 
of the sovereign to avenge his own cause—to punish, as well as to condemn ; 
as it is expressed, Rom. xii. 19, “ Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith 
the Lord.” 

§ 127. ‘ The second animal was like a calf.’—An ox, or young bullock, 
as the Greek term μόσχος is variously rendered. A young bullock without 
blemish, was the sin-offering prescribed, Lev. iv. 3-21, for the sin of the 
priest, and for that of the whole congregation. The blood of this bullock 
was the blood of sprinkling, typical of that which, as the apostle says, 
speaketh better things than the blood of Abel :—the atoning offering carried 
forth without the camp, as Christ himself suffered without the gate. The 
bullock was also a clean animal, dividing the hoof: acceptable asa sacrifice, 
and permitted as an article of food—an element of life. This living crea- 


18 THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 


ture like a calf, therefore, may be supposed to represent that principle of 
propitiation, or vicarious offering, upon which divine mercy is extended to 
the sinner, or perhaps a symbol of divine mercy itself ;—the lion and the 
calf, or bullock, being employed as figures of two principles of divine 
government, apparently as opposed to each other, as these two animals are 
opposite in their natures. 

The same imagery is met with in the language of the prophet, predicting 
the blessings of Messiah’s reign, Is. xi. 6, “The wolf shall dwell with the 
lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the 
‘young lion, and the fatling together, and a little child shall leadthem. And 
the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together, 
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.” <A figurative description of the 
opposing principles of Justice and Mercy, reconciled in the economy of 
grace; the instrumentality of the little child, beg no doubt that of the 
holy child Jesus, (Acts iv. 27 and 30,) alluded to in another prediction : 
“Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,” &c., Is. ix. 6. 

§ 128. ‘And the third living creature had the face as ἃ man.’—An 
animal with a human face may be supposed to possess the faculty of reason, 
or wisdom, in which man excels all other creatures in this state of existence. 
The creature is not spoken of as being like a man, but it had a human face, 
the index of mind. We may suppose this animal to represent the attribute 
of mind or wisdom. The wisdom of God; especially the wisdom exhib- 
ited in devising the means of reconciling his justice and his merey—the wis- 
dom of God in a mystery. 

‘ And the fourth like a flying eagle.’-—Not resembling the bird in face 
or form, but in action. Like to an eagle when flying—spreading abroad her 
wings—taking her young upon them—bearing them on her wings, Deut. 
xxxil. 11. Jn allusion to which, God himself says to the people of Israel; 
Exod. xix. 4, “ Ye have seen how I bare you on eagles’ wings.” Wings 
are also a scriptural figure of means of protection, or shelter—as Ruth ii. 
12, “ Under whose wings thou art come to trust ;” Ps. xvii. 8, “ Hide me 
under the shadow of thy wings ;” Ixii. 7, “In the shadow of thy wings 
will I rejoice ;” xxxvi. 7, “‘ How excellent is thy loving-kindness, Ὁ God ; 
therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings ;” 
Ivii. 1, “ Be merciful unto me, Ὁ God, for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in 
the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge ;” Ixi. 4, “I will abide in 
thy tabernacle for ever : I will trust in the covert of thy wings ;” xci. 4, “ He 
shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his 
truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” ‘Taking these passages into consid- 
eration, we may suppose the protection afforded by the flying eagle to her 
young, the spreading out of her wings, to be a figure of that protection and 
support which God provides for those dépending upon Him in his own wm- 


THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 19 


puted righteousness ;—a protection sometimes represented asa robe, a house, 
a tabernacle, or a shield ; and sometimes spoken of as an upholding, or bear- 
ing up, of his own right hand. The eagle flying representing, perhaps, the 
Holy Spirit as the Comforter exhibiting this gracious provision, and bringing 
near this righteousness, Is. xlvi. 13. 

The principles of divine justice, of propitiation or mercy, of sovereign 
purpose, and of gracious imputation, may be thus represented by the four 
living creatures, in the midst of, and round about the throne ;—principles exist- 
ing unchangeably, and from all eternity, having always been in and about 
the throne—referring to the old as well as to the new economy, typically 
revealed under the first dispensation, and expressly taught under the last. 


V. 8. And the four beasts [living crea- 


tures | had each of them six wings about 
(hissy and (they were) full of eyes with- 
in: and they rest not day and night, say- 
ing. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Al- 
mighty, which was, and is, and is to 


. - a >a > ~ 

Kot τὰ τέσσαρα ζῶα, ἕν καϑ' ἕν αὐτῶν 
»” > ν᾽ ᾿ «“ ’ 4 8ὲ 
ἔχον ἀνὰ πτέρυγας ἕξ, κυκλοϑεν καὶ ἔσω- 

? ~ > ’ 

ey γέμουσιν ὀφρϑαλμῶν, καὶ ἀνάπαυσιν οὐκ 
, c , c 
ἔχουσιν ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτύς, λέγοντες" ἅγιος, 
« a , c ‘ a 
ἅγιος, ἅγιος κύριος ὃ Feds ὃ παντοχράτωρ, 


come. ὃ ἣν καὶ ὃ ὧν καὶ ὃ ἐρχόμενος. 

ᾧ 129. “Ηδά each of them six wings, round about and within full of 
eyes. —According to the order of the Greek, and as it is pointed in the edi- 
tion from which we copy—the words within parenthesis being supplied by our 
translators, as if it were the animals that were full of eyes—whereas, the 
wings must be referred to here, the animals having been already described 
as thus abundantly supplied with the organs of knowledge ;—the abund- 
ance of the supply in both case$ indicating that, whatever the creatures or 
their wings represent, it must be something combining with it the omnis- 
cience of the Deity. 

The number of the wings, six, reminds us of an appearance somewhat 
similar, described by one of the prophets, (Is. vi. 1-3,) “I saw also the 
Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 
Above it stood the seraphims ; (or, according to the Septuagint, around him 
stood the seraphim ;) each one had six wings ; with twain he covered (or 
veiled) his face, and with twain he covered (or veiled) his feet, and with 
twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy 
is the Lord God of Hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” 

The number of these seraphim is not mentioned, nor is the appellation 
to be found elsewhere in the sacred volume, although the prophet speaks of 
them as of something familiarly known. Their avocation is the same as. 
that of the four living creatures of the Apocalypse ; and whatever may be 
represented by both, or either of them, it must be something virtually pro- 
claiming or making known the holiness, sanctification, or setting apart 
(ἁγιασμός) of the Lord, as a Being distinct from all others. 


20 THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 


The passage throws some light on the uses of the wings: “ With twain 
he covered (or veiled) his face,”’—concealing his purpose, or that of his mis- 
sion ; as the divine purpose was veiled under the old dispensation by dark 
sayings, (Ps. xlix. 4,) or by the covering of types, symbols, and figurative 
expressions. With twain he covered his feet, or concealed his progress. As 
is said of the Most High, (Ps. Ixxvii. 19,) “ΤῊ way is in the sea, and 
thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known ;” and 1 Cor. 
ii. 11 and 16, “For what man knoweth the things (purposes) of a man, 
save the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so, the things (purposes) 
of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God.” ‘For who hath known 
the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?” or, as it is expressed, 
Rom. xi. 34, “ Who hath been his counsellor?’ With twain he did fly.— 
An intimation of the certain and rapid progress of the principles, or ele- 
ments, represented by these Seraphim, notwithstanding the concealment 
before described ; this progress in the development of truth virtually per- 
forming what they are said to proclaim: that is, manifesting the holiness of 
the Almighty. 

‘ And full of eyes within..—We have already supposed this to apply to 
the wings. By pointing the word κυκλόϑεν, as if in parenthesis, we might 
read the passage, “" Each of them had six wings, encircling, and within they 
were full of eyes ;” but the difference is hardly worth discussion. The 
wings are parts of the body; and if the whole animal be full of eyes— 
as full as possible—its wings must be full of eyes. The prominent fea- 
ture of the figure we still presume to be that of ommiscience, as before 
intimated. The four living creatures represent four attributes of Jehovah, 
in purpose and action so blended with his omniscience, that one cannot 
be separated from the other. So the rings of the wheels, in the first vision 
of Ezekiel, were full of eyes; and in the vision by the river Chebar, it is 
said of the cherubim, “ Their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, 
and their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes round about,” (Ezek. i. 
18, and x. 12)—the omniscience of the Deity pervading the whole instru- 
ment of his will. 

‘ And they rest not, day nor night,’ &c., &c.—This ascription of holi- 
ness, is something in continual and perpetual operation—it is something 
virtually proclaiming the eternity of the Almighty, as well as his holiness ; 
while the treble repetition of the term holy, may imply also, as some sup- 
pose, the design of setting forth the triune personality of the object of ado- 
ration. If these four living creatures represent four elements of divine sove- 
reignty, the operation of these elements is virtually that of setting forth 
the Holiness, the Eternity, and the Trinity of Jehovah. This operation has 
been, is, and always will be, in process ; but it is seen, or exhibited, only in 
proportion as it is developed in the revelation which Jesus Christ makes of 


THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 


21 


himself? As it was seen in vision by the apostle in a figurative manner on this 
occasion, it will be seen by the disciple in a spiritual sense whenever and 
wherever the truths of divine revelation are fully understood. 


Vs. 9, 10, 11. And when those’ beasts 
[living creatures] give glory, and honour, 
and thanks to him that sat on the throne, 
who liveth for ever and ever, the four and 
twenty elders fall down before him that sat 
on the throne, and worship him that liveth 
for ever and ever, and cast their crowns 
before the throne, saying, Thou art wor- 
thy. O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, 
and power: for thou hast created all 
things, and for thy pleasure they are and 
were created, 


Kat ὅταν δώσουσι τὰ ζῶα δόξαν καὶ τιμὴν 
καὶ εὐχαριστίαν τῷ καϑημένῳ ἐπὶ τοῦ ϑρό- 
vou, τῷ ζῶντι εἰς τοὺς αἰώνας τῶν αἰώνων, 
πεσοῦνται OL εἰχοσιτέσσαρες πρεςβύτεροι 
ἐνώπιον τοῦ καϑημένου ἐπὶ τοῦ ϑρόνου, καὶ 


. ’ ~ ~ ‘ >~ 
προςκυνήσουσε τῷ ζῶντι εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας 


- ~ ‘ ΄ 
τῶν αἰώνων, καὶ βαλοῦῖσι τοὺς στεφάνους 
€ , = ΄ ' He 
αὑτῶν ἐνώπιον τοῦ ϑρόνου, λέγοντες " ἄξιος 
ες te ΄ ys ‘ δ “ὦ ~ ‘ 
εἶ, ὃ κύριος καὶ ὃ ϑεὸς ἡμῶν, λαβεῖν τὴν 
Sinn ‘ ΄ o 
δόξαν καὶ τὴν τιμὴν καὶ τὴν δύναμιν" ὅτε 

1» τιμὴ Ι 


σὺ ἔχτισας τὰ πάντα, καὶ διὰ τὸ ϑέλημά 
σου ἡσὰν καὶ ἐκτίσϑησαν. 

§ 130. “Δπά when the living creatures,’ &c.—Here the ascription of 
holiness to the almighty and eternal God, mentioned in the preceding verse, 
is referred to as equivalent to giving glory, and honour, and thanks to 
him that sat on the throne ; that is, the elements of justice, mercy, &c., as 
displayed in the plan of redemption, are the instruments of giving to God 
the glory, honour, and grateful praise due to his name. It is not till the 
four living creatures perform their act of homage, that the elders perform 
their act of prostration, and cast their crowns before the throne. The 
reciprocal action of the elders, is a consequence, or result, of that of the 
four living creatures. When the four living creatures utter their voices, the 
four-and-twenty elders fall down. ‘The four living creatures never cease to 
offer their ascriptions—they rest not, day nor night—there is no pause in 
their act of homage ; consequently, the four-and-twenty elders never cease 
to prostrate themselves : that is, the action, or operation of both is virtually 
ceaseless and eternal, although not always manifest to created beings. 
The apostle, favoured by his heavenly position, witnessed this peculiarity. 
So it may be witnessed by all who, with him, behold things in spirit, or in 
their spiritual sense. The four-and-twenty elders we suppose to be elements 
of the Old Testament dispensation, represented by the twelve patriarchs and 
twelve prophets. This dispensation may be said to have acquired a crown, 
as excelling in its way ; but it was a legal dispensation, though perfect in 
its kind, subordinate in its design, and destined to be superseded by another. 
Accordingly, no sooner do the elements of divine sovereignty (the four ani- 
mals about the throne) exhibit their operation in ascribing glory, honour, 
and thanks, than this legal dispensation gives way—gives up its crown, or the 
token of its excellence—acknowledging, as it were, the supremacy of sove- 
reign power, the supremacy of the principle, that the Creator has a right to do 
as he pleases with his own. : 


29 THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 


What we say of the legal dispensation as a whole, is equally to be pre- 
dicated of its twenty-four elements. They received, and were seen to have 
crowns of gold, (not diadems,) for they excelled as principles of truth. 
They are manifested to have triumphed, and to wear the token of that tri- 
umph; but they performed only a subordinate part. ‘The ministration of 
death written and engraved on stones was glorious,” but this glory was to be 
‘done away ;” “for even that which was made glorious had no glory in this 
respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth,’” 2 Cor. iii, 7-11. The 
action of the four living creatures we suppose to result, virtually, in a mani- 
festation of this glory that excelleth ; and reciprocally with this manifesta- 
tion, the twenty-four elements of the glory, which was to be done away, 
give up their crowns. 

‘'Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, honour, and power.’—That 
is, to receive the ascription of it. God has this glory, honour, and power in 
himself, and of himself. It is for his creatures only to ascribe it to him—to 
admit and to acknowledge that he has it ; and even here the word rendered 
receive, might better have been translated, take; as the phrase, ‘thou art 
worthy,’ would have been better expressed by that of it becomes thee, which 
appears to be the sense: It becomes thee, O Lord, to take glory, honour, 
and power ; and this especially for the reason assigned. 

§ 131. ‘For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they 
are and were created.—As the Creator of all things, it becomes God to 
assume the glory, honour, and power of his own work. In the nature of 
things, this belongs to him .It cannot be otherwise. Who else could reason- 
ably, or justly, have the glory of what God has done? The case is entirely 
different with every created being. The creature can do nothing of itself— 
man acts only by the power which God gives. ‘The honour and glory of 
what a man does, and ascription of power, belong therefore not to him, but 
to his Creator—to him who gives the power to perform whatever the crea- 
ture does, or effects. 

But besides this, it becomes God to assume this glory and honour of his 
own work, not only because it is of his own creation, but because it was 
designed solely for him and for his pleasure. The creature has the pleasure 
of his employer to consult ; and whatever work results from that pleasure, 
the glory belongs to the employer, and not to the operative. But God 
has no pleasure to consult other than his own—all things were created by 
Him, and for Him ; to Him, therefore, belongs all the glory,—as well that 
of the design, or purpose, as that of the manner in which it is accomplished. 
To Him belongs the glory, because he has the power, morally as well as 
physically, to give or to withold, to create or to destroy; He giveth not 
account of any of his matters, Job xxxiii. 13; He is responsible to no one. 
The thing formed cannot say to him that formed it, ‘‘ Why -hast thou 


THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 293 


made me thus?’ Rom. ix. 20; nor can the clay say to him that fashioned 
it, What makest thou ? 

We are apt to look upon man as being literally, what he is sometimes 
inconsiderately termed, the lord of the creation; as if—because dominion 
is said to have been given him over other created objects,—all things were 
created for him. We forget the myriads of wonders and beauties in the 
vast wildernesses, deserts, and recesses of the earth ; on the tops of lofty 
mountains, at the bottom of the sea, in the seas, and in the ‘atmosphere 
around us; which never meet the eye of man, so as to form subjects of his 
contemplation, and of which we might even doubt the utility, if it were not 
for the assurance of divine revelation, that all things were brought into 
existence, and are sustained in being, for the pena of Him by whom 
they were created. 

ᾧ 132. We have thus, in the scene presented to the Xe upon his 
first entrance into the door opened in heaven, an exhibition of the Deity, as 
the Supreme Being, the Almighty and Eternal God, the Creator of all 
things, sitting on the throne of his sovereignty, receiving continual ascrip- 
tions of glory, honour, and thanks, on the principle of this sovereignty ; to 
which principle all the elements of the legal dispensation are represented as 
subordinate, and as admitting their subordination by joining in this act of 
homage to the Sovereign, for the reason alone that he is the Creator of all 
things, and that all things were created for him. 


Throughout this exhibition there is no specific allusion to the work οἵ 
redemption, nor is this work mentioned as one of the grounds of the ascrip- 


tion of praise, although we afterwards find the same worthiness to receive or 


to take power, and honour, and glory, ascribed to the Lamb that was slain, ) , 


and this because he was slain, (Rev. v. 9, 12, 13.) We accordingly 
presume that, thus far, the development of the mystery of salvation is 
not commenced. ‘The attributes of Jehovah, in which this mystery is 
founded, are represented as existing,—surrounding his throne, and before 
his throne,—but the beneficent purpose emanating from them, is something 
yet remaining to be unveiled, or laid open. 

The picture presented is analogous to that of the opening of the court 
of a monarch, upon some extraordinary occasion ; such as that, perhaps, of 
unfolding the views of the sovereign with regard to an object of great 
importance—the monarch is seen upon the throne, the different functionaries 
occupy their respective places. The whole arrangement of the monarch’s 
administration is represented ; but the declaration of his intentions is some- 
thing for which the assembly is in anxious expectation. Just at this 
moment, when all is prepared for the intended announcement, the apostle 
is admitted as a privileged spectator, having an interest, perhaps, more than 
he is aware of, in the matters about to be made known; but, at the same 

11 


΄σ 


ῇ 


24 THE THRONE IN HEAVEN. 


time, having only an indistinct, or vague idea of their nature and character. 
As such a spectator, he records what he sees with precision and fidelity ; 
not as something which he fully understands, but as something which in due 
time will explain itself. Occasionally the friend by whom he obtains 
admittance to this extraordinary representation, and who is supposed to be 
ever at his side, gives him a few words of explanation ; but this explanation 
itself is a part of the vision, and like the other parts requires interpretation, 
and this by the same uniform rule: as if a stranger were introduced into 
the court of a foreign prince, by some privileged officer, as a highly favoured 
individual, to witness an important transaction about to take place, in 
reference to the government of the prince’s own subjects. The language 
of the court is the language of the country, and the language of the friend 
attending the stranger is the language of the country also. ‘The explana- 
tions of this attendant, therefore, as well as all that which is said in the 
assembly, are in the same foreign language, and are to be translated by the 
same rules. 


THE SEALED BOOK. 25 


CHAPTER WY. 


THE SEALED BOOK. 


V.1. And I saw inthe right hand of Καὶ εἶδον ent τὴν δεξιὰν τοῦ καϑημένου 
him that saton the throne, a book written ἐπὶ τοῦ ϑρόνου βιβλίον γεγραμμένον ἔσω- 


within and on the back side, sealed with Sev nod di0 9-29), κατεσφραγισμένον σφρα- 
seven seals. - Bah 6: 
χισιν ELT. 


§ 133. Norwrrustanpine the interruption caused here by the division 
into chapters, there is no change or intermission in the vision itself. In the 
midst of the scene described in the last chapter, the apostle contemplates 
what he now describes—the adoration of the living creatures, and the 
homage of the elders still continuing—the sea of crystal and the burning 
lamps being still before the throne. 

‘IT saw in the right hand.—The right hand is distinguished for its 
power. ‘The right hand of God is repeatedly spoken of in the Psalms and 
prophets, as the instrument by which he saves and sustains the objects of 
his favour, and by which he overcomes all opposition to his will. The right 
hand of God is the power, by which he saves the sinner. This hand, or 
power, he himself speaks of as consisting in his own righteousness, (Is. xli. 
10;) and the same right hand is spoken of, Ps. xlvili. 10, as full of right- 
eousness. So we may say, the righteousness of God, imputed to the disciple, 
is the right hand of God in the exercise of its power to save. The apostle 
saw, then, in this righteousness or divine power to save, something symbol- 
ically represented as a book. ‘The book of ancient times being a scroll 
rolled up, or a roll of scrolls. This sealed book, or roll, is evidently a mys- 
tery to be unfolded, or developed; there is a mystery in this righteousness 
or divine power to save, which is to be explained or laid open. The parch- 
ment was written within and without—on both sides—perhaps, it would be 
enough to say, that it was full; that it contained every thing to be said. 
This inside and outside, however, may have a more important meaning ; 
such as an internal or secret sense, and an external or apparent sense. This 
last construction, seems to correspond best with the whole tenor of the Apoc- 
alypse ; but, besides the inner and outer sense, this mystery in the right- 
eousness or saving power of God is sealed, concealed, or made close, by 
seven seals. The verb translated sealed, is compounded with a preposition, 
giving intensity to the expression. It was sealed with particular care ; the 
number of the seals—seven—may also have reference to the completeness of 


26 THE SEALED BOOK. 


this sealing; although, it is probable, this has besides a more definite 
bearing. 

~The seal of a letter is that which prevents the contents of the letter from 
being known. By way of approximation, we may suppose the revelation of 
the mind of God, as made in the Old and New Testaments, (perhaps the Old 
Testament alone,) to be the book containing the mystery in question. That 
which prevents the contents of the book from being read, or comprehended, 
is the types and symbols, or typical and symbolical language in which the 
book is written. If we suppose in this book seven sets of figures, under 
which its truths are couched, these sets of figures W would be equivalent to 
seven seals. ‘To obtain a key to the interpretation of these figures, would 
be equal to obtaining the power of opening these seals ; or, whoever opened 
these seals, might be said to be himself the key for this interpretation.* 


V.2. And I saw a strong [mighty] Καὶ εἶδον ἄγγελον ἰσχυρόν, κηρύσσοντα 
angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who 
is worthy to open the book, and to loose 
the seals thereof? 


ἐν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ" τίς ἐστιν ἄξιος ἀνοῖξαι τὰ 

ἐν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ" Tis ἄξιος ἀνοῖξαι τὸ 
r x " = ΕΣ 

βιβλίον καὶ λῦσαι τὰς σφραγῖδας αὐτοῦ. 


ᾧ 134. The word rendered strong, is the same as that translated mighty, 
Rev. x. 1; the latter word seemis to be the most appropriate here, as the 
allusion is not to physical, but to intellectual or moral power. An angel, 
‘as we have before had occasion to observe, ($ 4,) is a messenger of some 
' kind. The messenger may be here put for the message itself, or for a 
ministering spirit acting upon the mind, and exciting to the inquiry—Who 
_ is able to interpret this mystery in the power of Divine righteousness? The 
might of the angel, and the loudness of his voice, may both be intimations 
of the importance of the inquiry ; but the latter may also intimate the extent 
of the challenge given to the whole universe—Who is equal to the task ?— 
affording, as it were, every possible opportunity to every created being to 
accept the challenge. Who is worthy ? whom does it become? who is 
qualified? Is there a created being able to do this ?—The question, itself, 
implying that no mere creature is equal to the task. 


V.3. And no man[no one]inheaven, Kat οὐδεὶς ἠδύνατο ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, οὐδὲ 
nor in earth, neither under the earth, was 
able to open the book, neither to look 
thereon. 


ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, οὐδὲ ὑποκάτω τῆς γῆς, ἀνοῖξαι 
τὸ βιβλίον, οὐδὲ βλέπειν αὐτό. 


The rendering, in our common version, no man, weakens the force of the 


* Perhaps this book might be termed the record of the Divine counsels, as given 
by Moses, David, and the prophets. The figurative clothing of the Revelation ren- 
dering it a sealed book, until the coming of Christ; as the Old Testament was a 
sealed book until explained by the New Testament. We may term even both Test- 
aments, (the Bible,) a sealed” book, till’ due exhibition of the offices and work of 
Christ reveals their true meaning. 


THE SEALED BOOK. ΟἽ 


expression. The original οὐδείς, no one, being applicable to all created 
beings, whether men or angels. No such being in heaven or earth, of any 
kind—celestial or terrestrial, spiritual or literal—was able to unfold this 
mystery, for the benefit of others, or even to look into it for his own under- 
standing. It was, in the strongest sense, a sealed book ; although contain- 
ing things of which it is said, 1 Peter i. 12, the angels (even the messengers 
of God themselves) desire to look into. Prophets and righteous men 
desired to understand its contents, and could not, Matt. xiii. 17. 


V.4. And wept much, because no καὶ ἐγὼ ἔκλαιον πολλά, ὅτι οὐδεὶς ἄξιος 


man [no one] was found worthy to open εἰὑρέϑ. ἀνοῖξαι. τὸ. βιβλίον: ovte βλέ 
4 8 βλέπειν 
and to read the book, neither to look πολ ᾿ ὰ βιβ δ 


thereon. 


1 lamented much, would be, perhaps, a better rendering ; as the original 


does not necessarily suppose a shedding of tears, which we associate with — 


the term weep. ‘The whole scene reminds us of some of the splendid tour- 
naments formerly given by sovereigns, as spectacles to their own subjects, 
and to the representatives of other nations. On these occasions it was cus- 
tomary for a single champion to defy the assembled multitude, to produce 
an antagonist worthy or capable of competing with him in a trial of strength. 
The challenge was given by the herald, proclaiming with a loud voice; the 
whole multitude were in a state of eager anticipation, until the opponent 
made his appearance. We may easily imagine the disappointment of the 
assembly, if, after repeated proclamations of the herald, no competitor pre- 
sented himself. But here, in the sight of the apostle, there was something 
of far greater interest. In the right hand of divine righteousness, there was 
the whole mystery of the plan of salvation for fallen man; but no created 
being was to be found equal to the task of unfolding the wonders of this 
mystery. Not only this, the apostle knew that, with his fellow-sinners, he 
had a special interest in the contents of this book—as a criminal under sen- 
tence of condemnation, when told of a certain document, showing the 
mode in which he may be pardoned, is anxious to obtain the written instru- 
ment, to read it, or to hear it read ; so might the apostle well have felt that 
anxiety to know the mystery of the book before him; and well might he 
lament and weep, when no one was to be found capable of making known 
its precious truths. 


V.5. And one of the elders saith unto Καὶ εἷς ἐκ τῶν πρεςβυτέρων λέγει μοι" 
me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the 
tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath 
prevailed to open the book, and to loose WR, by 46 τ 
the seven seals thereof. καὶ τὰς inte σφραγῖδας αὐτοῦ. 


., ~ » , , ’ c c > ~ 

μὴ κλαῖε" ἰδού, ἐνίκησεν ὃ Leow ὃ ἐκ τῆς φυ- 
a , C rie KY > Alte 

hig Ιούδα, ἡ ῥίζα Auvid, ἀνοῖξαι τὸ βιβλίον 


ᾧ 135. The opening required is not a literal, but a yirtual opening. 


Whether the book be the purpose of God itself, or the typical and figurative 


98 ; THE SEALED BOOK. 


account of that purpose, the unsealing is to be effected by manifestation 
—it is to be acted out. The life, the death, the resurrection, and ascension 
of Jesus Christ, with all that he taught, unfold the purpose of God, and 
thus, if that purpose be the book, open the seals thereof ; or, if the figurative 
revelation of this purpose, given us in the Scriptures, be the sealed book, 
then it is by bringing the life, death, resurrection, ascension, and doctrines 
of Jesus to this figurative revelation, that the last becomes the instrument 
of unlocking the first, or of opening its seals. .In the nature of the case, 
no other being than Christ can perform this work>—So, also, no other could 
look into this purpose of God, to understand it. In him only all the types 
and figures of the Scriptures are fulfilled, and it is therefore only by him that 
they can be interpreted, or the seals broken, if these figures be the seals. 
As he himself said to his disciples, Luke x. 23, 24, “ Blessed are the eyes 
which see the things that ye see ; for I tell you, that many prophets and 
kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, 
and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.” 

In an immediate, natural, and external sense, the types and figures of the 
Old Testament are interpreted by the works and sufferings of Christ, thus 
laying open, or unfolding the outside of the scroll, (book.) In an ulterior, 
spiritual, and inner sense, Christ unfolds and exposes to view the inside of 
the scroll, by exhibiting the doctrinal elements of the mystery of redemp- 
tion. When he gave sight to blind Bartimeus; when he called Lazarus 
from the grave ; when he fed the multitude with a few loaves and fishes ; 
when scourged, and spit upon, and wounded, he died upon the cross; when 
his body was committed to the tomb, and when he rose from the dead, the 
types, and shadows, and prophecies, were literally fulfilled in him, and the 
outside of the book unsealed. When, in a spiritual sense, he anoints the 
eyes with eye-salve, that the simmer may perceive his own destitution ; and 
opens the understanding, that the disciple may perceive why it was that his 
Master thus suffered ;—when, by adoption in him, the sinner is manifested to 
be taken out of his natural position of deadness and darkness in trespasses 
and sins, and to be a new creature in the sight of God, by occupying a posi- 
tion of light and life in Christ ;—when, spiritually, he is seen to be the bread 
of life, because his righteousness or merit is the means of eternal life; and 
to give the water of life, because, in his atonement, or propitiation, there is 
that ablution from sin which preserves the soul from perishing ;—then he 
virtually unseals or unfolds the inside of the book. 

In both these senses the Lamb of God is, in the nature of the case, the 
only fit and proper instrument for developing the purposes of God. The 
book written within and without, required a double fitness in the instrument 
of its development, and this double fitness is found in Christ, and in him 
alone. . 


THE SEALED BOOK. 29 


§ 136. ‘One of the elders saith unto me.’—These elders we suppose 
to represent elements of the old dispensation, or of the revelation compre- 
hending that dispensation. One of these elements performs the part of 
pointing out Jesus Christ, in the characters here spoken of, (the Lion of the 
tribe of Judah, and the Root of David,) as the fit and destined instrument of 
unfolding the mysteries of the book. 

Judah is described as a Lion, and his tribe and power as terminating in 
Suton, Gen. xlix. 8-10, Shiloh being an admitted title of the Messiah, or 
Christ ; and Paul refers to the fact as indisputable, Heb. vii. 14, that our 
Lord sprang out of Judah ; while the root of Jesse is applied also to Jesus 
Christ, Rom. xv. 12. 

This is sufficient to identify the personage in question (the Lamb) with 
Christ, the Saviour; although, in the vision, the revealing of this identity is 
but commencing. ‘The figure of the lion is probably employed here in 
reference to the strength of the animal ; Christ alone having the strength or 
ability to develope the mystery in question—mighty to save, and able to 
reveal. The verb translated prevailed, is the same as that elsewhere 
rendered overcome, conquer, &c. Christ may be said to have overcome 
every obstacle in the way of opening this mysterious book ; but it appears 
by the subsequent part of the chapter, that the victory obtained by the 
Lamb is something else than a triumph merely over difficulties occurring 
in the explanation of a portion of Scripture. He is declared worthy or fit 
to perform the work proposed, because he was slain, &c., (see 9th verse.) 
He had therefore prevailed by being slain, that is, slaughtered, as a victim 
offered at the altar; such being the signification of the term in the original, 
(Rob. Lex. 847.) It was by this sacrifice of himself that he prevailed, or’ 
was qualified to open the book. In effect it is by his vicarious work of 
redemption that Christ unseals, or developes the divine plan of mercy. We 
must judge of the nature of the contest, by the means through which the 
victory is obtained. Christ died for our sins, and was raised for our justifi- 
cation ; the contest, therefore, in which he was engaged, must have been 
with the elements of infinite justice ; these alone rendering the intervention 
of such a champion in behalf of the sinner indispensable. 


V.6. And I beheld, and lo, in the Καὶ εἶδον ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ ϑρόνου καὶ τῶν 
midst of the throne and of the four beasts, τεσσάρων ζώων καὶ ἔν μέσῳ τῶν πρεςβυτέ- 
[living animals,] and in the midst of the των ἀρνίον ἑστηκὺς ὡς ἐσφανμένων z 
elders. stood a Lamb as it had been slain, ° 9 Ste Te ee eee 
having seven horns and seveneyes, which ““9@T@ : f ok Aa 
are the seven Spirits of God sentforthinto τὰ éatu πρεύματα τοῦ ϑεοῦ, τὰ ἀπεσταλ- 


all the earth. μένα εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν. 


' ς ‘ a. 2 ‘ « , = Albee 
κέρατα émtu καὶ ὀφϑαλμοὺς ἑπτά, οἵ εἰσι 


§ 137. ‘And 1 beheld, and lo,’ —xai εἶδον, καὶ ἰδού, according to some 
editions, instead of καὶ εἶδον, ‘and I saw,’ as aboye. The difference is 
unimportant, except that the first form may express a greater change of 


30 THE SEALED BOOK. 


scene, than is implied in the last. Here, there is no change of scenery ; 
the apostle’s eyes only being directed to an object in the assembly not 
before noticed, although previously there—even from the beginning. 

‘In the midst of, &c.—The element of propitiation exists, and is to be 
found in the midst of the, element of divine sovereignty, (the throne,) and 
of the four attributes of Deity, the four living creatures. It is also to be 
found revealed amidst the twenty-four elements of the old dispensation— 
the revelation set forth by the patriarchs aud prophets, ts, (1 Peter, i. 10-12,) 
or perhaps in the midst of both dispensations, if we prefer considering the 
twenty-four elders as figures of the patriarchs and apostles, (Ὁ 121.) 

‘A Lamb as it had been slain.—The Lamb of God, which taketh 
away the sin of the world, John i. 29 and 36; the paschal Lamb, (i Cor. 
v. 7;) the Lamb without blemish and without spot, 1 Pet. i. 19; even He 
who was brought as a Lamb to the slaughter, (Is. lil. 7.) 

‘ As it had been slain.’-—Not precisely in the condition of a slain lamb, 
for then it would have been lying down and prostrate, (Rob. Lex. 847, 
art. ὡς 1) but as if it had been slain, and afterwards restored to life. So 
Jesus appeared before his disciples, John xx. 26, 27, as one having been 
crucified, when he exhibited to the unbelieving Thomas the marks of the 
nails on his hands and feet, and the wound in his side. 

‘Slain, —slaughtered as a victim. ‘The lamb contemplated by the 
apostle appeared to have been once offered in sacrifice. Under the old 
economy, Ex. xxix. 39, a continual daily sacrifice was required of one 
lamb in the morning, and another in the evening ; but Christ, having once 
offered himself, no further sacrifice is required. Under the old economy, 
too, the Lamb offered was entirely eaten or consumed; there was nothing 
left of it. Lamb after lamb was called for, and justice still remained unap- 
peased ; but when the Lamb of God was offered, the sacrifice was more 
than sufficient. The Lamb had performed its vicarious work, and yet 
remained standing, living,—bearing only the marks of what it had endured. 
So, as Jesus died for our sins, he was raised to manifest our justification ; 
for if Christ be not raised, says Paul, we are yet in our sins, (1 Cor. xv. 17.) 

‘Having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are,’ &c.—One horn and 
one eye to each spirit—a horn being a figure of power, and the eye that of 
intelligence. ‘The horns of an animal are its weapons of offence and 
defence ; and the opening of the eyes of understanding is spoken of, 
Eph. i. 17 and 18, as particularly an operation of the spirit of wisdom and 
revelation in the knowledge of Christ. 

‘'The seven Spirits,’—-we may presume to be the seven described, Rev. 
i. 4, that is, the Holy Spirit,—taking seven as a figure of totality, (ᾧ 9.) 
On this occasion, the horns and eyes may be noticed with special reference 
to the work about to be performed. The Lamb presents himself as the 


/) 


THE SEALED BOOK. 31 


champion,—the only champion capable of undertaking the performance 
calling for the exercise of his strength. He makes his appearance with the 
weapons peculiarly requisite for the trial to be encountered ;—the seals of 
a certain book are to be opened ;—a Lamb once slain is to accomplish this 
task ; and besides his general fitness for the work, as having been slain, 
or sacrificed, his implements are seven powers, and seven means of under- 
standing, comprehended in the one power and one mean of the Spirit of 
truth—the Spirit destined to convince the world of sin, of righteousness, 
and of judgment; and at the same time to testify of Jesus—teaching his 
followers all things, and bringing all things to their remembrance. 'The 
book had seven seals, and the opener of the book appeared with the seven 
Spirits of God. We are not told whether to each seal the operation of 
a particular Spirit is to be applied ; or whether the seven Spirits are equally 
engaged in opening each seal. Perhaps some light may be thrown upon 
this hereafter. 

§ 138. ‘Sent forth into all the earth.—The earth, as an opposite of 
heaven, we suppose to be figuratively the exhibition of a plan of salvation, 
—a view of the position of man in his relation to God,—the opposite of 
the exhibition symbolically spoken of as heaven. This earth is to be 
a scene of trial, apocalyptically ; a test is to be applied to it, and certain 
woes are pronounced against its dependents; these Spirits going forth into 
all the earth, (or this Holy Spirit, as a totality,) are to be the instruments of 
carrying the anticipated trial into effect. Perhaps we may say these seven 
Spirits each furnish a spiritual understanding, peculiar to each seal, and 
capable of developing its meaning; this understanding being consistent in 
every case with that by which the whole volume of revealed truth has been 
dictated. This same standard of interpretation, applied to the earthly 
exhibition before spoken of, is to be the means of detecting its errors, and 
exposing its fallacies. ‘The same searching element as that elsewhere com- 
pared to a two-edged sword; as it is said, The eyes of the Lord are in 
every place, (Prov. xv. 3 ;) His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of 
men, Ps. xi. 4, ‘This is literally and spiritually true ; in the latter sense 
the action is equivalent to that of the seven Spirits apocalyptically going 
forth into all the earth. 


Vs. 7,8. And he came and took the Καὶ ἦλϑε καὶ εἴληφε τὸ βιβλίον ἐκ τῆς 
book out of the right hand of him that sat δεξιᾶς τοῦ καϑημένου ἐπὶ τοῦ ϑρόνου. Καὶ 


upon the throne. And when hehad taken «| » ἢ f cig om 
᾿ ote ἔλαβε τὸ βιβλίον ὶ 
the book, the four beasts, and four and f oR » FO FECT RO ας ψαν 


twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, οἱ eas Te πρεςβύτεροι ἔπεσον ἐνώ- 
having every one of them harps, and πίον τοῦ ἀρνίου, ἔχοντες ἕχαστος κιϑάρας 
golden vials full of odours, which are the καὶ φιάλας χρυσᾶς γεμούσας ϑυμιαμάτων, 
prayers of the saints. αἵ εἰσιν αἵ προςευχαὶ τῶν ἁγίων. 


‘And he came and took the book.’—There is a parity of circumstance 


N 


99 THE SEALED BOOK. 


between this passage and that of Ps. xl. 7, 8, referred to, Heb. x. 7, 9, 
“Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book (it is) written of me, 
I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” 
This may be the same book as that in the hand of him that sat on the 
throne, the volume of divine purpose. Christ virtually takes this book by 
fulfilling this purpose: He unseals it, by bringing about the comparison of 
what he has done with what was predicted of him; and we may add, 
with what was predicated of him in the mind of the Sovereign Ruler from 
all eternity. 

‘Out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.’—The right 
hand of God, as we have elsewhere noticed, is a figure especially of his 
righteousness—the power by the intervention of which the salvation of the 
sinnér is effected. 'This righteousness furnishes the pag or purpose which 
grows out of it, or emanates from it, as the particle ἐκ imples—the Son 
of God, the express Image of the Father, and consequently the representa- 
tive of his righteousness, takes this book, or plan, fulfils its prescription, 
and developes its meaning, when he interposes himself, with all the divine 
righteousness of which he is the image or symbol, in behalf of those whom 
he came to seek and to save. The righteousness is that of him who alone 
possesses the attribute of perfect sovereignty ; the book contains the plan, 
or purpose, by which this righteousness is rendered the efficient means of 
salvation; this purpose is fulfilled, and the plan developed by him, who, 
though he was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we, through his 
poverty, might become rich. 

§ 139. “ And when he had taken the book,’ &c.—According to the pre- 
ceding chapter, (Rev. iv. 9,) the adoration of the four living creatures gives 
occasion to the prostration of the twenty-four elders. Here, the taking of the 
book by the Lamb, or the undertaking of the development of its mysteries, 
produces the prostration both of the living creatures and of the elders. 

‘Fell down before the Lamb.’—Those, that before fell down before 
Him that sat on the throne, now fall down before him who takes the book 
from the hand of the former object of adoration; ‘“ All these things,” said 
Satan, “will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” *£ Get 
thee hence, Satan,” was the reply of the Lamb of God himself; “ for it is 
written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou 
serve ; and yet, here we find the four elements. of divine Bey and 


nizing ‘ae identity of the two Hid Τὴ μα ; at the same time, the bli 
when, calls our attention to the péculiarity, that it is just at this juncture, 
when the Lamb presents himself to open the book, that he is recognized as 
identic with him to whom alone divine honours are due :—the prostration 


ees 


0 


THE SEALED BOOK. 33 


of the living creatures, and of the elders, being equivalent to an admission, 
that the sovereign on the throne was then manifest in the Lamb. 

‘Having every one of them harps.’—The harp was especially used, 
amongst the Hebrews, in offerings of praise and acts of rejoicing. It is men- 
tioned by the afflicted patriarch, (Job xxx. 31,) as an exception to the 
general rule, that his harp was turned to mourning. So the Israelites, when 
in captivity, hanged, as they said, their harps upon the willows. David 
sang the praises of God, as the God of his salvation, upon the harp; and 
we may presume, from Ps. xlix. 4, that he sang also, in figurative language, 
the wonders of redeeming love. Such we may suppose to be the use of the 
harps in possession of the living creatures and of the elders. 

Our common version conveys the impression that the vials only were of 
gold, but the adjective rendered golden, agrees in the original with harps, as 


well as with vials :—“ having each harps and vials golden,” &c. These 


harps, therefore, are instruments of truth; their material, or composition, 
being such as to withstand any test administered to them ;—corresponding 
with which, David says, Ps. Ixxi. 22. * Τ will praise thee with the psaltery, 
(even) thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp.” The 
publication of the truth as it is in Jesus, being in effect an ascription of praise 
to God, as it is a setting forth of the cause for which he is to be praised ; 
thus the Gospel itself may be compared to a golden harp, as an instrument 
of truth, by which the praise due to Jehovah is virtually set forth. 

‘ And golden vials full of odours,’ &c.,—or, as the original might be 
rendered, laden with incense; the Greek ϑυμίαμα, being rendered also 
elsewhere, incense, as we shall have occasion to notice hereafter. The offer- 
ing of incense, under the Levitical arrangement, was a representation of 
sacrifice, generally. Here these odours (incense) are said to be the prayers 
of the saints. We presume the offering to be rather that of praise 
and thanksgiving, than of the character of a petition: as we find from 1 
Tim. ii. 1, the term προσευχαί, rendered, in our common version, prayers, to 
be synonymous neither with supplications nor intercessions. ‘The season of 
petition may now be supposed to haye passed away. ‘The Lamb had been 
slain, and was again living—He had redeemed his people—He had taken 
the book to develope its mysteries—the aspirations of the universe were 
complied with, and that which prophets and kings had been so desirous of 
seeing and hearing, was being made known. ‘The supplications of Daniel, 
the prayers of David, the urgent entreaties of the prophets, were ended, and 
had been complied with; in heaven, at least, the tribute of gratitude, the 
voice of praise and thanksgiving only, is to be heard. Such, we suppose, to 
be the tribute of praise represented by these odours ; the action of the scene 
shadowing forth that period of glorious manifestation, when those most 
remote, being brought nigh by the blood of Christ, shall bring gold and 


34 THE SEALED BOOK. 


incense, and shall show forth the praises of God, Is. Ix. 6. The material of 
these vials was also of gold; the truth of God being the instrument of 
exhibiting the sacrifice of gratitude offered by his redeemed. 


Vs. 9, plo sed sung i ee sie Καὶ ᾷδουσιν δὴν χαινήν, λέγοντες" ἄξιος 
saying, ‘Thou art worthy 10 take the book, εἶ λαβεῖν τὸ βιβῆϊον καὶ ἀνοῖξαι τὰς σφρα- 
and to open the seals thereof; for thou β Pup} 4 phil 


wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God vidas αὐτοῦ" ὅτι ἐσφάγης, καὶ iz oguaus τῷ 
by thy blood, out of every kindred, and ϑεῷ ἡμᾶς ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου ἐκ πάσης φυλῆς 
tongue, and people, and nation; and hast el γλώσσης καὶ λαοῦ καὶ ἔϑνους, καὶ ἐποί- 
made us unto our God kings and priests : NO OS αὑτοὺς τῷ ϑεῷ ἡμῶν βασιλεῖς χαὶ bb 
and we shall reign on the earth. oxic, καὶ βασιλεύσουσιν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. 


ᾧ 140. ‘ And they sung ἃ new song.’—The old song, apparently, was the 
ascription of praise rendered the Supreme Being, as the creator and sovereign 
of all things, (Rev. iv. 9-11;) “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive 
glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy 
pleasure they are and were created.” The new ode, or song, is the song of 
redemption—the ascription of praise, by the same four living creatures and 
twenty-four elders, to the same object of worship, as the Redeemer—the 
Lamb. 

‘Thou art worthy,’ &c.—We have already remarked upon the fitness 
of Christ for developing the divine purpose, from the fact of his having 
wrought out that purpose by his sufferings and vicarious sacrifice ; by which, 
indeed, he becomes in effect the instrument of this development, (ὃ 135.) 

‘ And hast redeemed us to God,’ &c.—This is the language of the four 
living creatures, and of the twenty-four elders ; not that the work of Christ 
had no other object than this, but that this is the subject under consideration 
here. The elements of truth, represented by these living creatures and 
elders, have been redeemed from amidst all other elements. The same / 
elements of truth and revelation which set forth the sovereignty of God, 
from the fact of his having created all things, set forth also the praise due 
Him for his free act of mercy, as exhibited in the work of redemption. 

‘And hast made us kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.’— 
Here there is a difference in the Greek editions ; some of them, as that of 
which we are making use, read, as it will be observed, “ and hast made 
them kings and priests ; and they shall reign.” According to this rendering, 
we must suppose the living creatures and the elders to be speaking in this 
verse of the saints, whose prayers filled the golden vials, although they 
were speaking of themselves in the preceding verse. Or, if we suppose the 
” then the - 
saints would speak of themselves as redeemed, and of the four living crea- 7 
tures and twenty-four elders, as constituted kings and priests. We cannot, 
otherwise, account for the employment of the pronoun us in one case, and 
them in the other. The rendering of the common version is probably the 


new song to constitute what is called “the prayers of the saints, 


THE SEALED BOOK. 35 


most correct; the living creatures and the elders being the kings and priests 
alluded to in this song of praise. 

As we have elsewhere noticed, the term rendered kings, is sometimes 
used to denote those who preside over sacred things. The terms,king and 
priest, may thus be, apocalyptically, nearly equivalents. These elements, or 
principles are rendered, by the work of redemption, ruling principles—pre- 
dominating over all others, as kings, and as chiefs, which the term likewise 
signifies—bringing their respective forces or subordinate principles into the 
service of God ;—as priests, they promote and maintain the true worship in 
his temple, in the spiritual sense in which we have already defined that 
worship. This predominating influence over all the elements of the earthly 
system, we suppose to be alluded to in the expression, “and we shall reign 
on the earth.’ 


Vs. 11, 12. And I beheld, and I heard Kai εἶδον, καὶ ἤκουσα φωνὴν ἀγγέλων 
the voice of many angels round about the 
throne, and the beasts [the living crea- 
tures] and the elders: and the number of } ᾿ ᾿ : Ἢ 
them was ten thousand times ten thou- μυριάδες μυριάδων Yo “Ζιλιάδες χιλιάδων, 
sand, and thousands of thousands; saying, λέγοντες φωνῇ μεγάλῃ" ἀξιὸν ἐστι τὸ ἀρνίον 
with ἃ loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb τὸ ἐσφαγμένον λαβεῖν τὴν δύναμιν καὶ πλοῦ- 
that was slain to receive power, and 
riches, and wisdom, and strength, and 
honour, and glory, and blessing. 


~ , ~ , ~ , 
πολλῶν κύκλῳ τοῦ ϑρόνου καὶ τῶν ζώων καὶ 
- ' 3 ‘ ~ 
τῶν πρεςβυτέρων" καὶ ἢν ὃ ἀριϑμὸς αὐτῶν 


‘ ‘ 
Tov χαὶ σοφίαν καὶ ἰσχὺν καὶ τιμὴν καὶ 
’ὔ > 
δόξαν καὶ εὐλογίαν. 


ᾧ 141 ‘I beheld, and heard the voice of many angels round about,’ &c.— 
These angels, messengers, or ministering spirits, are all in some sense con- 
nected with, or dependent upon the throne, the principle of sovereignty, or 
that which exhibits the sovereignty of God. Like the four living creatures 
and elders, we suppose them to be subordinate principles, truths, or elements 
of truth—innumerable, indeed, but all virtually, or in effect, ascribing 
worthiness to the Lamb. Perhaps, as attendants of, or about the throne, 
they may be said to ascribe this worthiness to him more particularly, because 
it is by his work of redemption that the sovereignty of God is most fully 
exhibited. 

‘Saying, witha loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 
power, and riches,’ &c¢.—This is an ascription of homage in addition to that 
of the four living creatures and twenty-four elders. The words beasts and 
elders, in the 11th verse, being governed in the Greek by κύκλῳ, about, and 
not by φωνήν, voice—many angels round about the throne, and about the 
beasts and the elders. ‘The throng of angels do not say that they are made 
kings and priests, but they say that the Lamb is worthy to receive, or 
rather to take power ; they may be viewed in the light of a chorus. This 
immense multitude of the heavenly host, being put for the whole, as in the 
13th verse, every creature in heaven and in earth, is represented as uttering 
nearly the same language. Corresponding with the statement of Paul, 


36 THE SEALED BOOK. 


(Phil. ii. 9-11,) « Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given 
him a name that is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee 
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the 
earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to 
the glory of God the Father.” 

‘To receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, 
and glory, and blessing.’—Here, seven particulars or attributes are enume- 
rated ; we may presume, not without possessing some peculiar allusion ;— 
perhaps they may have a relation to the seven horns of the Lamb, consider- 
ing those horns in the light of crowns; as Jesus is said, Heb. ii. 9, to be 
crowned with glory and honour. The receiving power, &c., we suppose 
to be put for receiving the ascription of it. The work of the Lamb had 
been already accomplished, the only question remaining to be solved being 
this: By whose power, by whose.iches, by whose wisdom, and by whose 
strength, has this been accomplished? and to whom do the honour, and 
glory, and blessing belong? to him, or to some other being? The united 
testimony of this multitude show that these belong to him—that he is enti- 
tled to take all the merit and the praise, for the means are his, and the 
work has been his ; while nearly the same ascription being given to him 
that sat on the throne, Rev. iv. 11, we cannot do otherwise than consider 
the two Beings as identic. The power, we may suppose, to be especially 
the power of God wnto salvation—the propitiation of Christ ; the riches, 
those durable riches, which furnish the ransom of the sinner ; the wisdom, 
that by which justice and mercy have been reconciled ; the strength, that 
of divine righteousness ;—all these are means employed in the work of 
man’s salvation, and the honour, glory, and blessing, incident to the suecess- 
ful result of this employment, can be ascribed only to Christ, as the Lord, 
Jehovah our righteousness—God manifest in the flesh. 


V. 13. And every creature which is in 
heaven, and on the earth, and under the 
earth, and such as are in the sea, and all 
that are in them, heard 1 saying, Blessing, 
and honour, and glory, and power, (be) 


= oe a ~ > ~ . 
Καὶ πᾶν κτίσμα 0 ἐστιν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ καὶ 
~ ~ a , - ~ 
ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς καὶ ὑποκάτω τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἐπὶ 
- ζ΄ Co» Ν ‘ > ἣν ~ , 
τῆς ϑαλασσὴης ἃ ἐστι, καὶ TH ἐν αὐτοῖς ττὰν- 
Pl ' ~ ΄ 
ταί, ἡκουσὰ λέγοντας: τῷ καϑημένῳ ἐπὶ τοῦ 


9 , \ ~ 2 ,] ς A ͵ -: ‘ 
QOVOU καὶ τῷ ἀρνέῳ ἡ εὐλογία καὶ ἢ τιμὴ 


unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and 
Te ΄ ‘ ϑι»ν 
καὶ ἢ, δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας 


unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. 
. TOY των». 

ᾧ 142. ‘And every creature,’ &c.—The very universality of this 
ascription of praise, shows us that its utterance is to be taken in some quali- 
fied sense ; as we say, all creation continually uttereth the praise of the 
Lord. t 
set forth the cause of praise, is virtually to praise. The wonders of creation 
Set forth the cause of praise to the Creator, and thus in effect praise him ; 
as it is said, Ps. cxlviii. 7-10, “ Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons 


THE SEALED BOOK. 31 


and all deeps: fire, and hail; snow, and vapour: stormy wind fulfilling his 
word : mountains, and all hills ; fruitful trees, and all cedars : beasts, and all 
cattle ; creeping things, and flying fowl.” So, Ps. οχὶν. 10, “ All thy 
works shall praise thee, O Lord!” In like manner, the elements of the 
economy of redemption, with all the principles subordinate to to it—of the law, 
as well as of the Gospel—of condemnation, as well as of justification—all tend 
to exhibit the cause of praise, in the character and operation of sovereign 
grace, and thus in effect_praise the Lord. 

‘Unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever 
and ever.’—The peculiarity to be noticed here is, that the adoration 
described in this verse is represented as offered to two objects ; whereas, in 
the previous accounts, the ascription of praise is rendered to one of these 
objects alone. Prior to the taking of the book by the Lamb, the four living 
creatures are represented as ascribing holiness perpetually to the Almighty 
God—which ascription is responded to by the prostration and homage of 
the twenty-four elders. After the taking of the book, the same living crea- 
tures and the same elders prostrate themselves before the Lamb, singing the 
new song; and after this, the angels encircling the throne, and encircling 
the beasts and the elders, offer their homage, apparently as a response to 
the new song. And finally, this ascription of praise is offered, by all created 
beings, to God and the Lamb jointly ; which homage to these two objects, 
as we find from the next verse, is responded to by the Amen of the living 
creatures ; showing us, that whatever apparent difference there may have been 
in the objects of the preceding acts of adoration, there is a perfect unanimity 
of purpose in all engaged in them. 

We have here three several and successive acts of worship, each con- 
sisting of two parts—the offering and the response—the first before God, 
the second before Christ, and the third before God and Christ. The last 
bringing, as it were, the two preceding acts of worship into one ; and thus 
preparing us for the final exhibition of that adoration which is due to the 
one Supreme God ; that is, identifying the Lamb with Him that sits upon 


the throne, that there may appear thenceforth not two objects of worship, 
but one only. 


V.14. And the four beasts said, Amen. 
And the four and twenty elders fell down 
and worshipped him that liveth for ever 
and ever. 


“Δ Ἢ 1 ' ue 2» > , κ 
Καὶ τὰ τέσσαρα ζῶα ἕλεγον" ἀμὴν" καὶ 
ε , » \ , 

οἱ πρεςβ UTEQOL ἕπεέσαν καὶ προζεχυγησαν. 


ᾧ 143. “Απά the four beasts said, Amen.’—This may be viewed as the 
last clause of the preceding verse, and would probably have been better so 
divided. Every living creature was heard to say, Blessing, and honour, and 
glory, and power, unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, 
for ever ; and the four living creatures said, Amen,—So let it be. 


38 THE SEALED BOOK, 


The elements of divine sovereignty, or the .elements-of truth sustaining 
the principles of God’s sovereignty, are here represented as according to the 
Lamb, a coequality with him that sitteth on the throne ; that is, according 
to the Son, a coequality with the Father—conceding to the Lamb a partici- 
pation in that homage which can be due only to sovereignty. 

The word be, in the 13th verse, as rendered in our common version, is 
supplied. There is no verb in the original in its place, and we have as 
good a right to supply the verb belong, as be. The language of the ascrip- 
tion may be considered declarative of a fact already existing, not of some- 
thing that is to be. Adopting the order of the Greek, the passage may be 
thus read, “ Unto him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, 
blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, belong, for ever and ever ; and 
the four living creatures said, Amen.” 

‘And the four and twenty elders fell down, and worshipped him that 
liveth for ever and ever.’—Neither Him_on the throne, nor the Lamb, are 
here mentioned ; but in the place of these two objects of adoration one alone 
is presented, the Ever-living. 'The inference is unavoidable, that this Ever- 
living comprehends the two others; God and the Lamb have been 
exhibited, first, as each entitled to honour; secondly, to be honoured 
coequally and jointly. They are now spoken of as identic ; the Sovereign 
on the throne and the Lamb constituting the eternal God; the element of 
sovereignty and the element of propitiation coalescing in the exhibition here 
made of the divine character. 

There is some difference, however, in the Greek editions, as to this 
text ; that from which we copy omits the words rendered him that liveth 
for ever and ever ; reading only, ‘“‘ And the four and twenty elders fell down 
and worshipped ;’ that is, they worshipped Him that sitteth upon the 
throne, and the Lamb ; thus joining, by their action, in the Amen of the 
four living creatures, according coequal honours to the two objects in 
contemplation. The difference is not material, for we have the positive 
testimony of both the Old and New Testaments, that there are not two 
objects of worship,—that there cannot be more than one ; and that this 
one will not divide his glory with another, Consequently, if the Sovereign 
on the throne and the Lamb be both objects of homage and adoration, they 
must be @dentic; the apparent difference between them being only 
assumed for the-tem porary purpose of illustration. The whole process of 
the manifestation exhibited in this, and the last chapter, corresponding with 
that described by Paul as resulting in the giving up of the kingdom by the 
Son unto the Father, that God may be all in all, 1 Cor. xv. 24-28. 


—— 


THE SEALED BOOK. 39 


RETROSPECT. 


§ 144. Iv will be perceived that the principal scope of this chapter is 
to show the peculiar worthiness of the Lamb; that is, his fitness to open 
the sealed book :—this fitness arising from his having been slain, or offered 
in sacrifice ; from his having accomplished the work of redemption ; and 
from the fact of his being coequal, and consequently identic, with the 
divine occupant of the throne. sc saat 

The Lamb, as it appears, is known to have been slain, and to be 
entitled to divine honours prior to the opening of the book. These facts 
simply, therefore, do not constitute the mystery of the book ; but the book, 
we may presume, contains particulars (the exhibition of truths and principles) 
connected with these facts, which connection constitutes the peculiar 
qualification of the Lamb for opening the book. The book we suppose to 


zant of this purpose ; isin as the eden he has ict it sins or 
carried it into effect; he is therefore the proper instrument, and the only 
proper instrument 403 its development. 

The Revelation, or Apocalypse, now being made, corresponds, we 
apprehend, with that made to Paul, and to the holy apostles and prophets: 
“the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, 
who created all things by Jesus Christ,” Eph. iti, 3-9. This mystery, 
preached by Paul and the other apostles, and spoken of in dark sayings by 
the Psalmist and by the prophets, was exemplified, illustrated, and carried 
out by Jesus Christ, while in the flesh; but there is a spiritual meaning 
attached to all that he did, and taught, and suffered ; which meaning he 
unfolds (through the medium of this Apocalypse) in the person of the 
Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Speaking of himself as the Lamb, and of the 
economy, or mystery of redemption, as the Holy City, or Bride; both 
together constituting that eternal purpose of God, which he purposed i in 
Christ Jesus our Lord, κατὰ πρόϑεσιν τῶν αἰώνων, ἢν ἐποίησεν ἐν Χριστῷ 


Ἰησοῦ τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν, Eph. ii. 11.* 


* The word πρόϑεσις, rendered purpose in this passage, expresses something 
more than a mere latent design. It is a purpose set forth, or the setting forth of a 
purpose. In Latin, propositio,i.e., ea argumentationis pars, per quam summatim 
ostendimus quid sit quod probaturi sumus, (Suiceri. Lex.) That part of an argu- 
ment in which we set forth summarily what we are about to prove: applied-to the 
mystery of redemption, it directs our attention to the shew-bread, ἄρτοι προϑέοεως, 


12 


40 THE SEALED BOOK. 


Thus far, however, we have only seen the Lamb taking the sealed 
book ; a knowledge of its contents is to be gathered from the subsequent 
chapters. In this stage of the representation, the spectacle presented for 
our contemplation is that of the whole array of the heavenly assembly, 
described both in this and in the preceding chapter. ‘The throne, the 
sovereign upon the throne, or rather one representing that sovereign ; for 
the apostle appears expressly to avoid speaking of the Deity as himself 
seen. The rainbow above, the seven lamps, and the sea of glass, are all 
before the throne; while the twenty-four elders round about the throne, 
and the four living creatures in the midst and round about the throne, are 
singing the new song. An outer circle of myriads and myriads of angels 
are offering their tribute of adoration to the Lamb, and all in heaven and 
earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, are ascribing praise to him that 
sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb; to which ascription the four living 
creatures respond their Amen, while the twenty-four elders also responsively 
prostrate themselves in the act of adoration. 

Such is the appearance (wonderful as it is) which may be said to be 
presented by the background of the picture,—a representation of the 
operation of elements of truth, existing from all eternity. 

In the foreground, in front of this assembly, and in the midst of these 
hallelujahs of every living thing, the LAMB (the Champion) is seen, 
having seven horns, and seven eyes, possessed of the book;"and about to 
open the seals thereof. The process of this opening, with the several 
exhibitions consequent to the breaking of each seal, constitutes the remain- 
ing action of this mystic drama; interrupted occasionally by the introduc- 
tion of a chorus, or the voice of some friendly interpreter, attending the 
apostle, the onlysprivileged mortal permitted to enjoy the spectacle. ‘Thus 
privileged, however, as—we-find from his own testimony, for the sake of 
those for whose edification he is directed to commit to writing an account 
of the extraordinary scenes passing before his eyes. But the apostle is not 


panes propositionis ; or, according to Hebrews ix. 2, the setting forth of the bread, 
ἡ πρόϑεσις τῶν ἄρτων. Christ is the bread of life, because the righteousness of God 
represented in him, and through him imputed to the believer, constitutes the means 
of eternal life. The means and mode of application constitute the eternal purpose of 
the Divine mind ; this purpose being set forth in Christ. Such, we think, is the sense 
of the text quoted from Ephesians; and this proposition, or setting forth, in its most 
spiritual sense, we suppose to be the design of the Apocalypse. The shew-bread, 
Christ in the flesh, and this mystic vision, all concurring in the same exhibition of 
that divine purpose, or plan of sovereign mercy, which we sometimes denominate 
the economy of grace: “the bride,” or “ wife” of Christ, because identio with him— 
“the mother of us all,” because by this means we become the children of God. 


THE SEALED BOOK. 41 


to be considered the only witness taking an interest in the representation. 
The immense assemblage, just now described, constitutes itself an in- 
numerable multitude of spectators. A portion of the heavenly host are 
sometimes represented as taking part in the scenes exhibited ; but whether 
actually engaged or not, the whole multitude, with the elders and the living 
creatures, must be supposed to be anticipating the several developments 
with eager expectation, and to be contemplating the scenes presented with 
the most intense interest. 


42 THE SEALS OPENED. 


Π 


CHAPTER. VI. 


THE SEALS OPENED. 


V. 1. And I saw when the Lamb open- Καὶ εἶδον ots ἤνοιξε τὸ ἀρνίον μίαν ἐκ 

ed one of the seals, and I heard, as it were τῶν ἑπτὰ σφραγίδων, καὶ ἤκουσα ἑνὸς ἐκ 
: ᾿ ? f $ 

the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts, 


~ , ΄ ' c A 
ait : τῶν τεσσάρων ζώων λέγοντος, ὡς φωνὴ βρον- 
| living creatures, | saying, Come and see. anil PO TE 


τῆς" EQZOU- 


§ 145. ‘I saw when the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals, and I 
heard the first of the four living creatures, as with a voice of thunder, saying, 
Come.’—The words μίαν and ἑνὸς, used in our common version as numerals, 
if compared with what is said of the opening of the other seals, appear 
intended here as ordinals, (Rob. Lex. art. εἷς, 194 ;) and if the words καὶ 
βλέπε, or καὶ ἰδε, found in some editions after ἔρχου, are correctly omitted, as 
above, the word come appears as a command issued, not to the spectators, 
but to the object about to exhibit itself{—somewhat in the style of incanta- 
tion—which idea seems reasonable ; as it would be apparently unnecessary 
to invite or bid the assembly of spectators to come and see, since they are 
all supposed to be waiting impatiently for the opening of the seals. 

The first living creature was like a lion, and it is at his instance that 
the object about to present itself, on the opening of the first seal, comes 
forth, or is exhibited, with a call, perhaps, upon the attention of the spec- 
tators. This first animal we suppose to be the element of divine justice— 
speaking, as we may say, in a voice of thunder—reminding us of the thun- 
derings of Sinai: the action of this element is to call forth, or to exhibit 
that which is about to appear. It being understood throughout, that the 
Lamb, which had been slain, is the efficient cause of this, and of all the 
subsequent exhibitions ; the voice calling forth, being a secondary cause. 


V.2. And I saw, and behold, a white Καὶ εἶδον, καὶ ᾿Ιδοὺ ἵππος λευκός, καὶ ὃ 
horse: and he that sat onhim had abow; χῳϑήμενος ἐπ αὐτὸν ἔχων τόξον: καὶ ἐδόϑη 
and a crown was given unto him: and he 


2 ~ ' Ἂ ) 4. ~ XV of 
: ὃ αὐτῷ στέφανος, καὶ ἐξῆλϑε νικῶν καὶ 
went forth conquering, and to conquer. = it iad pee 


γικήσῃ. 

ᾧ 146. “Α white horse.’—The horse of Scripture is generally the war- 
horse, distinguished for its adaptedness to the purposes either of combat or 
escape. ‘The warrior of old depended greatly upon his horse, whether in 
charging an enemy, or in sustaining the shock of an attack ; so, in case of 


THE FIRST SEAL. 43 


defeat, his trust was equally in his horse. This we find to be the case still 
in Eastern countries ; as it was the case in Christendom in the days of 
chivalry, till the use of gunpowder, and the introduction of artillery, changed 
the whole character of military warfare. A horse is thus a scriptural figure 
of means of dependence for salvation—earthly means, such as one’s own 
merits or righteousnesses—means of which the human mind is prone to 
glory. “ A horse,” it is said, Ps. xxxiii. 17, “is a vain thing for safety : 
neither shall he deliver any by his great strength ;” and Is. xxxi. 1, ‘“‘ Woe 
to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay (or depend) on horses, 
and trust in chariots.” Here, horses are used as in a bad sense ; but we 
find by the third verse of the same chapter, that there are two kinds of these 
animals: “ The Egyptians,” 
and their horses flesh, and not spirit.’ The spiritual horse is a very 
different being from the animal of which man makes his boast ; when God 
furnishes the charger and gives power to the rider, it is no vain preparation 
for battle ; and then, indeed, the neck of the animal may be said to be 
“clothed with thunder,’ (Job xxxix. 19.) So, too, God’s provision for 
escaping the wrath to come, is no vain thing for safety. 

The apocalyptic horse now exhibited, is the opposite of the Egyptian 
horse—it is spirit, and not flesh. It is God’s means of contending with the 
elements of legal condemnation—the means furnished by him for contest, 


the prophet says, “are men, and not God; 


or, escape—a horse is the sustaining power of the combatant. The sustain- 
ing power of him who has to contend with the elements of legal condemna- 
tion, is righteousness, or moral perfection ; the only sufficient power in such 
a conflict being a perfect righteousness. 'This element of justification, as we 
have before had occasion to observe, is alluded to in the Apocalypse, under 
the figure of something white ;—the white horse thus represents the sustain- 
ing power of divine righteousness, as it is promised, Is. xli. 10, ‘“ Fear not, 
for I am with thee: be not dismayed, for 1 am thy God: I will strengthen 
thee ; yea, I will help thee ; yea, I will uphold (sustain) thee with the right 
hand of my righteousness.” 

We find no other mention of a white horse in the Revelation, except in 
chap. xix. 11-21, where the apostle says, ‘“‘ And I saw heaven opened, and 
behold, a white horse ; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and 
True, ’—zor0g καὶ ἀληϑινός ; and where it is expressly declared of the rider, 
that his name is called the Worp or Gop, ὁ λύγος τοῦ Θεοῦ. The two 
descriptions are so nearly alike, as to lead us to infer that the rider is the 
same in both cases. ‘The warrior in the first case is seen to go forth to the 
battle ; in the last case, he is contemplated as already triumphant in victory. 
If this supposition be correct, the champion here represented is the Logos,, 
Christ, as the Word of God, sustained by his own righteousness ; as it is 
said, Isaiah lix. 16, ‘‘ He saw that there was no man, and wondered 


44 THE SEALS OPENED. 


that there was no intercessor: therefore, his arm brought salvation unto 
him ; and his righteousness, it sustained him.” 

§ 147. “ And he that sat on him had a bow ;’—z0£or, a bow. The term 
occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, but it is the same as that 
applied in the Septuagint translations of the Old Testament to the rambow, 
when its appearance was assigned to Noah, as a token of reconciliation 
and peace with God ;—Gen. ix. 13, “I do set my bow in the cloud, 
and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.” The 
spiritual rainbow we have already contemplated as a display of the com- 
bination of the imputed righteousness and the atonement of Christ, (¢ 120.) 
The Gospel exhibition of these combined elements affording the assurance 
of the reconciliation of an offended God with his rebellious creature man : 
with this bow, comprehending, as it may, the whole economy of salvation, 
the Logos, or Word of God, goes forth to overcome the requisitions of the 
law—to manifest the superiority of Christ’s merits over all other pretensions, 
and to establish his own glory.* 


* It is said, (Rob. Lex. p. 417,) of the term logos, as employed John i. 1-14 :— 
“The word λόγος is used in a manner altogether peculiar, to express that which the 
writer believed to be divine in the character of Jesus, and united with his human 
nature. But why the apostle was led to employ, for this purpose, the word λόγος, in 
preference to any other, has never yet been satisfactorily shown, nor have we the 
means of determining with certainty.” 

This is treating the subject somewhat cavalierly, as if the apostle had not been 
divinely directed in the use of his words; and as if their use in one place had no 
reference to their employment in other places, by the same writer. 

Perhaps, we may come at some approximation to the reason in question, by con- 
sidering, that as the word, or speech, of a man indicates the decision of his mind, so 
the term logos, or word, in Scripture may indicate the decision of the mind of Deity, 
—His decree, his fiat, his fixed purpose. It is said of the Almighty, he spake, and 
jt was done; he commanded, and it stood fast: No one supposes an action of 
speech to be literally understood here. It is enough that God wills, and all 
things are done. He is unchangeable, too; His will must have been from everlast- 
ing. The enunciation of that will, however, may be said to consist in the act of ful- 
filling it. The purpose of God in the creation of this world, must have been the same 
in all eternity ; but the enunciation of this purpose did not take place till the purpose 
itself was fulfilled in the work of creation. The exercise of power in the act of crea- 
tion, being equivalent to such an enunciation of the purpose ; it is thus figuratively 
spoken of as an act of speech, bearing some analogy to the announcing of human 
purposes by an action of the voice. The expression of purpose in words, is man’s 
speech—the act of performance, is God’s speech. With man, however, the exercise 
of various organs of the body is required to carry out his purposes. The limbs of 
man are the instruments for executing his will—with God, the will itself is the power 
by which his purposes are executed. As the mind of a man is the power acting 
immediately upon the organs of his own body, so the mind or will of God is the 
power acting immediately upon every element of the universe, material or immaterial. 
With God, it would be impossible to separate the mind or will from the decision of 


THE FIRST SEAL. 45 


The use of the bow implies the use of arrows. ‘The bow is the instru- 
ment of impulsion, but the arrows are the immediate instruments of inflicting 
the wound ;—the arrows of the Word, or Logos, carry conviction to the heart 
of the sinner—not only a conviction of his sin, but also that of the utter 
worthlessness of his self-righteous pretensions ; as alluded to by the royal 
penitent, Ps. xxxviil. 1, 2, “Ὁ Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath ; neither 
chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thine arrows stick fast in me, and 
thy hand presseth me sore.” So the same arrows, or emanations of truth, 
parting from the covenant or economy of grace, are the instruments of over- 
coming those false principles, or doctrines, the tendency of which is to de- 


prive the Redeemer of his glory, and of his right to reign; as is implied in the 
address of David, in spirit, to this same conqueror, on his going forth: ‘ Gird 


thy sword upon thy thigh, O Most Mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty, 
and in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth, and meekness, and 
righteousness ; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things : thine arrows 
(are) sharp in the heart of the kings’s enemies ; the people fall under them,” 
—the king’s enemies being the principles hostile to hisreign, (Ps. xlv. 3-5.) 

The power of this covenant-bow may be illustrated by what has been 
related of the success of certain missionaries amongst the Greenlanders. 


the mind or will; so, as the word of a man is equal to the decision of his mind, the 
Word of God is equivalent not only to the decision of his mind, but to the mind itself. 
Hence the divine mind may he properly spokenof as the λόγος, word, or speech, of God— 
the mind or volition of God, manifested in the works of creation, providence, and 
redemption. In Christ, the divine mind or purpose, especially in reference to the 
work of redemption, appeared as having its seat in one like unto the Son of man. 
The Word was made flesh, was manifested in the flesh ; at the same time, it did not 
cease to be manifest also in all the works of creation, and in all the operations of an 
overruling Providence. 

As the volition, decision, or decree of the mind of God, is the power by which he 
acts, and as this decision is what is sometimes in Scripture called the Logos, we see, 
from the nature of its operations, that this mind, or Logos, must be the same power 
as that at other times spoken of as the Hoty Spirit. The purpose of the divine 
mind, ‘setting apart a certain being as substituted in Christ, or setting apart any 
created thing for a peculiar purpose, being the sanctification of that being, or thing. 
As this setting apart in Christ, is also spoken of under the figure of adoption, and 
as the purpose of God, exercised in adoption, is identical with the same purpose 
exercised in sanctification, the power or word must be the same in both cases. The 
difference being in the figure, or manner of speaking of the things, and not in the 
things themselves. So election, according to the foreknowledge of God, involving 
predestination, can be nothing else than the same word, fiat, or purpose of God, set- 
ting apart or adopting from all eternity, the subjects of his favour. The Spirit or 
power of Christ, in the vicarious act of substitution, being but the same purpose or 
will of God under another figure. An illustration of the truth of the observation, 
that several figures may be employed to represent the same truth without perplexity, 
but one figure cannot represent several truths without hazard of confusion.—(Vid. 
Faber on the Prophecies.) 


AG THE SEALS OPENED. 


That people had long been familiar with Christianity in the ordinary accep- 
tation of the term; they had had preachers who set before them the moral 
requisitions of revealed religion, the certainty of a future judgment, and the 
fearful consequences of the wrath of the Most High ; but it was not till the 
atonement or propitiation of Christ was presented to their minds, as the 
merciful provision of God for convicted sinners, that their hearts were 
affected, and the stubborn pride of self-sufficiency yielded to the kind 
invitations of the Gospel. Such we may suppose to be the shafts from the 
bow of him who sat upon the white horse. The bow, it is true, would be 
useless without the arrows, but these last owe their power and efficiency to 
the bow in the hands of him who wields it. But there is still another con- 
struction of the use of this bow and its arrows. If the contest between this 
champion and his enemies, be that of the power of intercession with the 
power of legal condemnation, the shafts, or arrows, are those truths ema- 
nating from the principle of propitiation which destroy the elements of self- 
justification or legality, spoken of in the Psalms as the enemies of the king. 

§ 148. « And a crown was given to him.’—Of the rider on the white 
horse, mentioned in the 19th chapter, it is said that he had many crowns ; 
but those crowns are diadems, (διαδήματα.) The one crown here spoken of, 
is the token of success ; the laurel of victory, (ozépavog.) It is said, 1 Kings 
xx. 11, “ Let not him that girdeth on his hamess, boast himself as he that 
taketh it off’ This axiom is good, however, only with man ; God needs 
not to wait the issue of the contest, that he may decide to whom the crown 
of success is to be given. ‘The rider of the white horse receives the token 
of success in anticipation ; he goes forth, indeed, but not in doubt: he goes 
to conquer, and that he may conquer. ‘The will of the Most High is 
already known—the conqueror goes forth to fulfil that which in the Divine 
mind is already done. 

‘And he went forth conquering and to conquer,’ or, that he might con- 
quer ; or, as the verb γικάω is elsewhere translated, overcoming. He that 
sitteth on the white horse, is then he that overcometh ; and the name of 
him that sitteth on the white horse, is the Word of God, the Logos ; and this 
Word is Christ, as he manifests himself in the Comforter. His successor, 
the Spirit of truth, testifying of him, and convincing the world of sin, of 
righteousness, and of judgment. In the work of salvation, it is Christ only, 
who overcomes the requisitions of the law by his own menits ; fulfilling the 
law, and thus releasing the disciple from the bondage of the law. Christ is 
the word, or sovereign purpose, of God, manifest in the flesh. The sovereign 
purpose of God is to save, by his own righteousness, all who trust to him. 
The principle of salvation by imputed righteousness may be thus spoken of 
as the word or purpose of God, especially in reference to the economy of 
redemption. This principle is a principle of Christian faith ; and, as such, it 


THE FIRST SEAL. 4 


may be that alluded to by the beloved apostle, when he says, this is the 
victory which overcometh the world, our faith ; αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ νίκη ἡ νιχή- 
σασὰ τὸν κόσμον, ἡ πιστὶς ἡμῶν. The world being supposed to represent the 
position of the sinner amidst all the requisitions of the law. Referring, appa- 
rently to this, Jesus says to his disciples, John xvi. 33, “ In the world ye 
shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world ;” 
ἐγὼ νενίκηκα tov κόσμον, I have conquered the world. Christ himself is the 
conqueror, and he alone is entitled to the crown. But he conquers by this 
word, or purpose of God, which is also a principle of our faith ; viz., that 
in him all righteousness has been fulfilled—that fulfilment being imputed to 
the believer. It is this principle, we may say then, that’ appears as the 
conqueror, sustained by Divine righteousness, crowned with the token of 
the Redeemer’s victory, and using the bow of covenant promises, as the 
weapon of defence. So, the disciple, enlightened by the knowledge of this 
truth, in view of all the requisitions of the law, going forth in the trial of 
his faith, sustained by his dependence upon the imputed merit of his 
Redeemer, and trusting in the covenant of propitiation, overcomes, in pro- 
portion to his faith, all his apprehensions even of the fearful threatenings of 
offended justice. As the blind men, (Matt. ix. 29,) according to their faith, 
received their natural sight, so the disciple, according to his faith, enjoys this 
spiritual sight—the sight of God’s salvation. 

The feeble faith of the most enlightened Christian in this life, can hardly 
be worthy of supplying a reality for the figure of Him who went forth con- 
quering and to conquer. ‘The real rider of the white horse must be either 
the principle of this faith, the purpose of God—the principle of salvation 
by imputed righteousness—or it must be the Saviour himself, who is the 
personification of this principle, or purpose—the Word made flesh. As, 
however, it is the Lamb once slain, who opens the seal by which this exhi- 
bition is made, the rider of the white horse may be supposed to represent 
this principle, or fundamental dogma of Christian faith; unless we sup- 
pose the Lamb, in exhibiting this rider, to reveal himself in his peculiar 
character of a Conqueror, the Lord our righteousness ;—a supposition accord- 
ing with our position, that the Apocalypse is a revelation which Jesus Christ 
makes of Aimself. It is said, indeed, Romans viii. 37, in all these things 
we are more than conquerors—more than overcomers ; but this, it is added, 
is through him that loved us. He has laboured, and we have entered into 
his labours ;—He has achieved the victory, and we in him are accounted 
victors ;—we obtain a crown, but it is the crown or token of his suecess— 
of the triumph of his righteousness, and not of ours. 

The effect, then, of the opening of the first seal, is to exhibit Christ as 
the Logos, or sovereign purpose of God, going forth in the work of salvation ; 
sustained by divine righteousness, and armed with the covenant of mercy, 


48 THE SEALS OPENED. 


and already bearmg the token of victory. This exhibition is called forth, or 
announced, or attention is called to it, by the first living creature, in a voice 
of thunder ; and this first livmg creature, we suppose to be the element of 
Divine justice, or legal retribution ;—as we may say, the attribute of perfect 
justice in the Deity calls forth the Redeemer, and renders the whole 
economy of redemption indispensable. Or, if we prefer the rendering come 
and sce, then we say the element of Divine justice is the instrument of call- 
ing attention to the principle of substitution, or imputed righteousness, with 
its attendant provisions; the law as a conductor* bringing us to Christ— 
the terrors of the law being instrumental in persuading men to fly for refuge 
to the hope set before them. The action of the first living creature, on this 
occasion, being equivalent to an urgent invitation directed to the sinner to 
come and see what has been done for his soul. ‘The voice of thunder is 
fearful, but it is a friendly, a warning voice. If there had been no provision 
for salvation, the warning would be useless ; but, because a propitiation has 
been made—because the Lamb has been sacrificed—because a substitute has 
been furnished, the terrors of the law are invoked to constrain the offender 
to embrace the proffered reconciliation. 

The opening of this first seal is thus a very appropriate commencement 
of what we suppose to be the doctrinal development about to follow ; per- 
haps it comprises in itself that which is to follow. Christ being revealed in 
this first development, as the great substitute, sustained by his own righteous- 
ness, and overcoming the power of the law by the principles of reconcilia- 
tion emanating from his propitiation ; which exhibition may be said to be 
the sum and substance of the plan of salvation. 


Vs. 3,4. And when he had opened the Kat ὅτε ἤνοιξε τὴν σφραγῖδα τὴν δευτέ- 
eecond seal, I heard the second beast 
[living creature] say, Come and see [or 3 
come]. And there went out another ee a ΝΟ Pe ss 
horse that was red: and power was given *4¢ τῷ ROO AMEND aware ἐδόϑη oT λα- 
to him that sat thereon to take peace from βεῖν τὴν εἰρήνην ἐκ τῆς γῆς καὶ ἵνα ἀλλήλους 
the earth, and that they should kill one σφάϑξωσι, χαὶ ἐδόϑη αὐτῷ μάχαιρα μεγάλη. 
another: and there was given unto him ἃ 
great sword. 


” - , ol } 
ραν, ἤκουσα τοῦ δευτέρου ζώου λέγοντος" 
aetna fois Ε « acl 
Kai ἐξῆλθεν ἄλλος ἵππος πυρόος" 


ᾧ 149. The call to come, or to come and see, is now made by the animal 
like a calf or bullock—the opposite of the lion—the figure representing, as 
we have supposed, ($ 127,) the provision for propitiating the mercy of God. 
Because the call is made by this element of mercy, it does not follow, how- 
ever, that the subject of contemplation is a gratifymg one. Divine mercy 


* Gal. iii. 24, “The law was our schoolmaster (παιδαγωγός pedagogue) to bring 
us to Christ.” The pedagogue of the apostle’s time is said to have been an upper 
domestic, (perhaps a slave,) whose office it was to take the children to school, and to 
attend to them while there ; when the children bad so learnt, that there was no lon- 
ger occasion for going to school, there was no further call for the pedagogue. 


THE SECOND SEAL. 49 


calls for an exhibition of the danger to which the criminal is exposed ; so, 
as the bullock is the opposite of the lion, we may suppose the subject 
represented by this red horse and his rider to be, in some respect, an oppo- 
site of that presented by the preceding exhibition. 

The word translated here red, is formed from the Greek term for fire ; 
it may signify fiery red, or the colour of fire. As red is the colour of blood, 
as such alone, it might be considered a figure of something the opposite of 
peace, or mercy ; so, in the vision of the prophet, Is. lxiii, 2, Christ is repre- 
sented as red in his apparel. So, too, the Hebrew words Edom and Esau, 
have an allusion to something red, or vindictive. The adjective συῤῥός, 
(red,) occurs only in one other place in the Apocalypse, where it is applied 
to the great red dragon, or serpent ; and it is not to be found in any other 
portion of the New Testament. A word from the same root is applied, 
Matt. xvi. 2, 3, to the lowering or threatening appearance of the sky before 
astorm. ‘The prevailing idea, associated with other formations from this 
root, is that of fire ; the application of the term to the colour named, having 
also, no doubt, arisen from the red appearance of a very strong fire. The 
going forth of this fiery red horse, thus reminds us of the prediction, Malachi 
iv. 1, “‘ Behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the 
proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that 
cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them 
neither root nor branch.” The effect of this coming is described at the close 
of the preceding chapter, to be a certain discrimination between the right- 
eous and the wicked—between him that serveth God, and him that serveth 
him not. So, also, the fury of him that cometh from Edom, is said to uphold 
him, Is. lxiii. 5; as the righteousness of the intercessor was before said to 
sustain him. The fiery red horse, then, we may conclude to be an exhibi- 
tion of the power of unappeased justice, to sustain the element represented 
by its rider ; equivalent to what may be termed a spiritual discernment of 
the requisitions of Divine justice, &c., Rom. vii. 10-14. Τί, however, we 
substitute the term fiery-coloured for red—“ and there went out another horse, 
fiery-coloured””—our attention will be directed more particularly to the fiery 
trial, or trial by fire—< trying every man’s work ;’”—a trial of doctrines and 
of doctrinal elements; for which also the great sword, or sword of the 
Spirit, is to be employed—the taking peace from the earth showing the 
inconsistency of false opinions. 

§ 150. ‘ And to him was given to take peace from the earth, and that 
they should kill each other. —The earth we suppose to represent the posi- 
tion of man under the law, dependent upon his own merits, his own works, 
for eternal life—eating his bread by the sweat of his brow: the self- 
righteous principles, sustaining this position, being the wicked, to be burned 
by the oven of Malachi, or by the fire of a revelation of truth. Meantime, 


50 THE SEALS OPENED. 


these principles, the elements of this earthly position, are brought into con- 
tinual collision with each other, whenever tried by the exhibition of trath— 
their inconsistency, their variance, is manifested—there is found to be no 
peace, or concord, between them: “ There is no peace, saith the Lord, to 
the wicked,” Is. xlvii. 22. That is, as if the elements of a self-righteous 
system were a company of evil doers. ‘Think not that I come to send 
peace on earth,” said Jesus; “I came not to send peace, but a sword,” 
Matt. x. 34; or, as it is expressed Luke xii. 49-53, “1 am come to send 
fire on the earth.” . . . “Suppose ye, that I am come to give peace on the 
earth? I tell you nay, but rather division ;’”—a division illustrated under 
the figure of family dissensions. Accordingly we find, although the birth 
of Jesus was announced, (Luke ii. 14,) as the harbinger of peace, that, 
ever since his advent, the matter of religion has been more a subject of dis- 
sension and contention than it ever was before; not merely in respect to 
animosities between man and man, but more especially in respect to the 
variety of contending principles, doctrines, dogmas, and elements of doc- 
trines, more and more exhibiting a collision amongst themselves. The truth 
of revealed religion calls out and exposes the inconsistencies of these ele- 
ments of earthly systems of salvation; systems professedly Christian, but 
founded upon a basis as opposite to that of the Gospel, as the earth is an 
opposite of heaven. Jesus, indeed, gives peace to his followers—peace 
with God ; but it is not the peace of self-justification, or of a reconciliation 
effected by the works or merits of men: “‘ My peace I leave with you,” he 
says; ‘‘not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” His peace is the peace 
of sovereign grace—the peace he brings is that resulting from the good will 
of God toward men, manifested in the work of redemption.* 


* In a Jiteral sense, there has been no peace on earth since the time of Cain, 
Man has always been a foe to his fellow-man. Nations have always been hostile to 
each other. ‘The peace here spoken of, as to be taken away, is not a political peace, 
It is that peace which Christ has procured through his propitiatory sacrifice— 
the peace spoken of, Rom. v. 1, as the result of the sinner’s justification—the 
reconciliation to God by the blood and cross of Christ, described Eph. ii. 13-16. 
Wherever the Christian dispensation is regarded as one of justice merely—an 
economy of rewards and punishments, instead of an economy of grace—this peace is 
taken away as soon as the understanding of the sinner is opened to a conviction of 
his guilt, of the impurity of his motives, and of the imperfection of his best services. 
The morality of the divine law extends to the thoughts and intents of the heart, 
and thither the sword of the Spirit penetrates. 

On the other hand, it is unquestionable that the influence of Christianity has 
ameliorated the political condition of the world. The frequency of national contests 
has been less, and the conduct of them has been less bloody and cruel since the 
general diffusion of the Christian faith, than previous to its promulgation. In this 
sense, Christ may be said to have brought even political peace, and not the sword ; 
but this, it is evident, is not the sense in which he spoke in allusion to the subject of 
peace. 


THE THIRD SEAL. 51 


The rider of the fiery-red horse is, however, to take peace from the 
earth, or out of the earth. The exhibition of truth, showing the exact and 
unrelenting requisitions of justice—of which the going forth of this rider is 
a figure—manifests that there is no peace, or reconciliation, with God to be 
found in these earthly systems, or these systems of earth; the want of 
peace, or concord, between the different elements, alluded to above, being 
figuratively spoken of as their killing each other, or mutually sacrificing 
each other, as the Greek term implies. 

§ 151. ‘To him was given a great sword.’—This great sword might be 
put for great division; as we see in the two passages above quoted from 
Matthew and Luke, the sword is put in one, for what is termed division 
in the other; but it appears more in accordance with the style of Scrip- 
ture, to give to every particular its peculiar force. Here are three par- 
ticulars, which we can hardly suppose to be mere synonyms. The rider 
on the fiery-red horse had power to take peace from the earth—those that 
are on the earth are to kill each other; and besides this, a great sword is 
given to this rider. It seems most probable, that this great or powerful 
weapon is the sword of the Spirit spoken of by Paul, (Heb. iv. 12, Eph. 
vi. 17,)—the word of God. That is, the word of God in its most spiritual 
sense—the mind of God, the power of discerning between the natural and 
spiritual sense of the revealed word—a power sharper than any two-edged 
sword. With this sword, the warrior on the red horse searches into the mo- 
tives of actions, as well as into the nature of the actions—detecting, dis- 
cerning, and exposing the intents and thoughts of the heart ; and thus con- 
vineing the world of sin, showing the impurity and selfishness of human 
motives, and the impracticability of obtaining peace with God by works 
of righteousness of man’s performance ; the same Spirit of truth which mani- 
fests himself a comforter to the disciple of Jesus, being the judge and inves- 
tigator, convincing the world of sin. The rider of these two horses is thus 
the same Divine power exhibited under two different aspects. As the ele- 
ment of justice calls forth an exhibition of the provision of Divine mercy, 
the element of propitiation requires the presence of the provision for the 
conviction of sin, showing that by the deeds of the law no flesh can be jus- 
tified: the going forth of these two combatants, although successive in the 
representation, being simultaneous in effect. 


V.5. And when he had opened the Καὶ ors ἤνοιξε τὴν σφραγῖδα τὴν τρίτην, 
third seal, I heard the third beast [living ἤχουσα τοῦ τρίτου ζώου λέγοντος " ἔρχου. 
creature] say, Comeand see. AndIbe- 4» 35 oi) Yriroe ullac! sate 
held, and lo, a black horse ; and he that sat re et hy a κώμας [πὴ a eo ἐκ 
on him hada pair of balancesinhishand, MS ἐπ ἄὐτὸν ἔχὼν Suyoy ἕν τῇ χξειρὺ αὖ- 

τοῦ" 


ᾧ 152. ‘ The third living ογθαΐαγθ.᾽--οὐ 8 have supposed the animal with 
the man’s face to represent the mind or reason of Divinity—as an animal with 


39 THE SEALS OPENED, 


a man’s face would be supposed to be endued with the faculty of reason. 
Perhaps, as one of the elements of sovereignty about the throne, we may 
suppose it to represent the wisdom of God, or the element of wisdom itself. 
Wisdom calls forth the exhibition now to be made, or directs special atten- 
tion to it. 

‘And lo, a black horse.’—Black is the opposite of white. Blackness 
and darkness are coupled together in Scripture—darkness being the oppo- 
site of light. Light, or whiteness, we have assumed to be figurative of 
moral perfection, or righteousness ; so blackness and darkness are figures of 
the absence of such perfection. Hence blackness, as of sackcloth, is a 
token of repentance, humiliation, or conviction of a want of righteousness ; 
and darkness is a corresponding figure of despondency, from a sense of guilt 
—a state from which every ray of hope or comfort is excluded. 

The black horse is apparently an opposite of the white horse. The 
rider of the black horse depends for his power upon something representing 
an entire lack of righteousness. At the same time the colour reminds us of 
the condition of those who are groping in darkness, and have no light ; 
not having yet come to the knowledge of the truth of salvation by grace 
alone. 

‘ And he that sat on him.’—The rider of the black horse is furnished 
with no weapon, other than a pair of balances, or, as the Greek term 
might be rendered,a yoke. ‘The difference will not be material in the 
construction we propose to give. A yoke for a pair of oxen, has some 
resemblance to a pair of balances ; and the use of the balances, as they are 
designed here, causes the figure not to differ much from a yoke. A pair of 
seales, or balances, is a common equipment for a representation of justice ; 
justice being supposed to balance exactly what is put into one scale, by 
that which is placed in the other. Having already supposed the lion to 
represent the attribute of Divine justice, we cannot consider this figure upon 
the black horse with the balances as representing precisely the same thing ; 
but we may suppose it to represent the element of law—the standard of 
duty—that which defines the rule ; weighing in the balance the requisition 
on the one side, and the fulfilment on the other—that law which proved to 
be a yoke of servitude under the old dispensation, (Gal. v. 1, Acts xv. 10,) 
and is still so to all subjected to it. As the third living creature calls atten- 
tion to this figure with the pair of balances, so wisdom exhibits to every 
rational being in creation the law, or standard of moral right or wrong 3 
corresponding with the dictates of prudence, that he who builds should count 
the cost ; and he who goes into battle should compare his forces with those of 
his enemy, before it be too late. ‘The law depends for its power upon the 
short comings of those subjected to it. Wherever the law is fulfilled it loses 
its ascendency: it can require nothing more. So the rider here, with the 


THE THIRD SEAL. 53 


balances, is sustained by something representing man’s want of that right- 
eousness, necessary to fulfil all that the law, or standard of good and evil, 
demands. The going forth of this rider may thus be equivalent to that 
manifestation of the Holy Spirit which is to convince the world of sin; a 


going forth which is also simultaneous with that of the conqueror, and of 
the rider on the fiery horse. 


V. 6. And I heard a voice in the midst καὶ ἤχουσα φωνὴν ἐν μέσῳ τῶν τεσσά- 
of the four beasts [living creatures] say, ρων ζώων λέγουσαν" χοῖνιξ σίτου δηναρίου, 
A measure of wheat for a penny, and σε tn ee 
three measures of barley for a penny; 7 ἐξῇ ΞΖ ΐ $x PA cuted . 
and (see) thou hurt not the oil and the ἔλαιον καὶ τὸν οἶνον μὴ ἀδικήσῃς. 
wine. 


§ 153. This voice is said to be in the midst of the four living creatures, 
and the four living creatures were in the midst of the throne, and round 
about the throne; and from the throne itself, it is said, lightnings, and thun- 
derings, and voices proceeded. ‘The throne being the habitation of justice 
and judgment, and these four living creatures representing principles intimately 
connected with this tribunal, a voice from such a source, ora principle found 
in such a connection, must be something of a judicial character. Thus we 
may presume the four elements of Divine sovereignty, represented by the 
living creatures, however opposite they may be in their action one to the 
other, as must be the case with the elements of justice and mercy, all accord 
in magnifying the law, and making it honourable, by appealing as it were 
with a common voice to the standard or rule of judgment—proclaiming it 
as by an edict from the throne. 

It has been no uncommon thing for governments to control, and even to 
monopolize the trade in grain, and to regulate the price of bread. Wheat 
and barley being materials for making bread ; and bread being, as we have 
before shown, ($ 65,) a figure of the means of eternal life; the edict here 
published is, in a spiritual sense, the enunciation of the exact requirements 
of the law, as to the only legal means of salvation. This edict coming from 
the throne, emanates like the law from Mount Sinai, from a source distin- 
guished for the fearful paraphernalia with which it is said to be attended. 

‘A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a 
penny.’—If the price here mentioned were a very low price, indicative of 
great plenty, we might suppose the purport of this edict to be equivalent 
to that of the Gospel invitation, by the mouth of the prophet, to buy and eat 
without money and without price. We are to take into consideration, how- 
ever, that, in the days of the apostles, a penny was considered the fair price 
of a day’s labour. On the other hand, the word translated measure, χοῖνιξ, 
is supposed to be equal to about a quart ; and the Roman denarius, (4 ηνά- 
gtor,) a penny, according to some, to be equal to 73 d. sterling ; according to 


54 THE SEALS OPENED. 


others, 9} cents; (see Rob. Lex. 141, 829.) A quart of wheat for 10 to 15 
cents our money, or a quart of wheat for a day’s labour, would not be con- 
sidered very cheap. But as this quantity of wheat was considered a daily 
allowance for one man, the edict is equal to a proclamation assigning to 
every labourer his daily subsistence for his daily labour. The relative price 
of barley is indicative of the same just discrimination. ‘The ideas of plenty 
or scarcity have no share in the illustration. ‘The standard of prices is just 
that of the old rule under the law: by the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat 
bread. Under the law, nothing was obtainable but upon the principle laid 
down to Cain: “If thou doest well, shall it not be accepted?” If thou 
doest not well, by the same rule, is it not for thee to take the consequences ? 
Under the law, every transgression and disobedience receiving a just recom- 
pense of reward, (Heb. ii. 2.) 

The price of the great necessary of life being thus fixed, the representa- 
tive of public justice goes forth with his balances, to weigh, to give out 
exactly, in conformity with the rule of law. 

ᾧ 154. There are those who, like the fratricidal Cain, offer the earthly 
fruits of their own pretended merits as sacrifices of propitiation. They 
conduct themselves upon the mercenary principle of receiving precisely the 
recompense to which they suppose their own work entitles them. Actuated 
by this spirit they live to themselves as essentially as did the Babylonish 
monarch, who was weighed in the balances and found wanting ; the sword 
of the Spirit exposes their real motives,—the thoughts and intents of 
their hearts. Their only object is their own glory, and their own well 
being—the love of self is the ruling motive of their conduct. 'To such, 
suppose the rule of law to be applied, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. Here, 
even in their obedience to this first commandment, they are found wanting ; 
they are not able even here to furnish their penny for their daily supply of 
food, still less to furnish that which is to ransom their souls, or to lay up 
for them the provision of eternal life. It is the office of divine wisdom to 
exhibit this rule of law ; not only so, it proclaims the value of the great 
essential of eternal life. The law requires a perfect righteousness, and 
like a powerful despot it keeps in subjection all incapable of meeting this 
requirement. 

In the figure presented in the Apocalypse, the edict of prices is equiva- 
lent to an enunciation of the Law ; the balances, as the means of trying the 
merit of all pretensions, occupy the place of the fire, which is to try every 
man’s work. The rider on the black horse we may suppose to be that 
Spirit, or power of truth, which applies these rules, and this instrument of 
trial, to the consciences of all—an action equal to the application of the 
texts, “The soul that sinneth it shall die ” “The wages of sin is death ;” 


THE FOURTH SEAL. 55 


“There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not.”— 
Though a man keep the whole law, with but one exception, in that single 
offence he is guilty of all. 

‘And see thou hurt not (or do no wrong to) the oil and the wine.’— 
A caution apparently not to allow the elements of the gospel to be ap- 
proached in conducting this judicial process ; as if it were said to the self- 
righteous, or self-sufficient, ‘ You prefer being treated on your own merits ; 
you would have your own righteousness weighed in the scale against the 
price of eternal life; you have heard the conditions,—now come to the 
trial: but see that you do not lean to the very gospel principles you despise.’ 

Oil was used amongst the Hebrews as a sign, in setting apart certain 
persons to a particular office. Thus, kings and priests were set apart, or 
sanctified, by the use of oil; hence, the sign of this setting apart seems to 
be figuratively put for the setting apart or sanctification itself. To be set 
apart in Christ, or to be sanctified in him, is obviously the greatest cause of 
rejoicing ; and hence it is spoken of as the ot! of joy ;—the sinner mourn- 
ing under a depressing sense of his sin, when able by faith to trust to this 
setting apart in Christ, rejoices in that spiritual wnction with joy unspeak- 
~ able. 

So, as by the power of Jesus, the element of purification was trans- 
formed to the wine of a marriage feast, the atonement—his own propitiation 
for the ablution of sin—becomes the element of making glad the heart of 
man, not only for time but for eternity. ‘These gospel means of salvation, 
however, are not to be trespassed upon by those who come to the bar of 
divine judgment, to be tried upon their own merits. They depend solely 
upon what they have to offer themselves, and out of their own mouths, and 
by their own rules, they must be weighed in the balance: or at least such 
must be the trial by which the doctrines supporting these pretensions are to 
be tried and judged. 


Vs. 7, 8. And when he had opened the καὶ ὅτε ἤνοιξε τὴν σφραγῖδα τὴν τετάρ- 
fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth την, ἤκουσα φωνὴν τοῦ τετάρτου ζώου λέ- 


beast say, Come and see, [or come.] And ον . 3 4, δέξο ὦ : 
I aioe behold, a — — : and Ζόντος" ἔρχου. Καὶ εἰδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἵππος 


his name that sat on him was Death, and χλωρός, καὶ ὃ καϑήμενος ἐπάνω αὐτοῦ, ὄνο- 
hell followed with him. μα αὐτῷ 0 ϑάνατος" καὶ ὃ ἅδης ἠκολούϑει 
μετ αὑτοῦ. 

§ 155. ‘I heard the fourth living creature 58γ.᾿-- Τρ animal by 
which this exhibition is ushered forth is that like a flying eagle, supposed 
to represent the Holy Spirit in the office of Comforter; as the eagle bears 
up its young in its flight, or protects them with its wings. Here the parental 
care of the Holy Spirit may be supposed to be exercised in pointing out the 
imminent danger, calling for the protection provided—the inevitable judicial 
death and condemnation to which the sinher is exposed. 

13 


56 THE SEALS OPENED. 


‘ And lo, a pale horse.’—The word translated pale, χλωρός; is elsewhere 
rendered green ; as Matt. vi. 39, Rev. viii. 7, green grass : and Rev. ix. 4, 
“every green thing.” This Greek term occurs nowhere else in the New 
Testament, and in the Septuagint it is cited only to express the colour, 
green. The reason for rendering the word pale in our translation, may be, 
that the term is supposed to be applicable to pale green ; but grass green is 
not pale green, and we find it as much used in the description of dark green 
colours as of light. Our translators would probably say, that no one had 
ever seen a green horse, and, therefore, this could not be green; but they 
might as well say, that no one had seen an animal with seven heads and 
ten horns, and therefore the description in the Greek of the great red dragon 
should be rendered by some other terms.* 

Green, however, is the colour here, and there must be as much reason for 
the green colour of this horse, as there is for the black, red, and white of 
the other horses. Metaphorically, green may be put for fresh, and. signify 
strength ; or, if it be a yellowish green, it may be put for fear, or something 
of a pallid colour; but according to the Septuagint, this word χλωρός, so far 
from signifying a pallid colour, is applied to a green flourishing tint, in oppo- 
sition to a fading, or pale hue. It is not only applied to herbs, grass, and 
trees, it is used for them ; as Gen. ii. 5, and Deut. xxix. 23, (see Trommii 
Concord. 687.) 

The colour of a thing, in Scripture, is frequently put for the thing itself; 
as Gen. xxv. 30, give me some of that red, (that is, red pottage.) So, red 
is put for blood, white for light, and black for sackcloth. Grass, or herbage, 
generally is the covering of the earth, it is also the food furnished by the 
earth and it is strictly and immediately a product of the earth. Its beauty, 
and its goodness, are but transient; in the morning it springeth up, in the 
evening it is cut down and withereth: as it is said, “‘ The grass withereth, 
and the flower thereof fadeth.”” So, a drought destroys its nutritious quali- 
ties—it is incapable of withstanding the scorching heat of the sun. In all 
these particulars, there is an analogy between this green clothing of the 
earth and the pretended clothing of self-righteousness. Man weaves a gar- 
ment of salvation, as he supposes, of his own merits, which endures but for 
a little time, and then vanishes away. The manifestation of the sun of 
righteousness is as the scorching heat to it—it is incapable of standing in 
the day of trial, when the fire of revealed truth burns as an oven.t It is 


* “ And I looked, and beholde a grene horsse, and his name that sat on him was 
Deeth.”—( The Tyndale version of 1534, according to Bagster’s Hexapla.) 

+ The fruits of the ground appear to have been set apart, under the law, as 
thank-offerings, representing the sacrifices of gratitude offered in return for favours 
already received; but as sacrifices of propitiation, they were of no avail; for without 
shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. So the good works of the believer, as 


THE FOURTH SEAL. 57 


incapable, too, of furnishing the means of eternal life. Instead of sustaining 
the sinner, it sustains and gives power to the principles of his everlasting 
destruction. Thus the power, or horse, represented in this exhibition, is a 
figure of the power or tendency of self-righteous systems. This horse is 
distinguished by the clothing, the covering, the uniform, or livery, of these 
systems. ‘The rider of this horse is sustained by this tendency of man’s 
self-justification ; as the rider of the white horse was sustained by the oppo- 
site principle of justification by the righteousness of Christ. 

§ 156. ‘ And his name that sat on him was Death.’—This is not a per- 
sonification of natural death. The mere separation of the spirit from the 
body*is not the subject of contemplation. In an ordinary sense, death has 
power over the whole earth. Here we find, in the last clause of the verse, 
power is said to be given to death and hell, or to death alone, over only the 
fourth part of the earth; and Rev. xx. 14, death and hell are spoken of 
as being cast into the lake of fire—an end in no sense applicable to that 
death which is the common lot of mortals. 

When our Lord says, (John vii. 51,) “If ἃ man keep my saying, he 
shall never see death,” we know that it is not of the separation of the spirit 
from the body, in a literal sense, that he is speaking. So, when Paul says, 
Rom. vii. 9, ‘For I was alive without the law once, but when the com- 
mandment came, sin revived, and I died,’ we know that he does not speak 
of natural death ; as, also, when he says afterwards, “ Sin, taking occasion by 
the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.” 

There is a death, then, in a spiritual sense, somewhat analogous to natural 
death, and like this it may be spoken of both as cause and effect. We say 
of a poison, that it produces death, and we say of a person deceased, that he 
is taken away by death. We personify natural death as an actor, and term 
him the grim monster, and the king of terrors; while at the same time we 
understand this same death to be the effect of a prior cause. 

The apostle Paul speaks of death, in a spiritual sense, as a consequence 
of sin, while the apostle John speaks here apparently of the same death as 
a power, or cause. The death spoken of by Paul, is a result of the intro- 
duction of the law, and such a result we know to be liability to condemna- 
tion. Where there is no law, there can be no such liability. When the law 


sacrifices of gratitude, are good and acceptable unto God ; but if offered as means of 
propitiation, they are of no avail, for they can have no merit in themselves. The 
righteousness and atonement of Christ, (as the fat and blood of the firstling of the 
flock,) are the only sacrifices of faith acceptable to God, as means of reconciliation 
with him. But the believer’s works of love, or rather of gratitude, are living sacrifices 
to be offered in return for all His mercies, (see Ps. exvi. 12; Rom. xii. 1.) Such we 
may suppose to be the difference between the offerings of Cain and Abel; or such the 
difference typically illustrated in the account given of these sacrifices.’ 


58 THE SEALS OPENED. 


has been transgressed, a position under it is not only one of liability, but it 
is equal to certain condemnation—the sentence only not being passed. 
Death, therefore, may be sometimes used as a figure of the state of actual 
condemnation, as well as of liability to condemnation. So, Rom. vii. 1, it is 
said, There is therefore no condemnation to them which are zn Christ Jesus, 
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit—that is, there is therefore 
no liability to condemnation ; the apostle referring to what he had spoken 
of as the body of this death, in the preceding chapter—a declaration 
throwing light upon the words of Jesus Christ just now quoted: ‘If a man 
keep my saying, he shall never see death.”’ So long as the disciple places 
his trust in the salvation wrought out for him by Jesus Christ, he will not 
see himself in the position of liability to condemnation. Chnist having ful- 
filled the law for his followers—in their behalf—no sooner is the law thus 
fulfilled for them, than their liability under it to condemnation is removed. 
They are thus through him delivered from the body of this death. 

This liability to condemnation, spoken of by Paul as an effect of the 
coming in of the law, is personified in the Apocalypse as a cause, or power ; 
and its sustaining principle is that of man’s dependence upon his own merits ; 
for ifa man be not dependent upon his own merits, or works, he cannot be 
in this position of liability to condemnation. Death, therefore, is represented 
as a power, seated on a war-horse, clothed in the colour or uniform of self- 
righteousness ; a clothing representing a system of human merits—a clothing 
as vain and transient as the grass of the earth. Such is death upon the green 
horse: the power of this death, or liability to condemnation, resting upon the 
position of man’s dependence upon his own merits. ‘This power goes forth 
to contend with the word of God—the rider upon the white horse :—the 
word of God which we are assured is to endure for ever, (1 Pet. 1. 25.) 
There is, therefore, no condemnation, or liability to condemnation, to them 
that are in Christ Jesus, although out of him there is every thing to fear. 
The contest in contemplation, as we have before intimated, being not one 
between the Saviour and the sinner ; nor between the Creator and his human 
creatures ; but a contest between the elements of justice or condemnation 
on one side, and the elements of mercy or redemption on the other side. 

§ 157. ‘And hell followed with him,’—or more correctly, and Hades 
followed with him. There are two Greek words translated Hell, in our 
common version of the New Testament, ἅδης, Hades, and γεέννα, Gheenna. 
The first only occurs in the Apocalypse, and this but four times, and in all 
coupled with death. In the epistles it occurs but once, 1 Cor. xv. 55, 
where we have rendered it the grave. Like death, it is said, Rev. xx. 14, 
..to be itself cast into the lake of fire. We cannot, therefore, take it to be 
an appellation of that place of punishment to which the term is generally 
applied; neither can we suppose it to express the same thing as death, 


THE FOURTH SEAL. 59 


although it probably does express something very intimately connected 
with death. 

As there is a natural and a spiritual sense in which the term Death is 
used in Scripture, so we may suppose the term Hades to be used in the 
same two senses; the natural sense being that applied to the state of 
an individual after death, whatever that state may be,—equivalent to what 
we mean by the grave, when we speak of it as the house appointed for all 
living. ‘The spiritual sense is the state of being, or position, subsequent 
and consequent to that of liability to condemnation; that is, it is the 
position of actual condemnation—judgment having been passed. Accord- 
ingly, viewing man as a transgressor of the law—and there is none that is 
not so—the position of death and that of hell, in respect to man, are in- 
separable. We could hardly say that the last follows after the first ; but 
we should rather say, as it is expressed here, the last follows with the first, 
—as the Greek preposition, meta, with a genitive, is said sometimes to 
express with, in the sense of aiding, assisting, or being on the same side: 
(Rob. Lex. 443)—the power of liability to condemnation, and the power 
of actual condemnation, both operating and co-operating in opposition to 
the Saviour’s work of redemption. If it could bé supposed that man’s 
position under the law were a case of doubtful issue, the accused liable 
indeed to condemnation, but perhaps able to justify himself, then we 
should perceive the difference between the position of death and that of 
hell. In the perpetual sight of his omniscient Judge, we cannot suppose 
a moment’s interval between the sinner’s liability to condemnation, and the 
actual passing of judgment upon him. But we may suppose man under 
the law liable to condemnation, and thus in the position of death—under 
the power of death:—a Mediator appears, interposes his own merits as 
a plea in behalf of the sinner; he that was liable to condemnation is thus 
justified and protected against this consequence of his former desperate 
condition. He is saved from hell or Hades; that is, he is saved from the 
position of condemnation, which, but for this Mediator, must inevitably 
have attended the position of liability to which he had been subjected. 

It will be perceived that the power of Hades thus grows out of that of 
death; the last involves the first, and the first, where man is concerned, 
inevitably generates the last ; hence they may be well used as convertible 
terms, and hence the power of both depends upon the same principle of 
man’s dependence upon his own merits, or works. It is not said that they 
sere both riders upon the green horse, but they both depend for their suc- 
cess, or their prospect of victory, upon the same system of self-righteousness ; 
as, in ancient military tactics, a foot-soldier and a horseman were associated 
together, that they might assist and protect each other; the horse of the 


60 THE SEALS OPENED. 


equestrian, although mounted only by one of the combatants, was the 
common support of both. 

So far, then, we perceive the Comforter (the fourth living creature) 
exhibiting or calling attention to the sinner’s liability to condemnation under 
the law, and to the actual condemnation attending this liability, whenever 
they are supported by the system of man’s dependence upon his own merits, 
or wherever they are sustained by the principle of self-nghteousness. 

N. B. The construction here given to the term Hades, does not shut out 
the idea of a state of future punishment; it supposes only that state to be 
subsequent to the position of condemnation. ‘The sinner may be said to be 
in Hades even in this life, being in the sight of God actually condemned, 
(John iii. 18 ;) but the punishment consequent to this condemnation, unless 
mercy be extended, must take place in another state of existence. 

The term Hades occurs but in six other places of the New Testament, 
besides those already noticed. In Acts ii. 27 and 31, it is a quotation of 
the words of the Psalmist—‘'Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,” and 
may be taken in either or both senses. In Matt. xi. 23, xvi. 18, and Luke 
x. 15, and xvi. 23, it is apparently to be taken im what we call the 
spiritual sense. 

Throughout the Old Testament death and hell afe used nearly as 
convertible terms; in some places both are personified, not as places or 
accidents, but as powers. The gates of death and the gates of hell are 
both met with; the term gates being put for tribunals of judgment, from 
the ancient custom of administering judgment at the gate of a city: as, to 
meet an adversary in the gate, (Ps. cxxvii. 5,) was to meet him in a court 
of justice ; to sit in the gate, (Ps. Ixix. 12,) was to be a judge. 

The position of Hades might be further spoken of as one of perfect 
helplessness, and conviction of helplessness; as a criminal under sentence 
of death, awaiting only his execution, without a ray of hope from any 
process of law, has given up all thought of defence—the law and the judge 
have done their part—the sovereign only can exercise the prerogative of 
mercy, unless some voice be heard equal to that of an Almighty Redeemer : 
“Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom,” (Job 
Xxxiil. 24;) or the position of Hades may itself be equivalent to that of 
the pit—the miry pit—the pit without a bottom, or the bottomless pit. 

V. 8, continued.—And power was given καὶ ἐδόϑη αὐτοῖς ἐξουσία ἐπὶ τὸ τέταρ-. 
σαῖς them over. the four part of the τον τῆς is, ἀποιτῆναι & Gouge κι ὦν 


hunger, and with death, and with the “'* | 
beasts of the earth. τῆς YUS- 


ᾧ 158. Some editions read, power was given to him, that is, to Death ; 
but the connection between the two is so intimate, and one is so involved 


~ - ~ 
λιμῷ καὶ ἐν ϑανάτῳ καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ϑηρίων 


THE FOURTH SEAL. ᾿ 61 


in the other, as we have seen, that this difference in the reading is im- 
material. ‘The power of Hades is a consequence of that of death, and the 
power of death would be inconsequential if it were not for that of Hades. 

Whatever may be the difference of editions, in other respects, they are 
all agreed in the reading, τὸ τέταρτον τῆς yjg—the fourth of the earth—the 
word part being supplied by our own translators. No suggestion seems to 
have been made, nor is there any foundation for supposing, that the words, 
the fourth part, should be the four parts ; as human wisdom would very 
probably have dictated, if it had not been for the special injunction at the 
close of the book, so evidently designed to protect the text, (Rev. xxii. 
18, 19.) 

Death, in a literal sense, has power over the whole of the earth, and 
the four means here enumerated, for exercising that power, appear to be so 
many classifications under which all kinds of death may be arranged. 
Death by violence of man, death by violence of other animals, death from 
want of any kind, death by accident or disease—death and hell being 
even described as having power to kill with death itself, which alone com- 
prises every cause of mortality. It is evident, therefore, that the natural 
or literal sense is not here contemplated, except so far as some analogy or 
comparison may be drawn from it. 

First—To kill by the sword, we may suppose to be an allusion to the 
action of the sword of the Spinit, “ piercing to the dividing asunder’’—show- 
ing the difference between the natural and spiritual understanding ; and show- 
ing the liability to condemnation, by an exhibition of the motives of conduct. 

Second— Hunger, representing the destitution of righteousness, or merit, 
when manifested, must equally exhibit the sinner’s position of condemnation. 

Third—Death, from sickness, or what we call natural causes, in the 
same way may afford a figure of the condemnation of the sinner, neces- 
sarily arising from the depravity of man’s heart, and the waywardness of all 
his affections. 

And fourth—The action of the beasts of the earth, (ϑηρία,) we may 
suppose to represent the operation of the unclean and destructive principles 
of self-justification—principles, by which even those depending upon the 
sustenance of the earthly system must meet their condemnation. 

The term earth, we have already had occasion to allude to as a figura- 
tive expression for some exhibition of doctrines, or principles, or a position 
resulting from such an exhibition—the opposite of the heavenly scheme ;— 
the earth displaying the works of man, as the heavens display those of God. 
The earth, too, with the things which are therein, being that which is transi-. 
tory ; while the heavens, in a natural sense, exhibit something of a more 
permanent character. That death, or that death and Hades should reign 
over the fourth part of the earth only, is evidently something of a mystic 


62 THE SEALS OPENED. 


character. There must be something peculiar in the sense, in which this 
fourth is to be taken ; as we shall see hereafter there must be also in what is 
elsewhere said of the third or third part. 

ᾧ 159. As we have already noticed, the term part is not in the original. 
Any other appropriate word might be supplied ; and none in a literal sense 
can be less appropriate here, than that which our translators have adopted. 
Suppose, instead of this, we substitute the word kingdom. 'To them, or to 
him, was given power over the fourth kingdom of the earth, to slay, &c. 
The kingdoms of the earth, in a spiritual sense, must be opposites of the 
kingdom of heaven, being earthly systems or economies—spiritual powers, 
somewhat analogous to literal powers. Suppose the fourth kingdom of the 
earth, spoken of by Daniel, (ch. vii. 23,) to represent one of these systems, - 
stronger, and more powerful, in human estimation, than any other. Man 
seeth not as God seeth. In the times of the apostles, (Acts viii. 10,) a 
mere sorcerer gave himself out as some great one, and “ to him the people 
gave heed, saying, This is the great power of God.’ So it is in systems ; 
and such we may suppose to be the kingdom, or system, we have in view, 
in human estimation. 

In the vision of the prophet, Zech. vi. 3, the fourth chariot was drawn 
by grizzled horses, spotted, and of various colours, like the garment of the 
beloved child of the patriarch, (Gen. xxxvil. 3;) a figure, perhaps, of the 
garment of various merits, with which every man in imagination arrays his 
own peculiar goodness—the idol of his spiritual affections. Spotted, or 
patched garments, and spotted animals, we may suppose to have some rela- 
tion to principles of salvation, n which the merits of man are interwoven, 
as we may say, with those of his Saviour. 

The chariots seen by the prophet were war-chariots, and thew horses 
war-horses : both of them representing human means of dependence, in the 
great contest with the principle of legal condemnation ; a war-chariot, with 
its horses, being equivalent, in a spiritual sense, to a kingdom of the earth. 
We may suppose, then, this fourth kingdom of Daniel to represent an earthly 
system of salvation—a real amalgamation of earthly principles with heay- 
enly ; a system of salvation in which the merits or righteousness of man are 
supposed to co-operate with the righteousness and atonement of Christ, in 
establishing a claim to divine favour. We may suppose such a system so 
far to admit views of the soundest character as to be, like Daniel’s fourth 
kingdom, diverse from all others ; at the same time so plausible as to appear, 
in the sight of man, like the sorcerer of Samaria, the great power of God ; 
while the speckled, spotted character of its leading elements, causes it to 
resemble the fourth chariot of the prophet’s vision, with its array of grizzled 
chargers. 

Over such a kingdom we may presume the elements of Death and 


THE FIFTH SEAL. 63 


Hades, to have peculiar sway. They are commissioned to destroy it ; or, as 
the Assyrian was sent against a hypocritical nation, Is. x. 5, 6, “ΤῸ take the 
spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the 
streets.”’ The system of self-righteousness, in which the merits of Christ 
are hypocritically allowed to have a part in the work of salvation, is com- 
posed of principles necessarily falling under the action of the elements of 
liability to legal condemnation, or of that condemnation itself. As in the 
case of a rebellious nation, the invader finds in the subjects of the prince 
themselves, the means of overturning his kingdom ; so, in this fourth earthly 
system of mixed principles, or of principles of the mixed character described, 
Death and Hades find an easy prey. ‘They destroy all, through the instru- 
mentality of one or the other of the four classes enumerated: the sword, 
famine, death, or the wild beasts of the earth. 


V.9. And when he had opened the Καὶ ὅτε ἤνοιξε τὴν πέμπτην σφραγῖδα, 


fifth seal, 1 saw under the altar the souls εἶδον ὑποκάτω τοῦ ϑυσιαστηρίου τὰς ψυχὰς 
of them that were slain for the word of ων ἐσφαγμένων διὰ τὸν λόνον Ton Deon 
God, and for the testimony which they ile 7 Us 


helt. καὶ διὰ τὴν μαρτυρίαν ἣν εἶχον" 

§ 160. “ And when he opened the fifth 568]."----ὐϑ are here struck with 
a peculiarity attending the opening of the first four seals, which we no longer 
meet with. The four living creatures around the throne, have each of them 
done a part in exhibiting or in calling attention to the several representations 
of those seals. Each of these four representations, too, consisted of a horse 
of a peculiar colour, with its respective rider. The subjects unfolded by 
these four seals, are of such a character that we may easily suppose them to 
synchronize. ‘The white, the red, the black, and the green horse, all going 
forth at the same time ; that is, the spiritual action of the four, such as we 
have described it, may be supposed to be contemporaneous. The rider on 
the white horse, with his bow and crown, going forth to conquer ; while the 
rider of the red goes to take peace from the earth: the rider of the black, to 
exhibit the standard of divine justice; and the rider of the green, to exer- 
cise his power over the fourth kingdom of the earth. The four elements 
of justice, propitiation, wisdom, and consolation, have each performed its 
respective office. ‘The first, in pointing out the Saviour; the three last, in 
showing the peculiar dangers rendering his salvation necessary, and calling 
his power to overcome them into operation. We are to notice that the 
rider of the red horse takes peace from the earth only ; it is the earthly sys- 
tem only that suffers, and the principles of which destroy or sacrifice each 
other. So death and hell are said to have power only over the fourth of the 
earth, not over the fourth of any thing else than the earth ; or if this fourth 
be a kingdom, it is only an earthly kingdom—something peculiar to the 


64 THE SEALS OPENED. 


earthly system that suffers from liability to condemnation, or from the ele 
ments of condemnation itself. 

ᾧ 161. ‘I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain.’— 
There is no altar previously spoken of, although the apostle says he saw 
under the altar; nor is there any previous mention of individuals slain, 
unless we go back to the fourth verse, where the same Greek term is ren-- 
dered kill. This term, from σφάζω, being usually applied to the slaughtering 
of victims for sacrifice ; differing from the verb ἀποχτείνω in the eighth verse, 
also rendered Kill. But in the fourth verse it appears to be the elements of 
the earth that kill, or slaughter each other; and therefore their souls could 
hardly call for vengeance upon those that dwell upon the earth. Whatever 
altar this may be, we must suppose, from the employment of this term oat, 
slaughter, the souls seen under the altar to be the souls of victims offered 
upon the altar. 

« We have an altar,” says the apostle, ‘“ whereof they have no right to 
eat who serve the tabernacle,” (Heb. xii. 10.) This altar we suppose to 
be Christ, in a certain relation ; and it is so considered by others, (see Cru- 
den, art. Altar.) An altar is that upon which sacrifices are offered. The 
altar sanctifies or sets apart the gift, (Matt. xxiii. 19.) The Greek word 
translated altar, is composed of the words ϑυσία, sacrifice, and στηρίζω, to 
fix firmly, to set in a firm position. Christ, as the Lamb of God, it is true, 
is the sacrifice ; but as the Jogos, or purpose of God, he may be also the 
altar—the word, or purpose of God—sanctifying or setting apart the sacrifice 
made upon it ; the righteousness, the merits, the atonement of Christ, being 
constituted by the divine purpose the propitiatory sacrifice for sinners. In 
this vicarious process, the material flesh and blood of Jesus Christ constituted 
the body slain in sacrifice. His flesh and blood, in a spiritual sense, that 
is, his righteousness and his atonement, may be considered the soul or prin- 
ciple of life of this body ; the literal manifestation, and the spiritual mean- 
ing, bearing a relation to each other, analogous to that between soul and 
body. So we may say with all truths connected with this subject, the 
literal truths pertaining to this sacrifice are those which appear upon, or out- 
side of the altar ; the spiritual truths are the souls beneath, or within the altar. 

The Greek preposition rendered for, (διά,) by, or through, (in Rob. Lex. 
144, b. 2,) “referring to the efficient cause of any thing,” the souls of 
them that were offered in sacrifice by, or through, the word of God, would 
thus signify those thus offered in consequence of the dive purpose, and 
through or by the testimony which they had. That is, the testimony, borne 
by these representations of the truth of salvation, had this effect of placing 
their literal sense as victims upon the altar, while their spiritual sense, sepa- 
rated from the literal, was as it were hidden beneath the altar. ‘The opening 


THE FIFTH SEAL. 65 


of this fifth seal thus reveals the important truth, that there are two mean- 
; ings, and that the spiritual meaning was to be for a period kept back, or 
suppressed. All which is exhibited under the figure of persons supposed 
to have been slain in the cause of Christ, or offered as victims, according to 
his purpose: a figure, which our translators seem to have taken it for granted 
referred to the persecution of certain martyrs in the early period of Christian- 
ity. But, as has been before observed, if this passage, or any one passage is 
to be rendered in this literal sense, the whole vision must be equally literal. 


V. 10. And they eried with a loud Kat ἔχραξαν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ λέγοντες" ἕως 
spice, vice At long, O ye holy πότε, ὃ δεσπότης ὃ ἅγιος καὶ ἀληϑινός, οὐ 
ΝΠ pga Unk dle habe a κρίνεις καὶ ἐχδικεῖς TO αἷμα ἡμῶν ἀπὸ τῶν 


our blood on them that dwell on the 5 ἐλ ΐν Ws bid 
earth 7 κατοικούντων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ; 


§ 162. This is very different language from that of the martyr Stephen, 
when stoned to death: ‘Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.’ It differs 
still more from that of Jesus Christ when crucified : “ Father, forgive them, for 
they know not what they do.” It differs too from his precept: ‘ Bless them 
which persecute you ; bless and curse not.” Here they cry for vengeance, 
not merely on those who have persecuted them, but “ upon all who dwell 
upon the earth ;” as if the oppressed subjects of Nero, throughout the Roman 
empire, as well as the tyrant himself, were to suffer the vengeance due to 
his cruelty and guilt ;—a further evidence that the literal sense is not to be 
taken into consideration, except as a figure furnishing some spiritual analogy. 
Jt may be said, indeed, that this cry for vengeance is not the prayer of the 
martyrs themselves, but of their souls, virtually crying for retribution, as the 
blood of Abel cried from the ground for vengeance ; although such is not 
supposed to have been the voice of Abel himself. But even the blood of 
Abel called for vengeance upon the murderer only, not upon all that dwelt 
upon the earth. Besides, the retributive rule of life for life, and limb for 
limb, is the rule of law ; while we are assured that the Gospel dispensation 
speaketh better things than the blood of Abel. Indeed, the blood of Christ 
cries for mercy, for it was shed that mercy might be exercised—not towards 
the innocent, for they need it not, but towards the guilty. We cannot sup- 
pose that the blood and sufferings even of the martyrs, during the whole 
period of their persecution, is to counteract the plea offered in the atone- 
ment of him who ever liveth to make intercession for us. 

We suppose the earth to represent in the Apocalypse, a system, or some- 
thing equivalent, the opposite of the heavenly economy of redemption, (Ὁ 
167,) and the dwellers upon the earth to be principles, the opposite of those 
of the heavenly system ; these last, the heavenly principles, being spoken 
of under the figure of martyrs, or witnesses for the truth. The action of 
the earthly principles upon the true, has been that of separating the spirit- 


66 THE SEALS OPENED. 


ual sense from the literal ; this spiritual sense being represented by the blood, 
the life of the animal, as well as by the soul, in contradistinction to the 
body. ‘To avenge this spiritual sense upon the elements which have ope- 
rated in separating it from the literal sense, that is, in excluding it altogether, 
is, we may suppose, equivalent to vindicating the truth testified to by these 
martyr principles; which vindication is to be effected by placing the spirit- 
ual sense in its true light: a manifestation necessarily resulting in the de- 
struction or metaphorical death of the elements of the earthly system. A 
kind of evidence, we may easily perceive, perfectly in accordance with the 
regard for truth inseparable from the divine character, without being incon- 
sistent with the equally inseparable attribute of sovereign mercy. ‘The cry 
of the souls, “‘ How long,” &c., bespeaks a general impatience for the man- 
ifestation of the truth; as if it were said, “" How long, O Lord, ere the 
proper sense and meaning of the truths we have testified will be vindicated, 
or made to operate in the destruction of false doctrines, or of the elements 
of false doctrine, connected with the system of self-righteousness ?” 


V. 11. And white robes were given Kat ἐδόϑη αὐτοῖς ἑκάστῳ στολὴ λευκή, 
unto every one of them; and it was said 4} ἐῤῥέϑη αὐτοῖς, ἵνα ἀναπαύσωνται Ett 
unto them, that they should rest yet fora zodvor μικρόν, ἕως πληφω ΕΣ Ge oe 
little season, until their fellow-servants 
also and their brethren, that should be δουλοι αὐτῶν καὶ ot ἀδελφοὶ αὐτῶν, οἵ μέλ- 
killed as they were, should be fulfilled. λοντες ἀποκτένεσϑαι ὡς καὶ αὐτοί. 

ᾧ 163. ‘And there was given to each of them white robes.’—As it is 
said of him that evercometh, Rev. iii. 4, 5, ‘‘ He shall be clothed with white 
raiment ;” and of the few names in Sardis, “ They shall walk with me in 
white ;” an allusion to the covering of divine righteousness, (¢ 86.) The 
uniform or livery of these souls thus affording evidence of their community 
with the system of truth, although the manifestation of the true, or spiritual 
sense of the principles symbolized by them is for a season withheld ; as we 
might say of the faith of a disciple, the sum of which consists in an implicit 
reliance on the merits of his Redeemer. However imperfect his views may 
otherwise be, they wear in this particular the livery of evangelical truth. 
His faith belongs to the system of salvation by sovereign grace, although he 
does not himself at present perceive it. 

‘ That they should rest for a little season. —That they should wait or 
pause, not rest, as for relief. ‘They were to wait until the term allowed for 
the prevalence of error should expire ; after which, it is implied, the venge- 
ance prayed for would be taken—corresponding with the prediction of Paul, 
2 Thess. ii. 8, “ And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord 
shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness 
of his coming.” The period of this waiting being identical with that spoken 
of in the same epistle of Paul, during which the mystery of iniquity is to 
work, as it were, in secret, a certain power letting or preventing its revela- 


THE SIXTH SEAL. 67 


tion ;—the final manifestation of error being at last brought about by 
the extreme to which its doctrines are carried out ; an extreme alluded to, 
2 Tim. iii. 1, as the last days, when perilous times shall come ; a time when, 
as it is also said, 2 Tim. iv. 3, sound doctrine will not be endured; and a 
time when, as we might also say, in the language of the Old Testament, 
“The iniquity of the Amorites is full, (Gen. xv. 16.) A time, too, when 
from the abounding of this iniquity, the love of many shall wax cold. A 
coldness or lukewarmness generated, as we have seen, in the case of the 
Laodicean church, (ἢ 91,) by that dereliction, or aberration from the truth 
of salvation by. grace alone, in which the iniquity of self-righteousness 
especially consists. As he who is forgiven little, or thinks himself so, 
loveth little ; so every error tending to undermine the cause of gratitude to 
Christ the Saviour, must proportionally tend to destroy the love of the 
disciple towards his Redeemer. 

‘ Until their fellow-servants and brethren, that were to be killed as they 
were, should be perfected.’—That is, should have completed, or have filled 
up, the measure of work assigned them. These souls, or their spiritual sense, 
then, being also, like their predecessors, under the altar; while their literal 
sense is that only which appears upon the altar, (¢ 161.) These fellow 
servants, or slaves, (ovrdovio1,) and brethren, we suppose to be other ele- 
ments or principles, serving or belonging to the system of doctrinal truth, 
and co-operating with the souls in promoting the promulgation of that truth. 

Some parts of Scripture, for example, have ever been, and still are 
admitted to have a hidden doctrinal meaning ; as if commentators, unable 
to make any thing else of them, were willing to consign them to what they 
considered the shade of spirituality, as exceptions to a general rule. The 
time may come when even these will be literalized, or denied any special 
signification ; when the whole written word of divine revelation will be per- 
verted by an earthly, and self-righteous construction ; and then we may say, 
perhaps, the time of the end cometh. 


V. 12. And I beheld when he had Kei εἶδον ὅτε ἤνοιξε τὴν σφραγῖδα τὴν 
opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a ἕκτην, καὶ σεισμὸς μέγας ἐγένετο, καὶ ὃ 
great earthquake; and the sun became “4 oe eye ΠΝ eat ’ - 
black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon 7105 &/#?£TO μέλας ὡς TuxKOS τρίχινος, καὶ 
became as blood. ἢ σελήνη ὅλη ἐγένετο ὡς αἷμα. 


ᾧ 164. ‘There was a great shaking.’—There is nothing in the Greek 
word translated earthquake, limiting the sense to the action of the earth. 
The verb σείω, from which the term is derived, signifies simply I shake. 
The term σεισμός, is applied, Matt. viii. 24, to a tempest, or commotion of 
the sea ; Matt. xxvii. 51 and 54, to a quaking of the earth ; and Matt. xxi. 
10, to a commotion in the minds of the people. In every instance in 
which the term is employed, we must look to the context to explain its pre- 


68 THE SEALS OPENED. 


cise meaning. Here it is applied to all the visible elements of earth and 
heaven ; the shaking, or commotion described, being something which pro- 
duces an effect upon the sun, moon, and stars, as well as upon the mount- 
ains and islands. 

‘The sun became black as sackcloth of hair.—Such was its appear- 
ance. «άκκος, a garment in the shape of a sack, of a coarse black cloth, 
made of hair, (Rob. Lex. 673.) The sun appeared as if clothed in such 
a garment, although the sun itself undergoes no change ; but, as in an eclipse, 
its rays being intercepted by an opaque body, it appears dark or black— 
darkness or blackness consisting in the absence of the rays of light. So 
the Sun of righteousness, although ever the same, may appear to the eye of 
the disciple, in consequence of the intervention of some film of error, as if 
divested of its light, or power to impart light: the view of salvation, by 
imputed righteousness, is entirely lost sight of ; the spiritual sun appears, in 
effect, as if clothed in a sack of black cloth. 

§ 165. ‘And the whole moon became as blood.’—This planet, as it is 
well known, shines by a light not her own. She appears resplendent only 
in the borrowed rays of the sun; without these she would appear, as she is 
in fact, a dark opaque body. In this respect she is an appropriate figure of 
what we usually call the church, or that which represents the whole body 
of the disciples, all of whom are in fact without any light or righteousness 
of their own; all of whom must appear, in the sight of Him who seeth not 
as man seeth, clothed in moral perfection only in proportion as that perfec- 
tion is imputed to them, or transferred as it were to their account. 

When the atmosphere is clear, and the moon is near the zenith, she 
appears of a white light; an appearance striking us as remarkable for its 
beauty, and with which we associate peculiar ideas of serenity and purity. 
When just rising or setting, especially when the atmosphere is somewhat 
hazy, the same planet, although near her full, appears red ; at times almost 
as red as blood. ‘The moon herself undergoes no change; she is still the 
same opaque body, reflecting the same borrowed light ; and to an eye more 
elevated than ours, or to the inhabitant of some other planet, she may 
continue to appear clothed in the white garment so often the subject of our 
admiration. The difference is in the medium of vision; the earthly mist, 
through which we are obliged to behold her, gives her this red appearance, 
and especially when her rays strike the eye horizontally, those rays having 
then a much longer career to perform through this fallacious medium. 

In like manner that spiritual body, which we term the church, when 
contemplated with an eye of faith, unaffected by the mists of literal con- 
struction, uninfluenced by the perverting principles of self-righteous 
doctrines, appears clothed in the perfect righteousness of her Redeemer— 
a garment purely white,—as a bride adorned for -her husband ;—but when 


THE SIXTH SEAL. 69 


brought down to the horizon of an earthly apprehension—when contemplated 
through the mists of literal interpretation, or through an atmosphere of 
accumulated errors—the very righteousness in which we rejoice seems to our 
apprehension as the red vengeance of an offended God. The church appears 
the victim of divine justice, or as if she had herself borne the penalty of her 
own transgressions ; as if she, and not her Saviour, had trodden the wine 
press of wrath alone ; as if she, and not her Saviour, bore the marks of the 
propitiatory sacrifice by which her salvation had been secured—marks of 
her own propitiatory suffering too, and not those of the sufferings of Jesus 
Christ, (Gal. vi. 17.) 


V. 13. And the stars of heaven fell unto Kai ot ἀστέρες τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἔπεσαν εἰς 


the earth, even as ἃ fig-tree casteth her τὴν γῆν, ὡς συκῆ βάλλει τοὺς ὀλύνϑους αὗ- 
untimely figs, when she is shaken of ἃ Ἔα εάν νὴ, ἀρ merci aciont 
mighty wind. Ws ee nf eit 


§ 163. The stars, in the account given of the creation, Gen. i. 16, are 
spoken of as the lesser lights, as compared with the sun and moon. The 
sun we suppose to be a figure of the Sun of righteousness, or of that princi- 
ple of divine truth which represents Christ the Saviour as the Lord our 
righteousness ; and the moon a figure, not perhaps of the community, 
literally, of believers, but of that element of evangelical doctrine which 
represents this community as clothed with the perfection or light of imputed 
righteousness. In like manner, we suppose the stars to represent lesser, or 
subordinate principles, exhibiting certain degrees of this light, all of which 
contribute to enable the disciple to discern his true position of eternal life 
in Christ, and through the merits of Christ. The effect described as re- 
sulting from the opening of the sixth seal, we suppose to be that of pro- 
ducing an intellectual darkness in spiritual matters—a state or view of 
spiritual things or doctrines, in which the Saviour no longer appears as the 
sun, or the Lord our righteousness; in which the scheme of doctrine no 
longer exhibits the Christian community as clothed with the pure light of 
imputed righteousness, and in which every minor or subordinate principle 
of evangelical doctrine is for the time shaken down and overcome. ‘The 
sun, moon, and stars, are still elements of the heavenly system, but darkness. 
has covered the earth, and gross darkness the people; and these heavenly 
truths are no longer perceptible—the stars fall, as a fig-tree casteth her 
untimely figs. The exhibition of these heavenly truths is not allowed to 
reach its maturity ; they have yet yielded no fruit. As the influence of self- 
righteousness crept into the literal church almost immediately after the pro- 
mulgation of the gospel, the doctrines of Christian faith having been in 
a certain degree smothered before the truth was fully promulged; so the 
views of the gospel, figured by these heavenly bodies, (the stars,) are repre- 


70 THE SEALS OPENED. 


sented as cast to the earth—becoming earthy and literal before they had 
reached maturity of development. 

A crisis, of a character corresponding with this, appears to be alluded 
to, Ezek. xxxi. 7, 8, in the lamentation over Egypt: ‘‘ And when I shall 
put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark ; 
I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. 
All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness 
upon thy land, saith the Lord.” 

The prophet and apostle allude, apparently, to a similar state or 
period of prevailing error, when gospel truths no longer appear in their 
true light. ‘This is said to be the consequence of a shaking or commotion ; 
not necessarily an earthquake, as already remarked, (ὁ 164 :) neither 
would an earthquake be a figure for a shaking of the stars of heaven. Nor 
do we suppose this shaking to be a heavenly commotion, or one operating 
immediately upon false systems only. Judging from its effects, as already 
described, and from the subsequent context, the tendeney of this com- 
motion appears rather calculated to keep back and to obscure all evangelical 
views of the way of salvation, throwing the self-righteous upon their own re- 
sources. ΑΒ it might be said of those despising the way of salvation offered 
them in the gospel, that the view or exhibition of that way is now taken from 
them ; their case resembling that of Esau, as described by Paul, (Heb. xii 17.) 


V. 14. And the heaven departed asa = Kat ὃ οὐρανὸς ἀπεχωρίσϑη ὡς βιβλίον 
scroll when it is rolled together; and εἱλισσόμενον, καὶ πᾶν ὄρος καὶ νῆσος ἐκ 
every mountain and island were moved 


a ΄ a= 4 , 
. τῶν τόπων αὐτῶν ἐκινηϑησαν. 
out of their places. aan 


§ 167 ‘The heaven departed,’—drew back, recesstt, as a scroll rolled 
up, involutus. ‘The term rendered departed, is supposed by some to express 
a separation in the midst, Rob. Lex. 71; but it does not seem necessary 
to suppose this here ; the heaven being a display of the divine economy of 
redemption, this display in the season of darkness just described is with- 
drawn. ‘The scroll of divine revelation, in its spiritual sense, is for a time 
rolled up. The rejected blessing is no longer to be obtained, though sought 
carefully with tears, (Heb. xu. 17 :) the gospel exhibition is closed—there 
remains only “a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indigna- 
tion ;” the views of divine mercy are all withdrawn, while at the same 
time, as we shall find, the fallacy of all earthly or self-righteous foundations 
of hope are about being exposed and manifested. 

‘ And every mountain and island were moved out of their places.’—At 
the close of this vision, Rev. xvi. 20, it is said, every island fled away, and 
the mountains were not found. Here they are represented only as moved 
out of their places; the change is not that of a final destruction of false 
systems, but perhaps something preparatory to it. 


THE SIXTH SEAL. 71 


Mountains in ancient times were places of refuge from an invading 
enemy ; they were especially so with the Hebrews; mountains were their 
strong holds. Hence a mountain is employed as a figure of means of 
salvation, as Ps. xi. 1, “ How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your 
mountain?” An island is equally a place of resort for safety at sea; and 
mountains and islands were refuges in times of flood, or deluge: so, spoken 
of in the plural number, they represent earthly means, or pretended means 
of salvation from the deluge of divine wrath ; opposites of the one moun- 
tain, or rock, symbolizing the only true means—Christ. The insufficiency 
of these earthly refuges is illustrated by the condition of those who fled 
to them in the time of Noah, when the tops of the highest mountains were 
covered. 

This shaking of the sixth seal has a twofold effect—The heavenly or 
spiritual view of the means of salvation is obscured and taken away, while 
the elements of the earthly system are severally tested ; corresponding with 
the declaration referred to, Heb. xii. 26, “‘ Yet once more I shake not the 
earth only, but also heaven.” This shaking of heaven and earth, the 
apostle says, signifies the removing of certain movable things, in order that 
those which are immovable may remain. The scroll rolled up, we may 
suppose to represent the heavenly exhibition of the means of salvation 
afforded by the old dispensation, spiritually understood ; the departure of 
the heaven, or rolling up of the scroll, being equivalent to the departure of 
the spiritual sense: the revelation of the Old Testament is still left, but it 
is understood only in the literal sense. It becomes, in effect, an earthly, 
and not a heavenly view; the only system left being that of the earthly, or 
self-righteous character, the vanity and fallacy of which is now being 
exposed: the refuges of lies—mountains and islands—are now shaken to 
their foundation. 

An allusion to this change seems to be made by Paul, Heb. i. 10-12, 
where both the heavens and the earth are described as waxing old, and 
being folded up, or laid aside as a garment; not that the true plan of salva- 
tion, or the truth as it is in Jesus, can ever cease to exist, but that the exhi- 
bition of it by the types and symbols and ordinances of the old dispensation 
will be superseded by the full development afforded by the gospel. The 
first will then, like an old garment, be laid aside—the old heaven being 
changed for the new—as will be also the view of man’s position, spoken 
of apparently Rev. xxi. 1, as the first earth. ‘Truth itself must be eternal 
and unchangeable as the mind of Deity ; but there may be certain modes 
of representing truth, which. will cease to be employed as soon as they 
become unnecessary. , J 


72 THE SEALS OPENED. 


V. 15. And the kings of the earth, and Καὶ ot βασιλεῖς τῆς γῆς χαὶ οἵ μεγισ- 
the great men, and the rich men, and {Π6 τᾷγες χαὶ of χιλίαρχοι καὶ οἱ πλούσιοι καὶ 


ief captai ighty men, and x β . 
ciel captains, and the mighty men, and ¢¢ ἰσχυροὶ καὶ πᾶς δοῦλος καὶ ἐλεύϑερος 
every bond-man, and every free-man, hid, ; eh τ 5 ee 
themselves in the dens and in the rocks of ἔζθυψαν ἑαυτοὺς εἰς τὰ σπηλαιὰ καὶ εἰς τὰς 


the mountains. πέτρας τῶν ὀρέων. 

ᾧ 168. ‘And the kings,’ &c.—We do not suppose these kings, 
magistrates, captains, rich, mighty, bond and free persons, or personages, 
to be literally men, or human beings, any more than we suppose the rocks, 
dens, and mountains to be such, literally ; but we view them as principles 
or elements belonging to the earthly or self-righteous system, figuratively 
represented as human beings flying for refuge each to its peculiar system. 
The term man, or men, is not expressed in the original ; it is only supposed 
to be understood, or something equivalent to it. ‘The period reached seems 
to be that in which the souls under the altar were to be vindicated, or their 
blood avenged upon the dwellers on the earth; and this we have already 
contemplated as the period for the vindication of the truth, (ὃ 162:) these 
dwellers upon the earth, or elements of the earthly position, being repre- 
sented as of different ranks, or classes, from the highest to the lowest ; each 
class no doubt representing some corresponding principle, or class of prin- 
ciples. The rulers and kings of the heathen, or gentiles, are said, Ps. u. 1— 
3, to take counsel, and to set themselves to break the bands of the Lord, 
and his Anointed. ‘This was true in a primary, restricted sense, of Pilate 
and Herod, and the chief priests ; but it is still more universally true, in a 
spiritual sense, of chief principles and leading elements of anti-evangelical 
systems. 

‘ And hid themselves in the dens,’ &c.—Although the rocks and moun- 
tains were moved out of their places, they still remained accessible ; and, 
notwithstanding their manifest instability, they were still resorted to for 
protection: another proof that the stage of proceeding here reached is not 
the final and great change, but only something preparatory to it. 


Vs. 16,17. And said Ξ aban cee Kati λέγουσι τοῖς ὕρεσι χαὶ ταῖς πέτραις " 
and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from ggoers χὰ, zat xov cw, fe 
Εν S ὡς, “OL χρύψατε ἡμᾶς oto 

the face of him that sitteth on the throne, - thas hee orn πρὸ a otis " 
aud trom the wrath of the Lamb. Por τ ΡΣ ΟΡ eg eee 
the great day of his wrath is come; and %%! απο Τῆς, OQy7S TOU UeMoU, OTL ἦλϑεν 
who shall be able to stand ? ἢ ἡμέρα ἢ μεγάλη τῆς οργῆς αὑτοῦ, καὶ Tic 

δύναται σταϑῆναι. 


ᾧ 169. ‘Fall upon us; or, rather, fall over us—as a criminal, taking 
refuge in a den when pursued by the officers of justice, wishes the impending 
rocks to fall over the mouth of the chasm in which he seeks to hide himself, 
that he may be the more effectually concealed, (Rob. Lex. 586, πίπτω. 
Seq. ἐπὶ cum accus. 2.) Fall over us, not to crush, but to protect us. 

In view of the wrath to come, men fly to some merit or righteousness of 


THE SIXTH SEAL. 73 


their own, which they have flattered themselves with regarding as a moun- 
tain or rock. We have here the description of a season of trial, when cer- 
tain principles of self-dependence are put to the test. The justly panic- 
stricken beings spoken of, have two subjects.of alarm—two objects of dread : 
the face of the Sovereign Judge, and the wrath of the Lamb. Not that 
these are two different beings, but that the same being is contemplated 
under two different aspects. To be exposed to the face of a judge, is to be 
a subject of judicial investigation ; in allusion to this, the Sovereign has 
himself said, “There shall no man see me, and live,’ Ex. xxxiii. 20. 
“There is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good, and sinneth not.” 
There is not one who is not a transgressor of the law ; consequently, there is 
not one who can appear with impunity before the Judge of all the earth ; 
for, as it is declared, ‘‘ the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” 

But why fear the wrath of the Lamb; the wrath of him who came 
“not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them?” The very name of the 
Lamb seems also intended to preclude the idea of fear. There are those, 
however, who have reason to fear, as it is said, Heb. x. 28 and 29, “He 
that despised Moses’s law, died without mercy under two or three witnesses : 
of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, 
who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood 
of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done 
despite unto the Spint of grace?” and Heb. xii. 25, ‘See that ye refuse 
not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake 
on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that 
speaketh from heaven.” ' 

§ 170. The sinner, or transgressor of the law, even in the most literal 
sense, may well fear to meet the face of Him who searcheth the heart, and 
from whom no secrets are hid ; and the contumacious rejecter of gospel mercy 
may well fear, in its strongest literal and spiritual sense, the fate of those 
from whom the proffer of divine mercy is withdrawn. and who are left in 
the final judgment with no other hope or resource than their own self- 
righteous subterfuges. But in this apocalyptic exhibition, we have supposed, 
and must still suppose, the several classes of human beings enumerated to 
represent principles, or doctrinal elements, figuratively spoken of as kings, 
captains, &c.,—principles incapable of withstanding the test of divine judg- 
ment—principles so manifestly deficient in this respect, as to be appropri- 
ately compared to the panic-stricken multitude flying to dens and caverns 
for safety. The prophet Isaiah, predicting the period when the loftiness of 
man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man shall be made low, 
and the Lord shall be exalted, draws a similar picture, (Is. ii. 19:) “In 
that day, the idols shall be utterly abolished, and they shall go into the 
holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, 


74 THE SEALS OPENED. 


and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the 
earth.’ So it is said, Luke xxiii. 30—“ Then shall they begin to say to 
the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.” 

All these descriptions apparently corresponding with that state of con- 
viction which is to prepare the stout-hearted for an exhibition of divine 
mercy, (Is. xvi. 12 and 13.) 

§. 171. ‘For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able 
to stand ??——This seems to refer particularly to the wrath of the Lamb ; or 
to the wrath of the Supreme Being in his character as the Lamb. 

The wrath of divine justice must be directed against sin and sinners ; 
but the Lamb is the propitiatory principle, and Jesus is especially revealed 
here as the Lamb ‘as it had been slain.” The wrath of the Lamb, there- 
fore, we may presume to be directed against those with whom he has to 
contend, and not against those whom he came to save. The enemies of the 
propitiatory principle are the opposite principles, tending to the condemna- 
tion of the sinner, opposing the work of Christ, and thus constituting the 
hostile force to be overcome. ΤῸ these hostile, self-righteous principles, 
the manifestation of the truth as it is in Jesus we may suppose to be the 
day of wrath, represented as a season of the utmost consternation—a mani- 
festation operating in effect as a trial which none of them are able to with- 
stand—as is implied in the question with which the description closes. 
The trial in contemplation apparently corresponds with that elsewhere 
spoken of, as a trial by jire—the fire which is to try every man’s work— 
issuing in a destruction of that wicked, whom the Lord shall consume with 
the breath of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming, 
2 Thess. 11. 8. 

We have here reached the end of the chapter, but this is not the end of 
the subject of the sixth seal; the relation, as we shall see, runs into the 
next chapter. The present, however, terminates the description of the 
consternation preceding the expected exhibition of wrath ; for the remainder 
of the development of this seal offers a picture the reverse of that which 
has just now engaged our attention. 

The opening of this seal, we are to bear in mind, does not reveal to us 
the wrath ; it developes only the state of apprehension—the fearful condition 
of all obnoxious to this wrath, immediately preceding its coming. ‘The 
exhibition of the wrath itself, is reserved, as we shall see, for the develop- 
ments attending the opening of the next seal—the seventh, and last. 
From examining the action of this wrath, as there revealed, we shall be 
able to learn whether our suggestion, as to the objects of it, be well founded 
or not. 


THE SEALING. 15 


CHAPTER VII. 


THE SERVANTS OF GOD SEALED, AND CHORUS OF THE 
REDEEMED. 


’ 


V. 1. And after these things Tsawfour Kal μετὰ ταῦτα εἶδον τέσσαρας ayyé- 
angels standing on the four corners of the Jone ἑστῶτας ἐπὶ τὰ wlctipenteds γάλα Ὁ ἢ 
earth, holding the four winds of the earth, 3 Ὁ 9 ζ Ἷ 


that the wind should not blow on the 77» apgrounnns τοὺς τέσσαρας ἀνέμι mt τῆς 
earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. γῆς, ἵνα μὴ πνέῃ ἄνεμος ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς μήτε 


ἐπὶ τῆς ϑαλάσσης μήτε ἐπὶ πᾶν δένδρον, 

§ 172. ‘ Arrer these {Π|η65.᾿-ἰ Π ΓΘ is here a change of scenery, but 
we are not obliged to suppose a succession in the order of the things them- 
selves, or of their existence. The succession may be only in the apostle’s 
sight ; the things seen may all exist in some sense at the same time ; at 
least, we are not under the necessity of confining our ideas to events occur- 
ring in the history of the world at different epochs, in a literal sense. 

1 saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth.—The 
earth was supposed to be a square ; and as we now speak of the four 
quarters of the world as the whole world, the four corners of the earth, 
with the apostle, was probably an expression equal to the whole earth; 
and an angel at each corner, was equal to a compassing of the whole earth 
with angels. 

‘ Holding the four winds of the earth ;—that is, all the winds of the 
earth, as we now class all the points of the compass under four distinguish- 
ing heads ; denominating a wind blowing from any point between N. W. 
and N. E. a northerly wind, and the same with a southerly, easterly, or 
westerly wind ; these four winds comprehending all the winds of the earth. 

‘That the wind should not blow on the earth,’ &c. ;—that is, that there 
should be no wind from any quarter; a privation easily supposed to end itt 
the destruction of animal and vegetable life. The Greek word πρεῦμα sig- 
nifies spirit, as well as wind or breath; and the word translated blow, 
equally signifies to breathe or to send forth the spirit. 

If we suppose, for example, the earth to be the picture of man’s position 
under the law—a position, in which he depends upon his works, upon the 
sweat of his brow, for his hopes of eternal life—to prevent the winds from 
breathing upon the earth, is equivalent to depriving this picture, or repre- 
sentation, of its spiritual sense ; and as the earth is spiritually the scheme of 
man’s legal position, and the things upon the earth, animate and inanimate, 
are the principles or doctrinal elements peculjar to this scheme; so the 


76 THE SEALS OPENED. 


sea spiritually represents the element of judicial wrath; and to withhold 
the wind from it entirely, is to deprive it of any spiritual meaning whatever. 

The letter killeth, it is said, but the Spirit giveth life, (2 Cor. i. 6.) 
To be carnally minded, or to be literal, is death ; to be spiritually minded, 
is life and peace, Rom. vii. 6. A spiritual understanding of the word of 
revelation, presents it as indeed the glad tidings of salvation ; a literal or 
carnal understanding of the same word, gives it the aspect of a ministra- 
tion unto condemnation, even more than that of the legal economy. The 
withholding of these four winds, may be thus a part of the judicial dispen- 
sation implied in the withdrawal of the heavens, although the scenes of this 
chapter are of an intervening character—something in the style of an iter- 
lude. 'The winds are said to be the four winds of the earth. Not that they 
are earthly winds—but that they are the winds designed for the benefit of 
the earth; their peculiar office being that of giving life to the things upon 
the earth, and the withholding of them being something capteially to be 
deprecated. 

Accordingly, preparatory to the coming wrath, at the same time that 
the heavenly exhibition of the economy of grace is being rolled up, as a 
scroll or volume taken away ; and at the same time that the refuges of lies 
are being tested, the spiritual understanding of the scheme of man’s position 
under the law, symbolized by the earth, is also withheld. Self-righteous 
man, deprived of the view of divine mercy which he despised, is not only 
thrown upon his own resources, but he is left also to the literal construc- 
tion of the revealed word—a construction, which can afford him no hope of 
escape from condemnation. 


Vs. 2, 3. And I saw another angel 
ascending from the east, having the seal 
of the livmg God: and he cried with a 
loud voice to the four angels, to whom it 
was given to hurt the earth and the sea, 

saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the 
sea, nor the trees, till we ‘have sealed 
the servants of our God in their fore- 
‘heads. 


Καὶ εἶδον ἄλλον ὄγγελον ἀναβαίνοντα 
ἀπὸ ἀνατολῆς ἡλίου, ἔχοντα σφραγῖδα ϑεοῦ 
ζῶντος " καὶ ἔκραξε φωνῇ μεγάλῃ τοῖς τέσ- 
σαρσιν ἀγγέλοις, οἷς ἐδύϑη αὐτοῖς ἀδικῆσαι 
τὴν γῆν καὶ τὴν ϑάλασσαν, λέγων" μὴ ἀδι- 
κήσητε τὴ» rau μήτε τὴν ϑάλασσαν μήτε 
τὰ δένδρα, 6 ἄχρις οὗ σφραγίσωμεν τοὺς δού- 
λους τοῦ ϑεοῦ ἡμῶν ἐπὶ τῶν μετώπων αὖ- 
τῶν. 


§ 173. ‘Another angel,’—another ministering spirit, or messenger—a 


communication ; something ministering to the understanding. 

‘ Ascending from the East,’—or, as it is in the Greek, from the rising of 
the sun—a communication from the Sun of righteousness—a precursor of 
that heavenly Luminary, which is to rise with healing in his wings. 

‘Having the seal of the living God.’—This seal, or sign, may be a 
mark or token known only to the Most High, (2 Tim. ui. 19.) Circum- 
cision is said to be a seal of the righteousness of faith, (Rom. iv. 11 ;) but, 


THE SEALING. 71 


literally, the whole nation of the Hebrews from the time of Moses was cir- 
cumcised ; while we find the seal here spoken of to be applied only to 
twelve thousand of each of the twelve tribes. There is, however, a spiritual 
circumcision, (Phil. iii. 3,) which is not only a seal of the righteousness of 
faith, but. which is also a mark or token known only to God. ‘ We are 
the circumcision,’ says the Apostle, “who worship God in the spirit, and 
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,” or in any 
merits of our own.” 

We suppose this apocalyptic seal to be one applied to principles, and 
not to men; and in conformity with this idea, we presume it to be the 
characteristic of such doctrinal views of the sinner’s position, as provide for 
his worshipping God in the spirit, ($¢¢ 97, 98 :) rejoicing in the atonement 
and imputed righteousness of Christ, and having no trust in any other right- 
eousness, or in any human means of salvation. Certain principles or dog- 
mas, bearing this stamp, are to be exempted from the judicial action of the 
four angels. They are not to be deprived of their spiritual sense. 

‘And he cried with a loud voice.—The communication is a power- 
ful one—something to be easily recognized, or something peculiarly earnest 
and imperative. 

§ 174. “Τὸ whom it was given to hurt,’ &c.—To withhold the winds 
from the earth, is to hurt the earth; this we may easily suppose to be the 
case in a physical sense, and the spiritual hurt is something analogous to the 
physical. 

The word translated Aurt, is rather a legal than a physical term, as we 
have already noticed, (ὃ 56 ;) it signifies acting unjustly, depriving others 
of their rights, doing wrong, as Ps. cv. 14 and 15, “ He suffered no man 
to do them wrong”’—Septuagint, ἀδικῆσαι. The four angels, however, could 
not have been commissioned to do wrong, or to act unjustly, even towards 
objects or beings not sealed. 

The verb ἀδικέω, to hurt, or injure, edo, injuria afficio, may be taken, as 
before remarked, for the opposite of Ζικαιόω, to justify, to declare one to be 
good, and to treat him as such ; as “4d:xca, injustice, is the opposite of δίκη, 
justice. Both verbs coming from the same root, (vide Δίκαιος, justus, Lex. 
Suiceri,) as Axa, signifies to justify, we may safely suppose ἀδικέο, to 
signify the opposite, or not to justify, or to withhold justification, exhibiting 
a person or thing to be unjust, or unrighteous: perhaps equivalent to 
ἄδικον ποιέω. Injustum pronuncio, I condemn, v. Trom. 31. 

As the withholding of the wind from the earth is equal to hurting the 
earth, so we may consider the withholding of the spiritual sense from that 
scheme of man’s position, symbolically the earth, to be equal to showing, or 
pronouncing, or exhibiting this scheme as something opposed to justification ; 
that is, the exhibition of man’s position taken from the word of revelation 


78 THE SEALS OPENED. 


in a literal sense only, is not just—the elements of this exhibition in their 
literal sense not comporting with God’s plan of salvation. ‘To deprive 
them of their spiritual sense, therefore, is to deprive them of life—to render 
them worthless ; as it is said of the law, If it be used lawfully, it is an 
instrument of bringing the disciple to Christ ; if used unlawfully, or contrary ὦ 
to the design of it, it is an instrument of estranging the disciple’s views from 
Christ, and thus ministering to his condemnation. 

_ The earth, as we have said, may represent the scheme of man’s position 
under the law—the sea, the element of judicial wrath—the trees, fallacious 
means of shelter from the wrath to come, or elements of doctrines of this 
character. ‘Take away the spiritual sense from the passages where these 
terms are used in a mystical sense, and you deprive those passages of their 
life and value. Something like this we suppose to be intended by the Aurt 
in contemplation ; it is taking away from certain terms or passages that 
which properly belongs to them—their spiritual construction. 

‘Hurt not. .... . till we have sealed the servants of God in their 
foreheads.’—The servants of God, are those acting from a motive of serv- 
ing him, as well as serving him in effect. These apocalyptic servants, how- 
ever, we suppose to be principles in effect serving, or ministering to, or pro- 
moting the glory of God and the interests of his kingdom. The seal in the 
forehead must signify some prominent, conspicuous mark, or token, or char- 
acteristic—something indicating the connection of the principles thus im- 
pressed with the divine scheme of redemption. As we might say of any 
doctrine manifestly tending to sustain the claims of Divine sovereignty, that 
it bears the seal of the living God. So doctrines, or elements of doctrine 
having this tendency, may, with peculiar propriety, be spoken of in figura- 
tive language as pre-eminently the servants of God. 

The blood of the paschal lamb upon the door-posts of the dwellings of 
the Israelites, was a seal or token, protecting them from the visitation of the 
destroying angel. This blood represented the atonement of the Lamb slain 
from the foundation of the world; and corresponding with this, perhaps 
we may say any element of doctrine holding forth this atonement as the 
efficient means of salvation, is a doctrine carrying with it the seal of the 
living God. So, although the whole word of divine revelation in other 
respects were taken in a literal sense, yet every portion of it conveying an 
impression of the value of the atonement of Christ, as the price of redemp- 
tion, would exhibit the seal of its truth, and ultimately witness for the 
sovereignty of Jehovah. The precise nature of the seal in question we do 
not pretend to point out; our suggestions are only designed to indicate 
something of what it may be. 


THE SEALING. 79 


V.4. And heard the number of them χαὶ ἤκουσα τὸν ἀριϑμὸν τῶν ἐσφραχισ- 
which were sealed: (and there were) μέγων, ἑκατὸν τεσσαράκοντα τέσσαρες χιλι- 


ealed a hundred and forty and four thou- ἧς . , Yeas πτέψει 
ind: of all the tribes “of ‘the children of deg 6 alge Sod “PS algal ah ὴ φυλῆς υἱᾶν 
Israel. Tagan): 


§ 175. ‘I heard the number of them,’ &c.—There seems to be a par- 
ticular importance attached to the circumstance that the apostle heard the 
number of those that were sealed; rendering it probable that when the 
particular principles, or elements, represented by these sealed ones are fully 
developed, they will correspond in some sense, or in some respect, with this 
number. 

Seals are used for two different purposes: to preserve secrecy, as in 
sealing a letter; and to proclaim openly, as in affixing a seal or mark to 
designate the character or ownership of the thing sealed. A book symboli- 
cally written, of which the meaning is concealed, is in effect a sealed volume. 
Such is the word of revelation now opening by the power ofthe Lamb. 
A public document with the seal of the sovereign upon it, is an instrument 
proclaimed to be of authority : government seals and stamps are put upon 
weights and measures, showing them to be of the standard value or quantity. 
Such seals are sometimes put upon goods and warehouses, in token of their 
being in possession of the ruling power. Seals and marks are even put 
upon cattle and slaves in some countries, to show the service in which they 
are employed ; so, we suppose it to be with these one hundred and forty- 
four thousand principles. The conspicuous seal or mark put upon them, is 
something bespeaking their vertual devotedness to the service of the living 
God; something manifesting them also to be approved by Him—to be in 
conformity with his system of grace, and to be of the standard value of his 
truth ;—in a spiritual sense, Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile— 
nothing fallacious. 

‘Sealed one hundred and forty-four thousand.’—Only one hundred and 
forty-four thousand of a people elsewhere spoken of as innumerable as the 
dust of the earth !—a people, as the stars of heaven for multitude! Gen. 
xii. 16: xv. 53; and “as the sand of the sea,’ Hosea i. 10. 

This is another evidence that the allusion is not to human beings liter- 
ally, but to something analogous, in some certain respect, to such beings ; 
apparently, these sealed ones are principles denominated servants of God, 
in the same sense that a truth or doctrine, instrumental in the conversion of 
sinners, is in effect a servant of God, subserving his purposes. Error itself, 
it is true, eventually fulfils the purposes of God, but it is not an acknow- 
ledged servant or instrument of his. The elements of revealed truth, on the 
contrary, may be said to be especially set apart, sanctified, and adopted. 
« Having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his.” Miraculous power, 
accompanying the annunciation of truth, is a seal of the Holy Spirit. This 


80 THE SEALS OPENED. 


seal, it may be said, accompanies all the truths drawn immediately from the 
sacred Scriptures, for they have all been testified to, by some such display 
of power. 

We do not suppose the number of these principles to be literally con- 
fined to one hundred and forty-four thousand. This is a typical, or sym- 
bolical number; the tribes of the children of Israel are opposites of the 
tribes of the earth. The tribes of God’s chosen people may represent the 
powers of the Gospel, exercised in the work of salvation ; the number, one 
hundred and forty-four, is the product of twelve multiplied by twelve. 
There were twelve patriarchs under the old dispensation, and twelve 
apostles under the new. The reciprocal action of these is employed in 
promoting a manifestation of revealed truth. The first twelve may be put 
for the old dispensation itself, and the second twelve for the new dispensa- 
tion ; these acting upon each other elicit the display of the economy of 
grace. ‘The whole one hundred and forty-four thus representing all the 
truths of the two volumes of inspiration; differing in this respect from the 
number twenty-four, in the case of the elders, which we suppose to repre- 
sent only the revelation of the Old Testament, (¢ 121.) The additional 
decimal number (one thousand) we may take to signify only a large indefi- 
nite quantity ; as a smaller decimal number, such as hundreds or tens, 
would signify a smaller indefinite quantity ; while thousands, or tens of thou- 
sands, are put for comparatively an infinite number. 

In the case of the seven thousand men spoken of 1 Kings xix. 18, the 
initial number seven may represent something perfect, as of divine appoint- 
ment, and the decimal number a proportionally indefinite quantity ; the 
language being equivalent to a declaration that, notwithstanding the universal 
idolatry of the people, as it appeared to the apprehension of the prophet, 
there remained still the number of faithful first designed :—the purposes of 
Omniscience were not defeated. In the same manner we may suppose the 
one hundred and forty-four thousand apocalyptic children of Israel to repre- 
sent the original, select, chosen doctrinal elements of truth belonging to the 
divine plan of redemption—elements emanating from and representing the 
combined revelation of the old and new dispensations. In fact, these ele- 
ments must have been sealed from all eternity, according to the divine 
purpose, and are comprehended in the one sealing of the Son of man, 
spoken of John vi. 27. The manifestation of the sealing, and not the seal- 
ing itself, is represented as requiring a delay of operation on the part of the 
four angels ; infinite Wisdom being represented as bearing with the pre- 
valence of error for a season, in order that the characteristic feature of truth, 
whatever it be, may have an opportunity of developing itself. 


THE SEALING. 


Vs. 5-8. Of the tribe of Juda (were) 
sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of 
Reuben (were) sealed twelve thousand. 
Of the tribe of Gad (were) sealed twelve 
thousand. Of the tribe of Aser (were) 
sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of 
Nephthalim (were) sealed twelve thou- 
sand. Of the tribe of Manasses (were) 
sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of 
Simeon (ripre) sealed twelve thousand. 
Of the tribe of Levi (were) sealed twelve 
thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar (were) 
sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of 
Zabulon (were) sealed twelve thousand. 
Of the tribe of Joseph (were) sealed 
twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benja- 
min (were) sealed twelve thousand. 


81 


ἐκ φυλῆς ᾿Ιούδα ιβ΄ χιλιάδες ἐσφραγισ- 
μένοι, ἐκ φυλῆς “Ῥουβὴν ιβ΄ χιλιάδες ἐσφρα- 
γισμένοι, ἐκ φυλῆς Lud ιβ΄ χιλιάδες ἐσφρα- 
γισμένοι, ἐκ φυλῆς ‘Aang ιβ΄ χιλιάδες ἐσ- 
φραγισμένοι, ἐκ φυλῆς ᾿νεφϑαλεὶμ ιβ΄ χιλι- 
“des ἐσφραγισμένοι, ἐκ φυλῆς ΠΙανασσῆ ιβ΄ 
χιλιάδες ἐσφραγισμένοι, ἐκ φυλῆς Συμεὼν 
ιβ΄ χιλιάδες ἐσφραγισμένοι, ἐκ φυλῆς Aevt 
ιβ΄ χιλιάδες ἐσφραγισμένοι, ἐκ φυλῆς ᾿Ισα- 
χὰρ ιβ΄ χιλιάδες ἐσφραγισμένοι, ἐκ φυλῆς 
Ζυβουλὼν ιβ΄ χιλιάδες ἐσφραχισμένοι, ἐκ 
φυλῆς Iman ιβ΄ χιλιάδες ἐσφραχισμένοι, 
ἐκ φυλῆς Βενιαμὶν ιβ΄ χιλιάδες ἐσφραχια- 
μένοι. 


§ 176. “ΟΥ̓ the tribe of, &c.—We cannot suppose this very minute 
enumeration to have been introduced without some particular design ; some 
important meaning being conveyed in this allotment of equal numbers to 
each of the twelve tribes ; such as to represent the classification of a certain 
number of truths, under so many different heads. Perhaps a proper inter- 
pretation of the names of the patriarchs, with a consideration of their sev- 
eral characters, the locations allotted to them, and the predictions concern- 
ing each of them, in the blessing of Jacob, (Gen. xlix. 3—-27,) together with 
the history of the tribes, as far as it is handed down to us, might throw light 
upon the meaning here contemplated. 

It is worthy of notice that, in the order here observed, the tribe of Judah 
ranks first, although Judah was not the first-born of the sons of Jacob. 
Otherwise than this order, there is no distinction, or appearance of prefer- 
ence. The tribe of Judah has no more sealed than either of the others, 
notwithstanding our Lord sprang out of Judah, (Heb. vii. 14.) Nor has 
Issachar any less than Judah, although the last was compared by his dying 
father to a lion, and the former to an ass crouching down between two 
burthens. Levi has no more sealed than Benjamin, although Levi repre- 
sented the priesthood, the immediate attendants of the altar, the recipient 
of the tithes, and as a body the type of Him who is a priest forever ; while 
Benjamin is the last and the least, both in the order of the Apocalypse and 
in that of the patriarchal benediction. 

Only a select number of each tribe were sealed ; thus the difference 
between the sealed and the remainder of a tribe may as a figure correspond 
with the difference between the chosen people of God and the natzons, or 
between Jew and Gentile, the tribes of Israel and the tribes of the earth ; 
parallel with the difference between select adopted principles, or elements 
of the economy of grace, and those which are not of this character. 

It is to be noticed, too, that Dan is excluded from this enumeration ; the 


half tribe of Manasses being substituted for the tribe of Dan. Consequently 


ΕΘ Ὁ , THE SEALS OPENED. 


Dan has no part in this sealing operation. None of the principles sealed, 
are classed under the head, or as belonging to the tribe of Dan. 

The Hebrew word Dan, signifies judgment ; and it was said of this pa- 
triarch by his father, “ Dan shall judge his people.” The name Manasses, 
signifies forgetfulness, or something forgotten. Thus we have forgetfulness 
substituted for judgment. A change apparently alluded to, Jer. xxxi. 33, 
34, and quoted Heb. viii. 12, and x. 17: “ For I will be merciful to their 
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” 
So it is said, Is. xlin. 18 and 25, “ Remember ye not the former things, 
neither consider the things of old.” “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy 
transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” We 
have in this change an intimation that no offspring of the judicial element 
is exempt, or to be exempted from the effect of withholding the four winds. 
The element of judgment belongs to the old economy, that of the letter— 
something intended to be deprived of life, upon reaching a certain stage of 
maturity ; and as, without the principle of life itself, incapable of giving life 
to others, (Gal. ili. 21.) 

Dan however is not described in the paternal benediction merely as a 
judge. He is said to be also “a serpent by the way ;” “an adder in the 
path, that biteth the horse heels so that the rider shall fall backwards ;” and 
such in fact would be the action of the judicial element, if admitted into the 
economy of salvation, the horse of Scripture being, as we have before re- 
marked, (ᾧ 146,) the war horse—that upon which the rider depends for 
strength and safety. ‘This animal thus represents the means of salvation, 
or that merit by which alone justification can be obtained. The serpent 
we suppose to represent the accusing principle, and the adder a deadly 
serpent, acting with the sting of death; which sting is declared to be sin. 
Dan thus represents the judicial accusing principle—the prosecutor as well] Ὁ 
as the judge—the power charged with urging the condemnation of the 
transgressor. Of course none of this kindred could be admitted amongst 
the elements of the plan of redemption, represented as we suppose by the 
sealed one hundred and forty-four thousand. 

Manasses was one of the sons of Joseph; yet Joseph and Manasseh 
have each twelve thousand sealed. We cannot but suppose some mean- 
ing in this peculiarity ; but for the present we must content ourselves with 
the suggestion that this something, when revealed, will probably throw ad- 
ditional light upon the doctrine of the substitution of the elements of mercy 
for those of justice. 


Vs. 9,10. After this I beheld, and lo, Meté: ταῦτα εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ dzhog πολύς, 
a great multitude, which no man could ὃν ἀριϑμῆσαι αὐτὸν οὐδεὶς ἡδύνατο, ἐκ πα»- 
number, of all nations, and kindreds, and 
people, and tongues, stood before the 27°, 0 κα; ὕ B06 Vos 
throne, and before the-Lamb, clothed with 9%» ©OF0ITES ἘΣ ΩΣ ΟΣ TAV a7QONOU τέρας 


‘ a» ‘ ~ Ἂ ~ \ 
τὸς ἔϑγους χαὶ φυλῶν καὶ λαῶν καὶ γλωσ- 


CHORUS. 83, 


white robes, and palms in their hands; soy τοῦ ἀρνίου, περιβεβλημένους στολὰς 
and cried with a loud voice, saying, Sal- λευχάς, καὶ φοίνικες ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν αὐτῶν" 


aioe; 8308 Boe ear he eat ee cee ee padi eB 
ϑρόνου καὶ τῷ ἀρνίῳ. 

§ 177. ‘After this I beheld,’ &c.—Here, again, a scenic change is to 
be supposed. 

* And lo, a great multitude,’ &c.—It does not appear that the one hun- 
dred and forty-four thousand were part of this multitude ; but the ascription 
of praise, &c., appears to be a consequence of the sealing of the one hun- 
dred and forty-four thousand. This offspring of the twelve tribes becom- 
ing, by their being sealed, the instruments of manifesting the benefit, and 
the innumerable multitude representing apparently the beneficiaries. ‘The 
word translated nations, is the same as that frequently rendered Gentiles, in 
contradistinction to the one nation, or Jews; and the word rendered in the 
ninth verse kindred, is the same as that translated in the preceding verses 
tribes. After having witnessed the sealing of this select portion of the tribes 
of the children of Israel, the apostle saw an immense multitude out of all 
Gentiles, all tribes, all people, of all tongues ; all of this variety virtually 
ascribing salvation to God and to the Lamb. The multitude was not an 
aggregate of all nations, tribes, &c., but it was composed of those taken out 
of these different bodies, as twelve thousand were taken out of each of the 
twelve tribes. This multitude stood before the throne and before the Lamb. 
They represent something ever in the sight of, and regarded with compla- 
cency by, the Sovereign and the Redeemer—something acceptable to the 
judicial and propitiatory attributes of the Supreme Being. 

‘Clothed in white robes.’—They belonged to the system of salvation 
by imputed righteousness. 'They wore the livery, the uniform of the Re- 
deemer’s host. As the one hundred and forty-four thousand were sealed or 
marked, as we suppose, by some characteristic of the economy of grace, 
such perhaps as the principle of salvation by virtue of the atonement of 
Christ, so the members of this immense concourse wear the array of divine 
righteousness, as belonging to the system of justification through the imput- 
ed perfection of Jehovah. If not themselves disciples, their position being 
regarded as analogous to that of disciples rejoicing in the atonement and 
righteousness of Christ, as the means of their salvation. 

So we may say, the manifestation of the doctrine of justification by 
imputed righteousness depends upon the exhibition of the truth of the pro- 
pitiatory provision. ‘The first cannot be shown to be valid, unless the latter 
be so likewise. The sinner could not be counted to possess the merit of 
Christ’s righteousness, if the penalty of his transgressions were not borne 
by his divine substitute ; as, on the other hand, the operation of this atone- 
ment is that which exhibits the purity and perfection of the righteousness 


Εν 


84 THE SEALS OPENED. 


é 


wrought out by the substitute, and transferred to the justified believer. For 
which reason, these justified ones are said to have washed their robes, and 
made them white in the blood of the Lamb. As soon as the sealing of the 
evidences of atonement was accomplished, then this multitude appeared in 
white ; the manifestation of one truth thus depending upon that of the 
other ; corresponding with what we have before suggested, that the design 
of this revelation is not to show who are saved, but upon what principles 
all or any are saved, and upon what principles all or any are condemned. 

‘And palms in their hands.—Branches of palm trees were anciently 
emblems of victory. The victory gained here is supposed to have been 
manifested by the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand ; and 
in testimony of this triumph, the multitude clothed in white carry their 
palms. It is not a victory gained by themselves that they celebrate, but 
one achieved by their leader—a victory just made known, or certified, by the 
sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. 

As the twenty-four elders, chap. iv. 10, fall down and cast their crowns 
before him that sitteth on the throne, when the four living creatures give 
glory, honour, and thanks; so this multitude appear in their white robes, 
and with their emblems of victory, and utter their ascription of praise im- 
mediately after the completion of the operation of sealing. 
the ascription of salvation to the twofold object—Him that sitteth on the 
throne and the Lamb—corresponds with the ascription of blessing, honour, 
glory, and power, spoken of Rev. v. 13, as rendered to the same twofold 
object by every created thing in earth, on the earth, and under the earth ; 
God and the Lamb appearing as joint operators in the work of redemption, 
although one Being alone (God) is spoken of in the subsequent verse as him 
that liveth for ever and ever. 


In like manner, 


Vs. 11, 12. And all the angels stood 
round about the throne, and about the 
elders and the four beasts, and fell before 
the throne on their faces, and worshipped 
God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glo- 
ry, and wisdom, and thanksyiving, and 
honour, and power, and might, be unto 
our God for ever and ever. Amen. 


Καὶ πᾶντες οἵ ἄγγελοι εἱστήκεισαν κύκλῳ 
τοῦ ϑρόνου καὶ τῶν πρεςβυτέρων καὶ τῶν 
τεσσάρων ζώων, καὶ ἕπεσον ἐνώπιον τοῦ 
ϑρόνου ἐπὶ τὰ πρόφωπα αὑτῶν, καὶ προς8- 
πκύνησαν τῷ ϑεῷ, λέγοντες" ἀμήν" ἢ εὐλο- 
γία καὶ ἡ δόξα καὶ ἢ σοφία καὶ ἢ εὐχαρε- 
στία καὶ ἡ τιμὴ καὶ ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ ἰσχὺς 
τῷ FEO ἡμῶν εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων" 
ἀμήν. 


ᾧ 178.‘ And all the angels stood,’ &c.—This ascription of homage is 


represented as offered, not by the four living creatures, and twenty-four elders, 
but by the angels surrounding the throne, and surrounding these twenty- 
eight elements also. In this respect, it corresponds with the action of the 
angels, described Rev. v. 11 and 12, the number of whom was ten thousand 


times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. On the previous occasion, 


CHORUS. ᾿ 85 


however, the ascription of these myriads of angels was to the Lamb, de- 
clarative of his worthiness to receive the seven elements of homage enume- 
rated ; this was before the opening of any of the seals. On the second, or 
present occasion, the same seven elements of homage, with one exception, 
are ascribed to the sovereign God; the exception consisting in the substitu- 
tion of thanksgiving for riches. 

Riches were ascribed to the Lamb on account of his being slain, because 
by his work of propitiation he paid the ransom of the souls of his redeemed. 
This ransom constituting these riches, or we may say, perhaps, the power of 
effecting this ransom, vested in the Lamb, is represented as so much 
riches given to him by the sovereign God for this express purpose. Now, 
after the opening of the sixth seal, and the sealing of the one hundred and 
forty-four thousand, these riches are supposéd to be no longer called for. The 
kingdom is given up to the Father, and to him is ascribed thanksgiving for 
the benefit obtained through these riches of Christ : the Lamb has the praise 
of the work, but to the sovereign God the tribute of gratitude for the whole 
work is finally manifested to be due. Both receive the ascription of blessing, 
of glory, of wisdom, of honour, of power, and of might, but it is especially 
God, as the source of sovereign grace, who claims our gratitude: ‘‘ God so 
loved the world that he sent his only Son to save the world.” It is the riches 
of Christ’s merits, instrumentally, which effect this salvation: but God is the 
source whence these riches come, and thence to him the offering of thanks- 
giving is made: the Lamb being temporarily represented as the medium 
through which the favour is conferred, in order the better to adapt the 
mysterious process to human comprehension. 

The angels do not speak of this redemption as being themselves the 
subjects of it, but no one can say that they are not under obligations of 
gratitude to the Supreme Being, equal to those of men ; if they excel other 
creatures in any thing, it is God only who has made them to differ. Their 
language on the present occasion may be considered declarative of a general 
position, viz., that these several elements of homage are due to the Deity 
from all his creatures ; their action, like that of the myriads described in the 
fifth chapter, being in the character of a grand chorus—a response to the 
invocation of the Psalmist, “ Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in 
strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his 
word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts ; ye ministers of his that do his 
pleasure. Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion: 
bless the Lord, O my soul.” x 

The repetition of the same elements of praise, with the exception above 
noted, may be designed to remind us that God and the Lamb, although 
severally spoken of, are equally entitled to the same homage ; and this so 


86 THE SEALS OPENED. 


precisely, that we cannot consider them otherwise, in fact, than one and 
the same Being. 

The word translated blessing, is literally to speak well, (benedicere,) 
sometimes rendered by the term benediction. When man blesses his fellow- 
man, it is in effect by offering a prayer in his behalf: when God blesses 
man, it is in fact the bestowment of a favour upon him; but when man 
blesses God, it is an act of praise—to speak well of God, is to praise Him. 
God and the Lamb are thus represented as equally the objects of praise. 

The glory of God is exhibited as he himself indicates, Ex. xxxiii. 19, 
in his goodness; a goodness, or loving-kindness, manifested especially in 
the work of redemption. 

Honour and glory, in common parlance, appear to be nearly synony- 
mous; but scripturally, honour may be supposed peculiar to the success 
of an achievement, glory to the goodness of the purpose. Honour is therefore 
ascribed to God for his accomplishment of that which his goodness pur- 
posed. If men achieve their own eternal salvation, although instrumentally 
only, the honour of this achievement must be theirs, or at least partially so ; 
but if God accomplish it all, the glory is entirely his: and this is the glory 
which he has declared that he ‘will not divide with another.” 

Power and might appear also to be nearly convertible terms; but 
power, δύναμις, is said to signify intrinsic ability, (Rob. Lex. 169,)—per- 
haps in contradistinction to transmitted ability. God has power in himself; 
man has no power except it be given him of God. 

Might, ἰσχύς, or efficacy, is applicable to the action of God in man, by 
which the means of salvation are made available. 

The wisdom of God is manifested in the plan by which the principles 
of justice and mercy are reconciled, and by which a new motive of obedi- 
ence is furnished the disciple, even for eternity. 

The word translated thanksgiving, is from a term properly signifying 
mindful of benefits, (edzaguozog,) that is, gratitude, (Rob. Lex. 276.) 

This ascription of praise on the part of the angels, thus appears equivalent 
to an exhibition of the truth, that in all things, in the work of creation, of pro- 
vidence, and of redemption, God is every thing, and man is nothing : there is 
no intervening instrumentality which can deprive him of the praise, honour, 
or glory, resulting from every operation in the universe, spiritual or natural 


Vs. 13, 14. And one of the elders an- 
swered, saying unto me, What are these 
which are arrayed in white robes? and 
whence came they? And I said unto 
him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to 
me, These are they which came out of 
great tribulation, and have washed their 
robes, and made them white in the blood 
of the Lamb. 


Kai ἀπεκρίϑη εἷς ἐκ τῶν πρεςβυτόρων — 
λέγων μοι: οὗτοι οἱ περιβεβλημένοι τὰς 
στολὰς τὰς λευκὰς τίνες εἶσι καὶ πόϑεν ἢλ- 
Sov; Καὶ εἴρηκα αὐτῷ" κύριέ μου, σὺ οἷ- 
δας. καὶ εἶπέ μοι" οὗτοϊ εἶσιν οἵ ἔρχόμενοι 
ἐκ τῆς ϑλίψεως τῆς μεγάλης, καὶ ἔπλυναν' 
τὰς στολὰς αὑτῶν καὶ ἐλεύκαγαν αὐτας ἐν τῷ 
αἵματι τοῦ ἀρνίου. 


' CHORUS. 81 


§ 179. ‘One of the elders answered, saying,’—or, one of the elders 
spake, saying. The term answered, seems to suppose a previous inquiry ; 
but the original word, which primarily signifies to separate, is said to have 
been used in the New Testament at the commencement of a discourse. 
“In N. Test. ἀποχρίνεσϑαι, dicitur non tantum ille qui respondet, sed’ etiam 
qui sermonem inchoat,” (Suiceri Lex.) 

‘What are these ?’—The Scriptures (the elder perhaps in this case 
being one of the elements of the Old Testament revelation) suggest inquiries 
at the same time that they answer them. [{ is in reading the Scriptures that 
questions occur to our mind, and it is only by reading them that our doubts 
can be solved. ‘These may be providentially started, sometimes in order to 
direct the mind to particulars which might otherwise pass unnoticed :—as if 
the elder had been fearful of the apostle’s neglecting to make the inquiry, and 
so losing the opportunity of knowing. 

‘ These are they that have come out of great tribulation.’—Great press- 
ure, or compression, (ᾧ 54.) The sinner suffers from an oppressive sense 
of his transgressions ; but the sinner, merely as such, cannot be said to have 
any robe of righteousness or garment of salvation, of his own, to wash 
white; while those here represented appear to have had some garment, 
which they had washed white in the blood’ of the Lamb, and by so doing 
came out of a certain condition of pressure and compression. 

Those who go about to establish a righteousness of their own, feeling 
themselves dependent upon their own merits, may well be considered in 
a state of suffering from the pressure of the law—in a state of compression 
from legal requirements on all sides. They suppose themselves to be 
weaving a garment of salvation of their own—a robe of their own righteous- 
ness; but it resembles very much the poisoned garment of the fabled 
prodigy of strength: a cause of increasing distress to the wearer from the 
moment of its adoption, and resulting at last in his destruction. With 
a like garment, whatever may be the confidence of the self-righteous in his 
own strength, he is really in a position of great tribulation ; although he 
cannot be sensible of this till he has passed through a certain process of 
conviction. 

Suppose persons with the views just described to become so enlightened 
in faith as to lay aside all dependence upon their own merit, or upon their 
own works, whether of mind or body—throwing themselves altogether upon 
the atonement of their Redeemer, and looking to the effect of his vicarious 
sacrifice as the only remedy for their unworthiness and sinfulness. The 
robe of self-righteousness, which was once their source of confidence, is now 
changed for a garment of salvation of their Saviour’s merits;—pure and 
white ; by which change of views they may be said to have washed these 
garments, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 

15 


88 THE SEALS OPENED. 


The disciple cannot divest himself of his own sinfulness or defilement ; 
in fact he himself must be ever the same unworthy being, but by sove- 
reign grace he may be accounted “clothed upon,” (2 Cor. v. 4,) and by 
faith he may count himself clothed upon with the righteousness of Christ ; 
and this again, as an act of faith, may be spoken of as the washing of his 
robe, and making it white in the blood of the Lamb; but, strictly speaking, 
even in the matter of faith the disciple cannot be said to wash his own robe, 
any more than he can be said in fact to cleanse himself. ‘The change of 
position, by which he is purified, is effected by the divine purpose alone: 
what God has cleansed, and that only, we may add, is no more to be called 
common, or unclean. So, in respect to the illumination of the mind of the 
believer, on this subject of doctrine as well as of all others, he can have no 
power of himself, except it be given him from on high. We accordingly 
suppose here, as elsewhere in this vision, principles of doctrime are personi- 
fied, and in apocalyptic language are spoken of, by way of illustration, as 
human beings, performing a certain operation as of themselves. The prin 
ciples of the disciple’s faith change the garment of “ filthy rags,” (Is. lxiv. 6,) 
once trusted in, for the robe pure and white of God’s providing. It is by 
the Spirit, or power of God, as it is in the blood or atonement of the Lord 
Jesus, that the believer is washed, and cleansed, and sanctified, (1 Cor. vi. 
11, Zech. xii. 1.) 


Vs. 15, 16. Therefore are they before 
the throne of God, and serve him day and 
night in his temple: and he that sitteth 
on the throne shall dwell among them. 
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst 
any more; neither shall the sun light on 
them, nor any heat. 


τ - , ~ a ~ 
Διὰ τοῦτο siawxévoertLoy τοῦ Fgovov τοῦ 
AB ΄ ye ay , 
ϑεοῦ, καὶ λατρεύουσιν αὐτῷ ἡμέρας καὶ 
‘ 2 ~ ~ rd ~ “4 c Α 
γυχτὸς ἐν τῷ ναῷ αὐτοῦ" χαὶ ὁ καϑήμενος 
> 
Ov 
΄ a 2 er ΄ ar ey 
πεινάσουσιν ἔτι, οὐδὲ διψήσουσιν ἔτι, οὐδὲ 
1 2 2 ‘ c co > ~ ~ 
μὴ πέσῃ ἐπ αὑτοὺς ὁ ἡλιος οὐδὲ πᾶν καῦ- 


δι. ~ , ΄ Cee 2 7, 
ἐσὺ TOU ϑρόγου σχήνῶσει ET αὐὔυτους. 


μα, 


ᾧ 180. ‘Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him.’ 
—tTherefore, that is, as a consequence of the foregoing. They are before 
the throne of God ; they are continually in the sight of him who is of purer 
eyes than to look upon iniquity, Hab. i. 13. There can be, therefore, no 
iniquity in them, and there is not, because of the purification which they 
are just now said to have undergone ;—and serve him continually, day and 
night. ‘There is no intermission in this service, during which some other 
object of service is attended to:—the devotion is perpetual and entire, to 
God alone: and this as a consequence also of the ablution and deliverance 
before described. They serve God, too, in his temple,—in the only position 
in which he can be truly served or worshipped. 

We have described before the service of God as that which must arise 
from a principle of gratitude, (ᾧ 98,) something not admitting of a motive 
of self-interest ; a service having in view only the glory of God, and the 


CHORUS. 89 


fulfilment of his purposes. So long, for example, as the disciple is going 
about to establish a righteousness, or to work out a propitiation of his own, 
so long his motive of action must be that of serving himself—promoting his 
own glory, and fulfilling his own purposes ; but after having been brought to 
an entire dependence upon what his Redeemer has done in his behalf, he 
has then no occasion to consult his own interests ; his only remaining motive 
of conduct is that of gratitude to the author of his salvation. In Christ, as 
in a temple, he is safe. In Christ, as a priest in the temple of Jehovah, he is 
provided for; he has no occasion for anxiety about his own welfare. He is 
thus shut up, in the nature of the case, to a serving of God in the strictest 
sense of the term. 

Parallel with this we suppose the principles of doctrine [serving God, 
and acceptable to him, are those growing out of the system of atonement 
and vicarious offering, perfected in Christ ; principles of grateful love alone 
being those contemplated with favourable regard by Him who searcheth the 
heart, as they are in fact the only principles bearing the characteristics of 
his service. 

ς And serve him.’—It is not said that they are to serve God and the 
Lamb ; because, the work of redemption being now accomplished, Gop is all 
in all. The Son has given up the kingdom. He has given up his claim to 
service from the redeemed to the Father. The Lamb was sent to establish 
this claim: he has performed the work assigned him; he has brought all 
motives into subjection to this one motive of gratitude for salvation, and he 
now transfers the whole to the Father. Hence all thus redeemed—-spiritual 
or natural, disciples or principles—n Christ serve Gop day and night; 
and this as a consequence of the deliverance wrought out by the Redeemer. 

The services of the literal temple were typical, both of the sacrifice of 
Christ and of the grateful self-devotion due from the disciple. But in this 
portion of the Apocalypse, we may suppose the last only to be contempla- 
ted. The propitiatory offering is no more to be made. ΑἹ] this portion of 
the temple service is supposed to have been completed. The thank-offer- 
ings alone remain to be made: not merely the service of the lips, but of the 
whole heart and life ; corresponding with the holy and acceptable sacrifice, 
spoken of by the apostle Paul as the reasonable service of the believer, 
Rom. xii. 1. 

Whatever the action be, the motive must be that of a thank-offering, or 
it will not correspond with the temple-service of the multitude clothed in 
white. Nor is this principle confined to the conduct, or faith, of the followers 
of Jesus on this globe of earth alone. It must be a principle universal 
in its nature. Throughout the vast expanse of immensity—amidst the 
myriads of worlds around us—no service can be acceptable to God which 
does not proceed from a grateful motive—a motive universally incumbent 


90 THE SEALS OPENED. 


upon every created being, because the conferring of every benefit by the 
Creator upon the creature must be an act of Soverrien Grace. 

ᾧ 181. ‘And he that sitteth on the throne-shall dwell among them.’ 
—This should have been the commencement of the next verse, as it is 
more immediately connected with what follows than with what precedes it. 
The elder is now beginning to set forth what God will do for his redeemed, 
in addition to what he has done for them in accomplishing their salvation. 

The language, as it is translated, corresponds with that of the apostle 
Paul, 2 Cor. vi. 16: “ As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in 
them ; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” There is a 
difference, however, in the original, in the words employed in the two passa- 
ges, as there is also some difference between the figures as we have rendered 
them. In Corinthians the disciples are represented either collectively, or 
individually, as themselves the temple ; to which it is added, as God has said, 
ἐνοικήσω ἐν αὐτοῖς, I will inhabit with, in, or amongst them. In the Apoca- 
lypse the redeemed are represented as worshipping or serving in the temple, 
to which is added the prediction that God will pitch his tent over them, σχηνώσει 
ἐπὶ αὐτούς. That is, he will take them under the shelter of his tabernacle : as ; 
we might suppose a powerful chief in the deserts of Arabia, after having 
redeemed, or ransomed a number of captives, to pitch for himself and for 
them an immense tent, under which they are received. He does not go 4 
into their dwelling, but he takes them into his. He dwells with them, because 
he has thus admitted them to this shelter, Ezek. xxxvil. 27. ‘Their protection, 
as far as covering is concerned, is thus provided for ; as it is said, Is. iv. 6, 
‘¢ And there shall be a tabernacle (or tent) for a shadow in the day-time from 
the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from 
rain,” (see also Rev. xxi. 3.) 

‘They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more,’ &c.—This may 
be an allusion to the gracious provision predicted, Is. xlix. 9 and 10: 
‘They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in the high 
places. They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun 
smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the 
springs of water shall he guide them.” 

The words of the prophet in this passage so nearly accord with those 
of the elder, that we might almost suppose the one to represent the other 
—the reader of the book of Isaiah enjoying, in this particular, almost the 
same privilege as that granted the beloved apostle—that is, an explana- 
tion on the part of one of the elders of the blessed results of the mystery 
of redemption. 

The subjects of this distinguished favour are described, by both of these 
sacred writers, as clothed with garments of salvation—the robe of imputed 
righteousness ; as sheltered by the tabernacle of God—the covering of di- 


CHORUS. 91 


vine perfection—a building of God, a house not made with hands,” 2 
Cor. v. 1; a home of many mansions, in which there is room enough and 
to spare, John xiv. 2; as well as an ample provision of food, the means of 
quenching thirst, and of accomplishing the purposes of purification ; with 
an assurance of the removal of every cause of sorrow or distress. 

Happy are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, it is said, 
Matt. v. 6, for they shall be filled—a promise, of the fulfilment of which we 
have here an illustration. ‘The happiness, or blessedness, does not consist 
in the suffering of hunger and thirst, but in the relief afforded. ‘The suffer- 
ing affords, however, a token of the coming relief. The multitude clothed 
in white had suffered hunger and thirst in their state of tribulation, or, as 
Isaiah represents it, of imprisonment, (Is. xlix. 9,)—“ That thou mayest say 
to the prisoners, Go forth ; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves.” 
They had felt their need of righteousness, and their need of a propitiation. 
They had experienced their own inability to provide these elements of eter- 
nal life for themselves. But they are now in a new position—the reason of 
which is given in the subsequent verse. 


V.17. For the Lamb which is in the ὅτι τὸ ἀρνίον τὸ ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ ϑρόνου 
midst of the throne shall feed them, and Moar αὐτοὺς καὶ δδηγήσει αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ 
shall lead them unto living fountains of Lunes ὐὴ κάθ ὑδύτῶν, wat! shakelioes eee 
waters: and God shall wipe away all 5 777 pnt TE Sys ath 5 
tears from their eyes. σον δάκρυον EX Τῶν ὀφϑαλμῶν auTwy. 


§ 182. ‘For the Lamb.’—The happy state of the redeemed is repre- 
sented as a consequence of the purification of their robes in the blood of 
the Lamb ; but besides this, the Lamb is here exhibited as the efficient cause, 
or instrument, of bringing them into this state of abundant provision. ‘They 
hunger no more, and thirst no more, because the Lamb feeds them, and leads 
them to living fountains ; or, as it is expressed by the prophet, they shall 
neither hunger nor thirst, because he that hath mercy on them shall lead them 
by the springs of water: God, in this exercise of his mercy, being in effect 
the Lamb in the midst of the throne—the propitiatory elements of divine 
sovereignty. 

‘'The Lamb shall feed them.’—The merits of Christ are imputed to them. 
He furnishes the means of their eternal life. The Lamb leads them to living 
fountains—Christ himself, is the instrument of bringing the sinner to the 
means of purification from all his transgressions. The fountain opened for 
sin and for all uncleanness is the atonement—the full and abundant atone- 
ment offered by the Son of God. Adopted in Christ, the disciple shares in 
this atonement with all its benefits. Christ is the instrument of making: his 
own propitiation efficient for the pardon of his followers. The atoning 
blood of the Lamb, in which their robes have been washed, being also for 


92 THE SEALS OPENED. 


them the well-spring of water, springing up unto eternal life, John iv. 14. 
He feeds, (ποιμανεῖ,) as a shepherd, his flock—* He shall feed his flock like 
a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them in his 
bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young,” (Is. xl. 11 ;) or, 
as it is said of him by David, He maketh me, (as the instrument or efficient 
cause,) he maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside 
the still waters, (Ps. xxii. 2.) 

The source of the benefit is divine Sovereignty itself—the instrument by 
which it is conveyed, is Christ; as if we were to suppose the throne to 
represent a store-house, whence the supply of righteousness, or merit, is 
obtained ;—the Lamb, the Son, acting with full powers, takes of this supply 
and imparts of it to his followers, (John v. 26,)* as David, a type in this 
matter of Jesus, took of the shew bread from the temple, and gave it to his 
companions. 

The figures in this description, and in the parallel passages quoted from 
the Old Testament, are drawn from pastoral life ; such as it is in countries 
where shelter for the flocks at noon, on account of the extreme heat, is even 
more desirable than a covering at night. ‘The whole passage might be 
more freely, though as correctly, thus rendered: “ And God shall pitch his 
tent over them; they shall no more pine with hunger, nor be famished with 
thirst, neither shall the noon-day sun fall upon them, nor shall they suffer 
from extreme heat ; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall 
be their shepherd, and shall pasture them, and shall lead them to fountains 
of water.” 

ᾧ 183. ‘ And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.’ —This, we 
must remember, is spoken of those who came out of great tribulation—who 
had experienced the suffering from hunger, and thirst, and burning heat, 
from which they are now protected. If principles, as we suppose, in con- 
formity with the general tenor of the Apocalypse, they are personified as 
converts who have lamented, and have had occasion to lament their destitu- 
tion of righteousness, their need of propitiation, the insufficiency of their 
works, or merits, to withstand the trial of the fire destined to try every 
man’s works—that which is to burn as an oven or furnace, (Mal. iv. 1.) 
With the King of Israel they might have said, “ My tears have been my 
meat day and night,” (Ps. xlii. 3;) but now, with him also they may 
say, “ Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully 


* “Horas the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Sen to have life 
in himself :” that is, as the Father hath in himself the means of eternal life, (righteous- 
ness,) so hath he given unto the Son to have in himself the same means; which 
means he imparts to his followers, as it is figuratively expressed, by giving them his 
own flesh to eat; or, spiritually, imputing to them his own righteousness, 


CHORUS. 93 


with thee,” (Ps. exvi. 7.) As it is also said, Is. xxv. 8, “ He will swal- 
low up death in victory ; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all 
faces.” 

There is a godly sorrow which worketh a repentance unto life, not to 
be repented of; such we suppose to be the sorrow for sin and the sense of 
unworthiness leading to the sin-atoning Lamb, and resulting in the blessing 
of salvation—a result, of which the foregoing description of the elder affords 
a picture; and a result to which the prophet (perhaps mystically an elder) 
very plainly alludes, (Is. li. 11)— Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord 
shall return, and come with singing unto Zion ; and everlasting joy shall be 
upon their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and 
mourning shall flee away.” 

§ 184. We have thus been presented, in this development of the sixth 
seal, Rev. vi. 12, vii. L7, with two several exhibitions of very opposite 
characters, two different classes of figures, two different conditions of men, 
two entirely different positions in matters of faith. On the one hand, a 
picture of distress and anxious apprehension ; on the other, a picture of joy 
and relief from all anxiety, or alarm, either for the present or future. One 
exhibition presents us with a scene of gloom, and darkness, and terrific 
commotion ; the other is a representation of perfect quietness, peace, and 
security. The one offers a prospect of immediate destruction ; the other 
that of eternal safety. We see the miserable subjects of one picture, in the 
midst of a general shaking of the earthly elements, flying to dens and caves 
of the mountains ; an expedient apparently, on such an occasion, the worst 
that could be adopted. The subjects of the other picture, having come out 
of a scene of trial and affliction—having found the only true means of afety 
—appear in white robes with tokens of victory, ascribing their deliverance 
to God and to the Lamb. 

With the members of one of these classes, there appears to be no hope 
—their view of their own position seems to be that of perfect desperation ; 
with the other, every hope is fulfilled. To the first, it may be said, in the 
language of the prophet, “ Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, 
O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth 
from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit ; and he that cometh up out 
of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on 
high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake,” Is. xxiv. 17, 18. 
The condition of the last appears to be parallel with that of which the same 
prophet sets forth the rich provision: “ And in this mountain shall the Lord 
of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the 
lees ; of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.” ‘ And 
it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him: 

. . » » we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation,” Is, xxv. 6 and 9. 


94 THE SEALS OPENED. 


This contrast illustrates the conditions and the views of those out of 
Christ, and of those in Christ: the consternation and the destitution of 
the one, and the certain comfort and consolation of the other. 

We are not restricted to the supposition that the reality of these pictures 
is to be found only in a future state of existence. The illustration may be 
applied to the difference of views entertained in this life by the self-right- 
eous and self-sufficient professor of Christianity on the one hand ; and those 
of the humble, hoping, trusting, confiding believer in Jesus, on the other. 

The revelation, as its introductory addresses purport, is intended for the 
instruction, and admonition, and comfort of the-churches of Christ. Their 
errors are pointed out, and they are rebuked and chastened. ‘The illustra- 
tion is that of the difference between the various systems of doctrine of pro- 
fessing Christianity, or those who cal] themselves Christians, and the truth 
as it is in Jesus. The infidel, the pagan, the Mahometan, as such, can 
hardly be supposed to be alluded to, as immediately connected with the 
design of this unveiling. 

Nor are we obliged to confine this illustration to the peculiar views of 
individuals just at the moment when they leave this state of existence— 
when their sentiments, as well as their approaching fate, may be said to be 
unchangeably fixed. It appears rather intended to depict the different pro- 
cesses taking place successively in the mind of the same individual—show- 
ing the change operated in the faith of the disciple, from the time of his 
conviction of his own entire unworthiness, to that of his simple reliance on 
the merits of his Saviour. : 

The careless, reckless unbeliever, living without God and without hope, 
and dying as the brutes that perish, can hardly be said to suffer tribulation 
in this life ; but‘those convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, 
anxiously though ignorantly endeavouring to establish a claim to salvation 
of their own, may strictly be said to be in a position of pressure and com- 
pression, and to come out of this tribulation, having washed their robes in 
the blood of the Lamb, when their faith becomes sufficiently enlightened to 
trust to the perfect work of Christ’s sufferimg in their behalf. They have 
been flying from rock to rock, and from cavern to cavern; from the noise 
of the fear to the pit, and from the pit to the snare. To them the Lamb 
appears only as a Judge—they anticipate only his wrath—they are indeed 
in great tribulation. Suppose them now to hear the voice of mercy :, “ Save 
him from going down to the pit! I have found a ransom!” suppose them 
now trusting to the atonement of their Saviour, and confiding in the efficacy 
of his righteousness: surely it may be said of them, that they have come 
out of great tribulation. 

We suppose the principles of two systems to be painted in this exhibi- 
tion: the commotion and the change depicted, being such as may take 


CHORUS. 95 


place in the mind of every disciple of the Christian faith. The kings, the 
captains, and the mighty men of one picture, representing principles opposed 
to the system of salvation by sovereign grace; while the multitudes clothed 
in white represent a corresponding multitude of truths virtually ascribing 
salvation to God and to the Lamb alone. 

In confirmation of this, we may note that the exhibition at the close of 
the sixth chapter is that of a state of apprehension only, leaving room for the 
subsequent coming in of something like an unexpected means of deliver- 
ance; if not for all, at least for a portion of those who are suffering the 
deep anxiety and dread so strongly depicted. 


96 THE SEVENTH SEAL, 


CHAP PE Revit 


THE SEVENTH SEAL, AND FOUR FIRST TRUMPETS. 


V.1. And when he had opened the καὶ ὅτε ἤνοιξε τὴν σφραγῖδα, τὴν §300- 
seventh seal, there was silence in heaven 


WY, Fd ἕγετο σιγγ ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ ὡς ιώ- 
about the space of half an hour. yee γὴ i 


θΘι0». 


ᾧ 185. ‘And when he had opened,’ or, when he was opening, ‘ the 
seventh seal, there was silence,’ &c.— Silence in the Hebrew sometimes 
expresses rest ; a pause, during which nothing is done, (Cruden’s Concord.) 
The duration is not to be taken strictly, but as it is in the Greek, as it were 
half an hour. As in a dramatic exhibition a pause of half an hour, or 
‘thereabouts, in the representation would denote not merely a change of 
scene but a change in the acts; so here we may suppose the pause indi- 
cates the commencement of a new sertes—something for which the previous 
representations had been preparatory: the silence at the same time 
enabling the reader, or the spectator, to take a retrospective glance at the 
past, in order to prepare his mind the better for that which is to come. 

An hour, indeed, might be supposed to represent a teme, or prophetic 
term of 360 days of years; the half hour thus expressing a chronological 
lapse of time of 180 years. But this does not appear to accord so well 
with the general term of the vision ; especially taking into consideration, as 
we shall see, that time in this vision is no longer (Ὁ 230) to be contem- 
plated in a literal sense. ‘The previous developments are not such as to 
involve the necessity of chronological succession, and the riders of the four 
horses apparently go all forth at the same time, each having his peculiar 
functions to perform. ‘The souls under the altar are in the interim4n a 
state of impatient expectation, and the different exhibitions of approaching 
judgment and of merciful provision simultaneously grow out, as we may 
suppose, of the four equestrian powers of development. 'The exhibition of 
the blissful position of the great multitude clothed in white, resulting from 
the action of the rider of the white horse, with his bow and crown ; and the 
awful spectacle of those who are without Christ and without hope, being a 
consequence of the joint actions of the riders upon the red, black, and green 
horses. The first showing the earthly system to afford no peace or recon- 


THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. 97 


ciliation with God, its principles themselves being at war with each other ; 
the second exhibiting the standard of divine judgment ; and the third, with 
his attendant; showing the liability to judgment, and the certainty of con- 
demnation : all of which elements enter into the picture of imminent 
danger, utter helplessness, and extreme desperation, so vividly painted at 
the close of the sixth chapter. 

We are now to call to mind the position of things at the opening of the 
seventh seal. On the one hand, there is a fearful looking for of judgment, 
and of fiery indignation—a dread of impending wrath ; but the judgment, 
and the indignation or wrath are not yet exhibited as in actual operation. 
All the visible elements, it is true, are in commotion, and the hitherto self- 
confident inhabitants of the earth are awakened to a sense of their insecurity, 
and their need of a refuge—but the wrath itself has not yet come. On the 
other hand we see those so provided for that, whatever happen, they have 
nothing to apprehend ; the trying moment, however, even with these, has 
not yet approached, although, whenever it comes they are prepared for it. 
Their garments are white, not with a cleansing element of their own pro- 
viding, but washed in the blood of the Lamb. They have a covert from 
the storm, Is. xxxii. 2, and from the burning heat, Is. iv. 6 ; and they have 
the assurance, that their bread shall be given them, and their water shall be 
sure, (Is. xxxiil. 16.) Possibly, as we have suggested, (ὃ 81,) the first 
class may be finally merged in the second, or partially so, having under- 
gone a corresponding change of views. 

Under the recollection of the peculiar circumstances of these two differ- 
ent classes of expectants, we are now to attend to the particulars of the 
»wrathful visitation of which we have hitherto only contemplated the coming. 


V. 2. And I saw the seven*angels Kai εἶδον τοὺς ἐπτὰ ἀγγέλους, οἵ ἐνώπιον 
which stood before God; and to them τοῦ ϑεοῦ ἑστήκασι, καὶ ἐδόϑησαν αὐτοῖς 


were given seven trumpets. 
ἑπτὰ σάλπιγγες. 


ᾧ 186. ‘And I saw the seven angels.’—There are no seven angels 
previously spoken of as standing before God. The seven angels of the 
seven churches, represented by the seven stars in the hand of one like unto 
the Son of man, could hardly be considered as the seven angels which stood 
before God. ‘These angels are probably the seven spirits, spoken of as 
before the throne, (Rev. i. 4;) especially as Paul, speaking of the angels, 
represents them all as “ ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them 
who shall be heirs of salvation,’ Heb. i. 14. This function being also that 
of the Comforter, these seven angels before God must be, as we have sup- 
posed, the seven spirits before the throne, (¢ 9)—so many emanations or 
elements of the Holy Spirit, constituting also a totality. 

‘ And to them were given seven trumpets. —Each of these elements of 


. 98 THE SEVENTH SEAL. 


the Holy Spirit being charged with making his peculiar revelation, or with 
teaching a certain truth, or series of truths. This teaching being intended to 
be public and for the benefit of all, the commission to perform these several 
functions is figuratively spoken of as the giving of a trumpet. The trumpet 
of ancient times, in the hands of the herald, or of the trumpeter, was not 
merely the instrument of calling attention to the command uttered ; it also 
made known the authority by which the command was given, and itself 
announced by certain variations of sound the particulars of this command ; 
as itis said, (1 Cor. xiv. 8,) “If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who 
shall prepare himself to the battle ?”” The trumpet, therefore, in the hands of 
these angels, may be supposed to represent an instrument or means of 
revealing the truths uttered. As the walls of Jericho fell after the repeated 
sounds of the trumpets of the priests, (Joshua vi. 8-16,) so the bulwarks 
of erroneous systems are demolished after repeated revelations or develop- 
ments of truth ; as it is said, also, 1 Thess. iv. 16, ‘‘ The Lord himself shall 
descend from heaven witha shout, with the voice of the archangel, and 
with the trump of God.” We do not suppose either the shout, the voice, 
or the trumpet, to be literally understood here ; but the manifestation spoken 
of is to be made through some instrumentality analogous to these: it being 
evident that the trump or trumpet of God is something very different in 
reality from the trumpet of a man, or even that of a priest. 

The use of the trumpet, however, amongst the Hebrews, was not con- 
fined to purposes of alarm, or to the utterance of comniands. We find the 
instrument spoken of, Ps. χουν]. 6, as making a joyful noise before the 
Lord ; and 1 Chron. xii. 8, They played with trumpets, as well as with 
cymbals. ‘The character of the revelation or proclamation, therefore, musts 
be gathered from the circumstances under which the instrument is supposed 
to be employed. ; 

In the great change described by Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 22, the last trumpet 
is spoken of, apparently intimating the sounding of certain previous trumpets ; 
all of which may have some correspondence with the action of the seven 
trumpets committed to these seven angels. 


V. 3. And another angel came and 
stood at the altar, having a golden censer; 
and there was given unto him much in- 
cense, that he should offer (it) with the 
prayers of all saints upon the golden altar 
which was before the throne. 


Καὶ ἄλλος ἄγγελος ἦλϑε, χαὶ ἐστάϑη ἐπὶ 
τὸ ϑυσιαστήριον ἔχων λιβανωτὸν χρυσοῦν" 
καὶ ἐδόϑη αὐτῷ ϑυμιάματα πολλά, ἵνα δώσῃ 
ταῖς προςευχαῖς τῶν ἁγίων πάντων ἐπὶ τὸ 
ϑυσιαστήριον τὸ χρυσοῦν τὸ ἐνώπιον τοῦ 


ϑρόνο U. 


§ 187. The seven trumpets are given to the seven angels, but the 
description of the effects of their sounding is yet delayed, apparently to 


describe some process or processes going on at the same time. 


While the 


THE ALTAR OF INCENSE. 99 


scene of judgment is being enacted, glory, and praise, and thanks, continue 
to be ascribed to God. 

‘Another angel came.’—While the seven angels are commissioned to 
develope the purposes of God, another messenger, or instrument of revealing 
truth, is commissioned to develope what is doing amongst the redeemed, as 
also amongst others of an opposite character. 

‘ And stood at the altar, having a golden censer.’—The altar we have 
already considered the purpose of God—the Logos, Christ under a certain 
aspect, (ὃ 161.) It is spoken of as golden, because the composition—the 
material—is pure truth; capable of standing the test or the trial of any 
assay. The censer, also of gold, is the instrument with which the incense 
is offered: it must represent some principle or instrumentality of truth, by 
which the offerings are set apart and made acceptable to God. The peculiar 
quality of incense is its sweet smell ; a smell, as it is used in the Kast, 
overcoming all others, and consequently overcoming all unpleasant odours. 

Thus, incense may be put for the quality in any sacrifice by which the 
offering is made acceptable to God. No propitiatory offering, as we learn 
from the whole tenor of divine revelation, can be acceptable to God, except 
it be made by Jesus Christ ; hence, incense is put for the atonement itself, 
as we find from the direction given to Aaron, Numbers xvi. 46-48: “ Take 
a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go 
quickly into the congregation, and make an atonement for them, for there is 
wrath gone out from the Lord; the plague is begun. And Aaron took as 
Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation ; and behold, 
the plague was begun amongst the people: and he put in incense, and 
made an atonement for the people, and he stood between the dead and the 
living ; and the plague was stayed.” The incense was not all that was 
required. It must be offered by the high priest—Moses could not offer 
it; so the atonement of the Christian economy can only be offered by 
the high priest of our profession. Christ, however, is not only the priest, 
but the incense also; the sacrifice carrying in itself its acceptable qual- 
ity: as it is said, Eph. v. 2, that he hath given himself for us; an 
offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet-smelling savour. On a cer- 
tain principle of gratitude, nevertheless, the disciple may offer his body an 
acceptable sacrifice, or thank-offering, Rom. xii. 1 ; and it is said, 2 Cor. ii. 
15, that “ we are to God a sweet savour of Christ:’”? So, after the 
patriarch Noah had experienced the signal preservation vouchsafed him 
and his family, he built an altar and offered a sacrifice, evidently not in 
order that he might be delivered from peril, but because he had been deliy- 
ered: and the Lord’smelled, it is said, a sweet savour, Gen. viil. 21. 

The incense offered by the angel may thus represent the atonement, or 
propitiatory merits of Christ, going up with the prayers of saints; or it may 


100 THE SEVENTH SEAL. 


represent that principle of gratitude resulting from the intercession of Christ, 
which renders the offerings of disciples acceptable to God. The angel 
standing in the place of the priest must represent Christ in his priestly 
character, by whom alone we have access unto God, and through whom 
alone our prayers or our worship can be accepted. The altar we may 
presume to be described as before the throne, because God has his purpose 
of mercy in Christ always in view, and always a subject of complacency. 
Vs. 4,5. And the smoke of the incense, καὶ ἀνέβη ὃ καπνὸς τῶν ϑυμιαμάτων ταῖς 
(which came) with the prayers of the προςευχαῖς τῶν ἁγίων ἐκ χειρὸς τοῦ ἀγγέλου 


saints, ascended up before God out of the RIESE 2 SNES NE MD. 
angel’s hands. And the angel took the ~, BOREL SSO Pet O SOUS 
τὸν λιβανωτὸν, καὶ ἐγέμισεν αὐτὸν ἐκ TOU 


censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, 
and cast (it) into the earth: and there πυρὸς τοῦ ϑυσιαστηρίου, καὶ ἔβαλεν εἰς τὴν 
were voices, and thunderings, and light- γῆν: καὶ ἐγένοντο φωναὺ καὶ βρονταὶ καὶ 
nings, and an earthquake. ἀστραπαὶ καὶ σεισμός. 

ᾧ 188. “Απα the smoke of the incense, with the prayers,’ &c.—This 
smoke may be denominated the vehicle by which the prayers are made to 
ascend ; the ascending before God being expressive of the favour with 
which these prayers are received: that is, they are rendered an acceptable 
sacrifice, Rom. xii. 1, by being incorporated with the offering of Christ— 
the sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour, Eph. v. 2. These prayers 
of the saints, as before suggested, (ὃ 139,) are put for acts of worship gene- 
rally ; or for the entire self-devotion virtually constituting an act of wor- 
ship. No doubt the same prayers as those mentioned Rev. v. 8, in posses- 
sion of the twenty-four elders—retained, we may suppose, till they could go 
up with the smoke of the incense; the human offering being permitted to 
ascend before the Lord, only under cover of the divine oblation. So Aaron 
was directed (Lev. xvi. 12 and 18) to take ἃ censer full of burning coals 
of fire from off the altar, before the Lorn; and his hands full of sweet 
incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail: and to put incense upon 
the fire before the Lorn, that the cloud of incense might cover the mercy- 
seat: and this, it is added, ‘that he die not.” 

The apostle may be said to have witnessed on this occasion an illus- 
tration of the efficiency of Christ’s merits in rendermg the service of his fol- 
lowers, subsequent to their redemption, acceptable in the sight of God. 

‘And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire,’ &c.—The fire 
from the altar was necessary to elicit the perfume affording a sweet savour ; 
so the fire of the divine word, or revealed purpose of God, is requisite to 
elicit the principle upon which alone the disciple’s offermg of service can 
be acceptable. 

ς And cast it into the earth, and there were voices, and thunderings,’ &c. 
—The same element of trial, the fire of the altar, which exhibits the accept- 
able character of a grateful service, consequent to the work of Christ, is also 
the means of exhibiting the rigid character of the legal dispensation. ‘The 


THE FIRST TRUMPET. 101 


voices, thunderings, lightnings, and shakings, constituting the paraphernalia 
of Sinai, show us that the fire, which is to try every man’s work, when 
applied to the earthly system, must necessarily prove the tendency of that 
system to condemnation, in respect to those dependent upon it ; while, in its 
action upon the heavenly system, it opens the access by which alone the 
services of the sinful but redeemed creature may be accepted. ‘The effect 
of the casting of this fire to the earth is that of showing the earthly system 
to be a legal system, and its dependents necessarily elements of self-right- 
eousness ; the exhibition of this twofold process of the altar-service being a 
prelude of the more extended illustrations about to be presented. 


Vs.6,7. And the seven angels which had 
the seven trumpets prepared themselves 
to sound. The first angel sounded, and 


- X Ὁ oy 4. 5, Ο» ‘ © ‘ 
Καὶ ot ἑπτὰ ἀγγέλοι οἱ ἔχοντες τὰς ἕπτ 

’ c > ’ ͵ fs 
σάλπιγγας ἡτοίμασιν eavToLs, va σαλπί- 


there followed hail and fire mingled with 
blood, and they were cast upon the earth: 
and the third part of trees was burnt up, 
and all green grass was burnt up. 


oS ς ~ > , Ν ΓΕ Ὲ 

σωσι. Kati ὃ πρῶτος ἐσάλπισε, καὶ ἐγένετο 

χάλαζα καὶ πῦρ μεμιγμένα ἐν αἵματι, καὶ 

> , ‘ ~ ‘ ~ ~ 

ἐβλήϑη εἰς τὴν γῆν: καὶ TO τρίτον τῆς γῆς 
’ ι - ' 

κατεκάη, καὶ TO τρίτον τῶν δένδρων κατε- 


~ 4 ι ΄ 
κάη, καὶ πᾶς χόρτος χλωρὸς κατεκάη. 


ᾧ 189. ‘And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared 
themselves to sound.’—An intimation of the simultaneous action of these 
trumpets. It is not said that the first angel prepared himself to sound, and 
afterwards, that the second angel did so, but they all prepared themselves 
together, and may be supposed to have sounded together, although the apos- 
tle could hear and describe but one ata time. The revelation of the events 
or things represented, we may suppose to be coincident, or synchronical, if 
indeed time is at all to be taken into consideration in respect to them. The 
action referred to by the several trumpets we do not suppose to be neces- 
sarily successive, unless we make an exception as to the three last, or woe- 
trumpets ; and here the separation may be rather in the sense than in the 
time, that is, time in a historical sense. We suppose the blasts of these 
several trumpets to be progressive developments of truth ; by which espe- 
cially the anti-Christian system, comprehending perhaps all false systems, 
is to be overthrown. The attack upon this system may have been pre- 
figured in some degree by the storming of the city of Jericho, as already 
cited : the sounding of the last angel’s trumpet, corresponding with the last 
day’s sounding of the priests, with their rams’ horns, under the conduct of 
Joshua, (Jesus,) the type of Christ. 

‘The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled 
with blood.’-—Hail and fire, in a natural or physical sense, are elements 
of the most opposite characters ; but in a spiritual sense, as figuratively em- 
ployed here, a like quality is attributed to both. Both are destructive 
instruments, and as such are repeatedly associated in Scripture exhibitions of 
the wrath of Almighty God; as it is said of Egypt—He gave them hail 


102 THE SEVENTH SEAL. 


for rain, and flaming fire in their land. And as, in a spiritual sense, fire is 
represented to be the instrument of trying every doctrine or work ; so, in the 
same sense, hail is spoken of as the means of exposing the fallacy of every 
vain scheme of salvation: ‘“‘ Because ye have said, We have made a cove-" 
nant with death, and with Hades, are we (or we are) at agreement ; when 
the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for 
we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves : 
therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a 
stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that 
believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and 
righteousness (justice) to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the 
refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place. And your 
covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with Hades 
shall not stand,” Is. xxvii. 15-18. 

The same element of divine power which, when mercifully employed, 
falls like showers upon the mown grass, when sent judicially, is condensed 
(transformed) into a destructive agent. So, the same rays of the Sun of 
righteousness which, as messengers of mercy, appear to be instruments of 
consolation, when falling in judgment upon subjects of divine displeasure, 
are like the burning heat scorching the parched earth, and destroying vege- 
table as well as animal life. 

§ 190 ‘ Mangled with blood.’—Blood is the life of the animal, and is 
accordingly a figure of the element of divine justice, demanding the life of 
the sinner. Like fire and water, however, blood has both its benign and 
its vindictive signification: the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin; the 
blood of man is the witness of his guilt, the evidence of his pollution, and, 
like the blood of Abel, calls from the earth for vengeance. 'The blood of 
Christ is represented by the purifying, vivifyng element of water, when it 
is exhibited in showers, or fountains, or as a river of life; but if we sup- 
pose in the figure a shower of blood to be substituted for water, as was the 
case in Egypt, (Ex. vii. 1,) it is evident that the visitation is one of judg- 
ment, and not of mercy ; an element of putrefaction and of death is substi- 
tuted for one of life. Such we suppose to be the character of the exhibition 
elicited by the opening of the first seal. It is an exposure of the vindictive 
features of the judicial economy in their severest aspect. 

‘ And they were cast upon the earth :’—or, according to the Latin of 
Leusden, missa sunt, they are sent to the earth. 

The earth we suppose to be a false system, or a system of a legal 
character—false, so far as it professes to provide a means of salvation for 
a guilty world. Its elements for the most part are false in the same rela- 
tion. There may be some exceptions, however; as the one hundred and 
forty-four thousand sealed ones were exceptions, amongst the other inhabit- 


THE FIRST TRUMPET. 103 


ants of the earth, (Rev. vii. 3.) The elements of judicial visitation repre- 
sented by fire, hail, and blood, we may suppose to be brought to bear upon 
this legal or fallacious system, with its peculiar features. ‘The system has 
already proved to be false, and is now about to be destroyed—judgment 
having been laid to the line, and justice to the plummet: as an architect, after 
having ascertained by the line and plummet the deviation of the wall of his 
building from the true line of gravity, determines upon its entire destruction. 

§ 191. ‘And the third part of the earth was burned up.’—This is not 
in our common English version, but it is found in the editions of the Greek 
generally supposed to be most correct, (vide Rob. ed. New Testament, 
New-York, 1842.) 

‘The third part,’ τὸ zg’zov—The word part, it is to be noticed, is sup- 
plied in our translation in this and in other like places where the term is 
used. In the original, the words the third are all that is expressed, leaving 
the reader to supply the term apparently the most appropriate. It is very 
evident that this term part, τὸ μέρος, if admitted, is not to be construed | 
literally ; it must signify something else than a material part, and we have 
perhaps as good ground for supposing the word νόημα to be understood, as 
the word μέρος, or in English, the word sense, as part. ‘The Greek words 
being of the same gender, and νόημα being employed by ecclesiastical writers 
to express the spiritual sense, as opposed to the literal sense of the sacred 
writings—apud scriptores ecclesiast. νόημα notat sensum Scripture, et oppo- 
nitur 7% γράμματι, (Suiceri Lex.) We suppose, then, by the third of the 
earth, or of the trees, or of any thing else, in apocalyptic language, the thing 
spoken of is to be understood in its third sense, and that this third sense is 
its spiritual sense : accordingly we say here, “ And the earth in its third, or 
spiritual sense, was burned up.” In the version of Cranmer, 1539, to avoid 
the difficulty, it is said, “ And the thirde parte of the erth was set on fyre, 
and the thirde parte of trees was burnt,” (Bagster’s Hexapla,) but there is 
nothing to warrant this qualification in the original. ‘The Greek term trans- 
lated burnt, is the same as that employed by Peter in his prediction of the en- 
tire combustion and destruction of the earth, and of the things that are therein. 

It is said, Zech. xiii. 8, 9, “ And it shall come to pass in all the land, saith 
the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; the third shall be left 
therein, and I will bring the third (part) through the fire, and will refine them 
as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried :” or, according to the 
Septuagint, ‘and it shall be in all the earth, ἐν πάσῃ τῆ γῆ, says the Lord, the 
two parts of it, (that is, of the earth and all that belongs to it,) shall be 
utterly destroyed, and come to an end ; but the ¢hard shall remain, or survive 
in it; and I will bring the third through the fire, and I will submit them to the 
test of fire, as silver is submitted to the test, and I will try them as gold is 
tried.’ All three parts are to be tried, but the third only is to survive the trial. 

16 


104 THE SEVENTH SEAL. 


The words τὰ δυὸ μέρη, the two parts, are here used, it is true, but the term 
μέρος, Heb. in this passage 13, Lat. 0s, Trom. Concord., has also several sig- 
nifications, such as part, share, particular, head, respect, (Rob. Lex. 440.)* 

The third part, third time, third day, month, and year, and even the 
third heavens, are particularly distinguished in Scripture ; the third seeming 
to carry with it an idea of completion, or of perfection, not belonging to the 
other two; accordingly, if we substitute the term sense for part, we shall 
readily perceive that if there are three senses in which a figure or figurative 
passage may be understood, the third sense is the real or abiding sense—that 
which will remain when the other two are done with, or no longer needed. 

We say, for example, that the earth, the trees, &c., are destroyed in their 
third sense ; not that the sense is destroyed, but that the thing spoken of is 
destroyed, in this third, or spiritual sense. 

§ 192. The three senses we suppose to be the material, the metaphori- 
cal, and the spiritual. “The sense in which any particular passage of 
Scripture is to be understood is to be known by the context, and the cir- 
cumstances under which the term is employed. When it is said of Saul, 
Acts ix. 4—8, that he fell to the earth, and rose from the earth, it is plain 
that the material or physical earth is spoken of. When it is said, 1 Kings x. 
24, all the earth sought to Solomon, it is equally evident that the term is 
metaphorical—the earth being put for the inhabitants of the earth, and the 
term all expressing hyperbolically all the then known nations of the earth; 
but when it is said, Is. xii. 13, The earth shall remove out of her place, 
and Rey. xx. 11, From whose face the earth fled away, it is certain that 
neither this material globe of earth nor the mass of its inhabitants is alluded 
to. ‘The term cannot but be understood in a third sense, and this we call 
the spiritual or analogical sense. That is, as the earth in a physical or natural 
sense is that which affords to man the means of life, and upon which he 
depends, so, in a sense analogical to this, the spiritual earth of the Apoca- 
lypse is that legal system which supposes man to be dependent upon his 
own works or merits, and this spiritual sense we call the third of the earth, 
τὸ τρίτον νόημα τῆς γῆς: So in the Scriptural uses of the term light, we 
take the first sense to be literally physical light, the second sense, meta- 
phorivally, intellectual light, and the third sense, spiritually, righteousness 
or the glory of moral perfection. So likewise the term heaven, or heavens, 


* There is an apparent contradiction in these two passages; the third being in 
one case preserved, and fin the other destroyed. We suppose, however, the 
prophet to refer to the mode of interpreting the figurative language of Revelation,— 
pointing out the sense which is to endure the predicted trial. ‘The description of the 
Apocalypse, on the contrary, applies to the subject which in this enduring sense is to 
be destroyed ; by a figure of speech the third of ships, trees, &c., being put for these 
things spoken of spiritually, that is, in this third or enduring sense. 


THE FIRST TRUMPET 105 


in its physical sense expresses the atmosphere around the earth, with the 
stars, planets, &c., as they appear to the human eye: in its metaphori- 
cal sense, all that we commonly understand by the revelation of heavenly 
things contained in the Scriptures, as ordinarily understood : in its third sense, 
an exhibition of the whole scheme of divine government, as contained in the 
Scriptures, spiritually understood ; manifesting the glory of God, especially 
in the work of redemption, analogically with the display of his wondrous 
works in the material firmament around us. This spiritual heaven, or dis- 
play of the divine economy, is apparently the third heaven or paradise 
spoken of by Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 2 and 4; Paul being caught up to this 
third heaven, in the same sense that John was in Spirit in heaven, imme- 
diately after seeing the door opened, and hearing the invitation, ‘“ Come up 
hither.” The design, in both cases, was that of communicating certain 
special revelations to these two favoured individuals ; the difference between 
the circumstances of the two apostles being principally this, that while one 
heard unspeakable words, which he was not permitted to repeat, the other 
received his revelation expressly for the purpose of transmitting it to his 
fellow-servants of every age and country. 

§$,193. The later Jews, it is said, (Rob. Lex. 526, 527,) spoke of 
three heavens: the atmosphere immediately around the earth, the space 
above this atmosphere, in which the stars were supposed to be placed, and 
the ethereal space beyond, considered the peculiar residence of Deity. We 
cannot suppose Paul to have adopted this mistaken theory, intending to be 
understood as having been literally taken up three strata of atmosphere, 
especially when perhaps none more readily than Paul would admit that 
the Deity can enlighten the mind of man as much and as well in one 
material atmosphere as in another. ‘The sense,’ says Robinson, “is, 
that he had received the most intimate and perfect communication of the 
divine will ;’ and this we suppose to be equivalent to what we denominate 
the enjoyment of an exhibition of heaven, or of paradise, in its third or 
spiritual sense. Paul, howevér, may have drawn his figure for illustration 
from this Jewish notion. If we choose to spiritualize the three heavens of 
Paul, so that they may all bear an analogy to the three Jewish heavens, 
the result will be nearly the same. The view of divine things afforded by 
the prophecies, types, institutions, and shadows of the Old Testament, may 
constitute the first, appearing as these do through the murky atmosphere of 
a literal understanding. Such we may suppose to be the view enjoyed by 
the patriarchs of old, as it was gradually unfolded by a succession of these 
figures. 

The second heaven we may say is that exhibition of the divine economy 
which we have in the literal or ordinary meaning of the New Testament, 
in which the material blood and body of the Lord Jesus are taken as the 


106 THE SEVENTH SEAL. 


elements of his propitiatory sacrifice. A view to which, generally speaking, 
the faith of disciples has been hitherto for the most part confined. ‘This is 
an atmosphere clearer than the last, but still it is physical, natural, material, 
and literal. 

The third heaven we suppose to exhibit the same things or objects, but 
with their spiritual meaning; the atonement of Christ, or his substitution 
of himself, and God in him, in behalf of the sinner, and his righteousness 
imputed to the disciple, occupying the places of the material blood and 
body of Jesus. Such a view awaits the believer in the next state of exist- 
ence ; such a view we suppose to have been enjoyed by the apostles, Paul 
and John; and such a view may be enjoyed, even in this life, whenever the 
eyes of the disciple’s understanding are fully enlightened. Something like 
this, apparently, having been contemplated by the martyr Stephen, when 
filled with the Holy Spirit, he saw heaven opened, the glory of God and 
Jesus standing on the right hand of God, Acts. vil. 56. 

We have indulged the more freely in these suggestions as to the third 
part, because, as we shall find, the term repeatedly occurs, and appears to be 
susceptible of no other construction than that here put upon it. 

The earth, then, in its third sense, was burned up. ‘That is, the effect 
of the development resulting from the proclamation of this first trumpet was 
to destroy the earth, or legal system—the self-righteous platform of erro- 
neous views, figuratively spoken of as the earth—the fire with the hail 
being the fire to try every man’s work. 

§ 194. ‘ And the third ( part) of trees,’ &c.—As the apostle Peter says, 
(2 Peter iii. 10,) the earth, with the works that are therein, shall be burned 
up, so it is said here that, with the third of the earth, the third also of the 
trees, and all green grass, or all kinds of herbage, were, in the same sense, 
burnt up. 

The word translated green is the same as that rendered pale when it is 
applied to the colour of a horse, (Rev. vi. 8;) and we might accordingly 
say here, and all pale grass; but we have already shown that the word 
strictly signifies green, and nothing else, at least in the Apocalypse. 

The word translated grass is said to apply especially to fodder for cat- 
tle; green fodder must signify this herbage while attached to the earth, 
furnishing both food for animals, and clothing or covering for the earth ; 
while fodder not green would apply only to the same herbage disconnected 
from the earth. Hay and stubble, it is true, would be judged by man most 
fit subjects for fire ; but what is here contemplated, we apprehend, is to show 
those things in which human pride is most prone to glory, to be those which 
God counts as worthless, and deals with only as chaff. 

As we have supposed the earth to be the figure of a system, or econo- 
my of salvation, in which man finds, as he thinks, a place of security—a 


THE SECOND TRUMPET. 107 


rest, a foundation upon which to depend—so we suppose trees and green 
herbage to be appendages of the same system, so many principles emana- 
ting from and depending upon it. ‘Trees afford shade and shelter, protection 
and refuge to birds, and means of concealment and hiding places for man 
and other animals ; they afford also, in a degree, shelter from the scorch- 
Adam and Eve, after their first act of disobedience, 
Trees, there- 


ing rays of the sun. 
hid themselves, as they thought, in the trees of the garden. 
fore, as figures, are equivalent to a certain class of refuges of lies—fallacious 
principles of doctrine, exhibiting supposed means of safety from the requisi- 
tions of divine justice. So green grass, as a clothing of the earth, as well 
as an element of food, may represent pretensions to righteousness formed 
from the vain estimate of human merits—like grass beautiful in appearance, 
but of short duration, withering and fading away as soon as tried by the 
fire of that ordeal, of which it is said, it shall burn as an oven. 


Vs. 8,9. And the second angel sound- 


Ye , m” > 7 “18 
ἱ Kat ὁ δεύτερος ἄγγελος ἐσαλπισε, καὶ ὡς 
ed, and as it were ἃ great mountain burn- 


or ’ Η , ἱ ΄ > ‘ 
Og0g μέγα πυρὶ καιόμενον ἐβληϑὴ εἰς THY 


ing with fire was cast into the sea: and 
the third (part) of the sea became blood ; 
and the third (part) of the creatures which 
were in the sea, and had life, died; and 
ἰῇ third (part) of the ships were destroy- 
ed. 


" ' ~ 
ϑάλασσαν: καὶ ἐγένετο τὸ τρίτον τῆς ϑα- 
, τ > ' 1 ~ 
λάσσης αἷμα, καὶ ἀπέθανε τὸ τρίτον τῶν 
’ - ~ , ‘ i” 
κτισμάτων τῶν EY τῇ ϑαλάσσῃ, τὰ ἔχοντα 

, ‘ ~ , 
ψυχός, καὶ TO τρίτον τῶν πλοίων διερϑαρ- 


nowy. 


§ 195. ‘And a great mountain,’ &e.—Mountains, as already noticed, 
(8. 167,) are places of refuge in a time of invasion or in a time of inunda- 
tion, and as such they represent means of salvation, real or supposed. It is 
said, Isaiah 11. 2, “ It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain 
of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and 
shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto [1.7 There 
are other mountains, therefore, besides that of the Lord’s house, which are 
to be manifested as being subordinate to that one mountain, the only true 
refuge ; in allusion to which, apparently, it is said, Ps. xxxvi. 6, “ God’s 
righteousness is like the great mountains.” A stone is spoken of, Dan. ii. 
35 and 45, as cut out of a mountain without hands, which itself became a 
great mountain, and filled the whole earth. The same mountain, no doubt, 
as that said to be exalted upon the tops of all other mountains and hills, for 
such would be a mountain filling the whole earth. The stone, too, is prob- 
ably the same as that spoken of 1 Peter ii. 7, ‘The stone which the build- 
ers refused, and which became the chief stone of the corner,” (the key-stone 
of the arch)—the chosen, precious key-stone—the rock upon which rests the 
The 
gracious provision of propitiation against which the elements of justice (the 
gates of Hades) can never prevail—a substratum of rock, of which it is 


whole economy of salvation, and all dependent upon that economy. 


108 THE SEVENTH SEAL. 


said, 1 Cor. iii. 11, Other foundation can no man lay than that which is 
laid, which is Jesus Christ. 

This mountain, however, was not the great mountain, but only, as it 
were, a great mountain. It was not cast upon the land, or upon the hills, 
but into the sea, producing an effect corresponding in degree, though not in 
kind, with that which an immense body cast into the sea might be supposed 
to produce. 

‘ Burning with fire.’—Not the instrument of setting fire to other objects, 
but itself in a state of combustion—subject to the action of fire. We may 
suppose this mountain to represent a false system, the destructibility of 
which is being manifested. It is, however, no ordinary system, but one of 
great pretensions, reminding us of the declaration by the mouth of the 
prophet, Jeremiah li. 25, 26, “ Behold, I am against thee, O destroying 
mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyest all the earth; and I will stretch 
out my hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee 
a burnt mountain. And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor 
a stone for foundations ; but thou shalt be desolate forever, saith the Lord.” 

§ 196. ‘ Was cast into the sea, and the third (part) of the sea became 
blood.’—The mountain, or system, while thus undergoing the trial by fire, 
comes in contact with the sea, or element of vindictive justice, sach as we 
have supposed this figure to represent, (ὃ 124.) This contact being also 
equivalent to the administration of a test. The destruction of the false 
foundation, (the mountain,) showing the element of judicial vengeance con- 
nected with it to be an element of blood. The reputed agent of purifica- 
tion is now manifested to be, like the law itself, not only incapable of giving 
life, but actually demanding the life of the criminal. The nature of the 
sea is not changed, but its true character is exhibited. A like figure we 
may find in the Red Sea, or sea of Edom, (red,) through which the Israelites 
could pass only under the conduct of him who had brought them out of the 
state of Egyptian bondage; and who, on this account, is spoken of as a 
prophet like unto Christ, (Acts iti, 22.) 

There are those, trusting in their own inherent or imparted ability te 
meet the requisitions of divine justice, who appear to think and even 
desire it to be their duty to brave this element of wrath themselves ; as the 
self-confident apostle seems to have supposed the evidence of his Master’s 
power to consist in enabling the disciple to walk upon the stormy wave, 
Matt. xiv. 28. Others think to wash away their sins by inflicting penalties 
upon themselves, or by doing for themselves some great thing ; and, like the 
swine beset by a legion, Mark v. 9-13, become the immediate instruments of 
their own destruction. Some allusion may be made to this error, Heb. x. 22 
where the figurative expression of pure water is employed apparently im con 


. 


THE SECOND TRUMPET. 109 


‘ 


tradistinction to sea-water, which is both foul and bitter—the “ troubled sea 
casting up mire and dirt,” (Is. lvii. 20.) The apostle had just set before 
the Hebrews the new and living way of coming into the position of the 
holiest, by the blood and flesh of Jesus, which means of access he after- 
wards speaks of as a cleansing of the conscience, and a washing of the 
body in pure water; an opposite of pretended propitiations, bearing the 
bloody character of the legal dispensation, (Ex. iv. 25, 26.) 

The sea, in its third or spiritual sense, was manifested to be blood. In 
its first, or natural sense, the sea is a fearful and destructive element. In a 
metaphorical sense, it is said to represent a deluge, or multitude of enemies, 
(Cruden ;) but perhaps its second scriptural sense is that of the penal requi- 
sitions of the Mosaical economy, as commonly applied to the Jews ; while 
the third sense represents the vindictive bearing of inflexible Justice, ap- 
plicable throughout eternity to “ every soul of man that doeth evil.” 

§ 197. ‘ And the third (part) of the creatures which were in the sea, and 
had life, died..—Were manifested to be without life. Things in the sea 
having life, we may suppose to signify things dependent upon the sea for 
life. The sea, having become blood, is no more capable of giving life to 
its dependents ; so when the legal or self-righteous element of purging away 
sin is manifestly destitute of the power of giving eternal life, every principle 
dependent upon it must be equally manifested to be destitute of a life-giving 
power. The penal observances of the Mosaical dispensation are now 
shown to be incapable of yielding life to the sinner; and so, in a spiritual 
sense, the efforts of man to atone for his own transgressions are manifested 
to be without efficacy in the work of salvation. As the sinner is dead un- 
der the law in trespasses and sins, so the principles of legality, when the 
truth is fully revealed, will appear equally lifeless. 

Fish, it is true, furnish a common article of diet; but these are fish 
frequenting rivers, or the mouths of rivers, or feeding upon banks in the 
vicinity of shores. The fish of the ocean, it is notorious, are not suitable for 
the sustenance of man: besides, fish to be eaten must be taken alive from 
the waters. There is with all persons ἃ natural abhorrence of fish supposed 
to be dead before it is taken ; and if the water of a lake or sea become so 
deleterious as to destroy the fish in it, it is very evident that these fish are 
no more fit for food. ' 

It is a peculiarity worth noticing, that fish, although used for food, were 
not employed for sacrificial purposes, under the levitical arrangement; as if 
the element represented by the sea, could not furnish a suitable offering to 
the Lord. Even as an article of diet, fish seem to be mentioned, Numbers 
xi. 5, in contradistinction to heavenly food; ‘‘ We remember the fish which 
we did eat in Egypt freely ; the cucumbers, and the melons, and ‘the leeks, 


- 


110 THE SEVENTH SEAL. 


and the onions, and the garlic, (vegetables peculiarly earthy.) But now our 
soul is dried away ; there is nothing, besides this manna, before our eyes.”’ As 
some, in the pride of their hearts, call to mind the various theories of human 
invention upon which they had been encouraged to build the hope of a 
merit of their own. ‘They repine over the gospel exhibition in its simpli- 
city, because nothing, as a means of eternal life, but the imputed righteous- 
ness of a Divine Redeemer, is presented for their contemplation. They _ 
prefer the food of a state of bondage to the nourishment of a father’s table. 

§ 198. ‘And the third (part) of the ships were destroyed.’—Ships are 
human means of preservation and safe conduct. They represent another 
class of self-righteous principles, or refuges of lies, to which presumptuous man 
resorts, in view of the retributive action of divine justice. ‘Trusting to ships, 
Ps. xlviil. 7, and trusting to horses, Is. xxx. 16, are both figures of misplaced 
confidence in vain and insufficient means of escape from the wrath to come. 
Ships are also the inventions of men for carrying on trade, and for acquiring 
wealth. Their employment represents the operation.of a mercenary sys- 
tem, in the acquisition of that which is the opposite of the true riches. 
Ships are also a species of ark—as the ships of 'Tarshish, Is. 1. 16, appear 
to be figurative opposites of the ship or ark of Noah, a type of Christ: 
this ark being something of divine construction, built under divine direc- 
tion, and by faith availed of, (Heb. xi. 7 ;) while self-righteous systems are 
ships of human construction. The insufficiency of ships or vessels to with- 
stand a mighty tempest, is typical of the insufficiency of any merit or mer- 
its of man to meet the storm of divine wrath. ‘To be in Christ, is to be in 
the only ark of safety. 

The first sense of ships is sufficiently obvious. The second sense may 
be metaphorical merely as applicable to means of safety in general, or, more 
strictly, as applied to legal observances in a literal sense ; the third or last 
construction being the supposed means of salvation furnished by human 
efforts to supply a meritorious propitiation, in place of that to be found in 
the atonement of Christ. 

The general destruction of earthly objects, manifested at the blowing of 
these trumpets, appears to be alluded to, Zeph. i. 2 and 3, under a figure 
somewhat different: “I will utterly consume all things from off the land, 
saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls 
of the heaven, and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks from the 
wicked.” 


Vs. 10,11. And the third angel sound- Koto τρίτος ἄγγελος ἐσάλπισε, καὶ ἔπε- 


ed, and there fell a great star from heaven, gey 2» roy ovoavoy GoTHO Usya r 

: : ! t ς καιόμεν 
burning as it were a lamp, and it fell θ ps aie: ihe ἢ 
upon the third (part) of the rivers, and up- 
on the fountains of waters; and the name 


c , X37 jeg ‘ ἢ “ 

ὡς λαμπάς, καὶ ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ τὸ τρίτον τῶν 
~ ‘ ~ 

ποταμῶν καὶ ἐπὶ τὰς πηγὰς τῶν ὑδάτων. 


THE THIRD TRUMPET. 41} 


οἵ the star is called Wormwood: and the Καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ ἀστέρος λέγεται 6 ἄψιν- 
third (part) of the waters became worm- ; 
wood ; and many men died of the waters, 
because they were made bitter. 


‘ ~ , > 
Fos. καὶ γίνεται τὸ τρίτον τῶν ὑδάτων εἰς 
ἄψινϑον, καὶ πολλοὶ τῶν ἀνϑρώπων ἀπέϑα- 
~ a U 
γον ἐκ τῶν ὑδάτων, ὅτι ἐπιχράνϑησαν. 


ᾧ 199. ‘And there fell ἃ great star,’ &c.—It is said, Is. Ixii. 1, “ For 
Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not 
rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation 
thereof as a lamp that burneth ;” and Ps. cxix. 105, “Thy word is a lamp 
unto my feet, and a light unto my paths.” 

The star here described is not, like the mountain, itself in a state of 
combustion, as about being consumed ; but it is burning like a lamp, to give 
light ; and is for this reason compared to an immense lamp, throwing forth, 
as we may suppose, its light upon all around it. It resembles a lamp in its 
burning for the purpose of giving light. 

The word translated fell is used in Scripture in a variety of senses. 
There appears to be no necessity for taking it here in the sense of an eject- 
ment from heaven, and consequent degradation. As the manna fell from 
heaven, as the seed sown fell on the ground, and as the Holy Spirit fell 
upon the converts in the times of the apostles, so this star we may suppose 
to come from heaven to earth as a communication of light, to give light 
wherever it is needed. 

It was a great star—an immense lighted lamp—a powerful instrument 
of developing truth, and of detecting falsehood, or of exhibiting errors of doc- 
trine in their true character: the apocalyptic heaven we take to be an exhi- 
bition of the economy of salvation, such as it is in truth. This star from 
heaven is accordingly some important portion of truth emanating from the 
heavenly display. 

§ 200. ‘ And it fell upon the third of the rivers, and upon the fountains 
of waters.’—Rivers and fountains furnish means of ablution and of sus- 
tenance ; but these rivers are rivers of the earth, and these waters are waters 
of the earth. They are supposed means of propitiation, belonging to the 
earthly system ; streams emanating from the earthly scheme of salvation—of 
the earth, earthy—opposites of the pure river of the water of life, Rev. 
xxii. 1, and of the fountain coming forth of the house of the Lord, Joel 
iii. 18. The light of truth thrown upon these self-righteous and legal means 
of propitiation, causes them to appear in their true character. Bitter 
as the waters of the sea are bitter;—bitter as the waters of Marah. 
The terms sweet and bitter,,when applied to water in Eastern phrase- 
ology, being equivalent to our designation of fresh and salt water. ‘These 
earthly waters are thus manifested to be incapable of furnishing the means 
of eternal life, or of cleansing the soul from the pollution of sin. 

We may suppose, for example, in a certain scheme of salvation of a 


112 THE SEVENTH SEAL. 


legal character, the elements of sorrow for sin, resolutions of amendment, 
remorse, self-mortification, endurance of some specific suffering, some self- 
inflicted chastisement ; all or any of them to be set forth as means of pro- 
pitiation. A development of divine truth, brought into contact with this mis- 
taken view, exhibits the exceeding sinfulness of sin ; showing the immensity 
of suffering required to atone for the transgressions of the sinner, and the 
consequent inadequacy of any human means of salvation of the character 
supposed; at the same time showing the extreme bitterness of such a pro- 
cess, the bitterness of the sorrow, of the remorse, and of the suffering 
required. ‘The nature of the pretended propitiation is not changed by this 
development, but its true character is exhibited. The disciple, brought to 
compare the gospel means of ablution (the atonement of Christ) with these 
vain pretensions, perceives his error ; the rivers and waters he trusted in now 
appear to him, as they are, bitter waters, unfit either for cleansing or for 
diet. These refuges of lies are thus swept away, and the now enlightened 
believer is prepared to cast himself without reserve upon the merits of Him 
who is described to be as rivers of water in a dry place, (Is. xxxii. 2.) 

§ 201. ‘ And the name of the star is called Wormwood,’ ( Absinthe.) —So 
named, not as a matter of reproach, but on account of the design and effect 
of its mission. Wormwood itself, when administered as a medicine, strength- 
ens the stomach, and creates an appetite for wholesome food; so the bitter 
quality of this star is benignly intended to create a desire for the bread of 
life—a hungering and thirsting after righteousness. 

The same Greek term, ἄψινϑος, does not occur in the Septuagint, 
(Concord. Trommii,) although our translators have rendered another mixoia, 
bitterness, by wormwood, Lam. iii. 15. We may, perhaps, safely consider 
bitterness, wormwood, and gall, synonymous terms. ‘The people of Israel, 
on account of their idolatrous conduct, were to be fed with wormwood, or 
bitterness, and water of gall was to be given them to drink ; so it is with 
those who reject the sweet water of a Saviour’s atonement, and place their 
trust in some merit of their own bodily or mental suffering. They shut them- 
selves up to a dependence upon these waters of bitterness; nor do they 
perceive the folly of their choice, till enlightened by a further revelation of 
gospel truth. This revelation may appear to them a messenger of bitter- 
ness, by its exhibition of their real position, but it is nevertheless a messenger 
of mercy. The wormwood and water of gall given the Israelites for 
food, were instruments of judicial chastisement: the bitterness of the star 
Absinthe is designed as a medicine, and a preparation for better food ;— 
turning the disciple from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan, the 
accuser, to God, Jehovah our righteousness. 

A sorrow for sin, bitter as it may be, to which the disciple trusts, as to 
ἃ propitiation, is a sorrow of the world that worketh death; but a sorrow 


THE FOURTH TRUMPET. 113 


for sin convincing the disciple of his need of a Saviour, and constraining 
him to fly for safety to the hope set before him in that Saviour’s atonement, 
is a godly sorrow, working a change of mind, a repentance unto life—a 
change not to be changed—a repentance not to be repented of, (¢ 44.) 
It is said of the children of Israel, Exod. i. 14, “ The Egyptians made 
their lives bitter ;” so the position of bondage under the law engenders 
‘bitterness of soul ; yet the law is good and benign, for although it brings 
the knowledge of sin, it is also a leader to bring us to Christ. So the 
passover was to be eaten standing—staff in hand—with bitter herbs, show- 
ing that no time is to be lost between a conviction of sin and a participation 
by faith in the merits of Him who, as a paschal lamb, was slain for us. 
‘The third (part) of the waters became wormwood ;’—that is, the 
waters spiritually understood, became bitter. So of the fountains of the 
waters in the preceding verse: it is not said the third of the fountains, but 
we may take the figure of the fountains, as connected with the waters, to be 
equivalent to the third of the waters—that is, the waters in their most im- 
portant spiritual sense, as the fountain gives its character to the stream. 

‘ And many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.’— 

As the star is not a material star, and as the rivers and fountains are not 
material objects, so neither are the men who died literally men ; nor is the 
death in contemplation a literal death. The men we suppose to be ele- 
ments of the earthly system, manifested to be without life and incapable of 
giving life—the exhibition of the bitterness of these fallacious systems, show- 
ing the deadly character of the elements of the earthly scheme of redemp- 
tion; these mistaken elements of propitiation resulting in condemnation 

instead of deliverance. 


V. 12. And the fourth angel sounded, = Kat 6 τέταρτος ἄγγελος ἐσάλπισε, xat 


and the third (part) of the sun was smitten, ἐπλήγη τὸ τρίτον τοῦ ἡλίου καὶ τὸ τρέτον 
andthe third (part) of the moon, and the «75. cette xad τὸ τρϑέδν τῶν ᾿ἀστέράν, Wa 
third (part) of the stars; so as the third 113 °**""S 9 ER 


(part) of them was darkened, and the day σκοτισϑῇ τὸ τρέτον αὐτῶν, καὶ ἢ ἡμέρα μὴ 
shone not for a third (part) of it, and the φαίνῃ τὸ τρίτον αὑτῆς, καὶ ἡ νὺξ ὁμοίως. 
night likewise. 

‘ And the third (part) of the sun,’ &c.—The more particulars we have of 
this third, the more evident it is that the word part, in our ordinary accepta- 
tion of the term, does not express its meaning. If the third part of the 
heavenly bodies, or of each of them, were eclipsed, it would not prevent the 
day and night shining, they would only shine with one-third less light ; and if 
we suppose them to be darkened one-third of the time successively, so that 
there should be daylight only eight hours instead of twelve, the same con- 
struction could not be applied to what is said of the third of the earth, sea, 
rivers, &c. And as a fountain cannot send forth at the same time both 
bitter water and fresh, so neither can we divide the light of day or night, 


114 ἢ THE SEVENTH SEAL. 
that one-third part of it may be light, and the other two-thirds dark at the 
same time. 

We can only get over this difficulty by supposing this third to refer, as 
we have suggested, (Ὁ 191,) to something like a third sense. The sounding 
of this fourth trumpet we accordingly presume to manifest this whole solar 
system, in its spiritual or third sense, to be devoid of the light of righteousness ; 
the third spoken of being, not the third of the spiritual sense, but the whole 
of the thing represented in that’sense, which is its third, or the third of it. 

We say this solar system, to adapt the expression to our modern views 
of the organization of the sun, moon, and planets ; but in the times of the 
apostles the common opinion was that the sun was created for the earth, 
and not the earth for the sun—that the earth was the centre around which 
the sun and all the heavenly bodies revolved. What we now call the solar, 
would then have been considered the terrestrial system, or the earthly sys- 
tem. Whatever name we give it, however, we suppose the system itself 
to have three senses: the physical or natural sense ; the figurative sense, 
as applied to the Jewish economy, or to the organization of the visible 
church on earth, and matters connected with it ; and thirdly, the spiritual 
sense, as applied to the economy of salvation, of which the Jewish or Levi- 
tical economy, or visible church, is but a type. In this spiritual or third 
sense, however, the system we have in view is not a heavenly, but an 
earthly system ; the difference between the two being as great at least as 
that between the ancient apprehension of this portion of the science of 
astronomy, and our modern views of it. 

This terrene-solar system, as we may call it, exhibits man’s views of the 
economy of salvation: this solar system, in its third or spiritual sense, is an 
exhibition of the economy of salvation, but it is such as man’s judgment 
forms of it. ‘The system has a sum: it has a righteousness belonging to it, 
but it is not the sun of divine righteousness. It supposes in effect a sun of 
self-righteousness: it has a moon, but this moon is supposed to shine with a 
light of its own: and it has its planets, but they are all supposed to be 
independent bodies, shining with their own light. The sun of this system 
is supposed to ¢mpart light, but it is not supposed to wmpute light. As in the 
common apprehension of mankind, while every one is sensible that the 
rays of the sun are required to enlighten this earth, so that its inhabitants 
may pursue their avocations, it scarcely occurs to the minds of any that 
whatever light or splendour this planet may exhibit to other worlds, it is 
not a light of its own, but only the reflected light of the sun to which it is 
indebted for all its beauty. Man, too, individually rejoices in the light of 
the sun, and prides himself upon his outward appearance ; but while admit- 
ting his dependence upon this light to enable him to perform his duties, he 
rarely recollects that he is indebted to the reflected rays of the same source 


THE FOURTH TRUMPET. 115 


of light for all the beauty or perfection of his appearance in the sight of his 
fellow-mortals. 

Analogous with this, we suppose the system of divine things spoken of 
here as the third of the sun, moon, and stars, to be the system or economy of 
salvation in human apprehension—a system admitting the necessity of divine 
aid to enable man to perform his duty, and so far permitting the Deity to 
come in for a share of the glory of what the creature may perform ; but a 
system into which the idea of imputed moral perfection is not allowed to 
enter. ‘The self-righteous have their economy of salvation, their heaven, 
and their sun of righteousness, as they have also their rock and their vine ; 
but more enlightened believers may say of them, their heaven is not as our 
heaven—their sun is not as our sun—nor is their rock as our rock, our 
enemies themselves being judges ; their vine is the vine of Sodom, and the 
fields of Gomorrah—their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter, 
(Deut. xxxii. 31, 32.) | 

This mistaken view of God’s plan of salvation, manifested by the action 
on the stars, we suppose to be void of light, or of the essential ingredient 
of righteousness ; a manifestation resulting from the sounding of the fourth 
trumpet, which sounding it is to be presumed characterizes some peculiar 
development of truth. 

τ § 203. There are three that bear witness in the earth: the spirit, the 
water, and the blood, 1 John v. 8; the water of baptism, the material blood 
of Christ, and his blood, in a spiritual sense, or his atonement. So we may 
say, first, there is a natural or literal sun ; second, a metaphorical sun, Christ 
in the flesh ; and third, a spiritual sun, Jehovah our righteousness : all three 
of these indicating the same divine object in his relation towards the subjects 
of his redeeming mercy—“ For the Lorp God is a sun and shield: the 
Lorp (Jehovah) will give grace and glory,” Ps. Ixxxiv. 11. 

The natural sun does not cease to exist when eclipsed ; he still shines to 
other worlds ; so Jehovah is ever the same, although we may not see him 
as our Sun, clothing us with the light of his perfection, or although we 
may substitute in our vain imaginations some other source of light in his 
place, and even conceive ourselves suns, and thus walk in the sparks of our 
own kindling. In this apocalyptic exhibition we do not suppose the true 
spiritual heaven to be darkened, but it is the heaven of human estimation 
substituted for the true, which is manifested to be as it is without light. The 
same manifestation appears to be contemplated in the declaration, Ezekiel 
xxxii, 7, “I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark ; I will 
cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light: all the 
bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon 
thy land, saith the Lord God.” The prophecy is immediately applicable to 
Egypt, but it is evident that this Egypt must be some object in a spiritual 


116 . THE SEVENTH SEAL. 


sense, of which the literal Egypt was a type; Assyria, Egypt, and Judea, 
being perhaps three successive types of the same exhibition of truth: Is. 
xix. 24. 

We suppose the prediction to allude to the manifestation of darkness, 
rather than to the fact of darkness; because the fact has always been the 
same since the creation of the world. Men have loved darkness rather than 
light ; they have called darkness light ; their minds have been blinded, yet 
while blind they supposed themselves to see. The great change to be 
brought about, is to show them that the light they imagine to be in them is 
darkness. 50, preceding the perfect development of divine truth, the pre- 
paratory step is probably to manifest the existing degree of darkness—as, 
according to Paul, the manifestation of the man of sin is to be the imme- 
diate prelude to the coming of Christ. 

The action of this fourth trumpet thus corresponds with that called for 
Joel ii. 1, 2, “ Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my 
holy mountain : let all the inhabitants of the land tremble ; for the day of the 
Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand ; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a 
day of clouds and of thick darkness ;”’ and 1. 15, “ The sun and the moon 
shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.” So Zeph. 
i. 14-16, “ The great day of the Lord is near—it is near, and hasteth 
greatly—even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry 
there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a 
day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of 
clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the 
fenced cities, and against the high towers.” 

§ 204. ‘The day shone not, and the night likewise,’ or in like manner. 
—While Jesus Christ was in the world, his followers metaphorically had the 
light with them, John xii. 35-46. So, in an exhibition of the economy of 
salvation, where Christ is seen as Jehovah our righteousness, there is light 
in a spiritual sense ; without this there must be a stumbling upon the dark 
mountains—upon stumbling-blocks of error—false foundations of hope. 

The day shone not, because, in the exhibition of this system, a sun of 
righteousness was no longer seen. ‘The night shone not, because the moon, 
representing the church, or the economy of salvation, exhibited no clothing 
of imputed righteousness ; and being without any righteousness in herself, 
was manifested to be, in a spiritual sense, as in a physical, merely an opaque 
body. The stars may be figures of elements of other systems, or they may 
be put for planets, corresponding in character with the moon. We do not 
suppose it necessary here to analyze the figures minutely ; the predominant 
idea calling for attention being that of a total darkness. Day and night 
signifying not a period of time, but a position, intellectually, of light or 
knowledge ; spiritually, of righteousness or moral perfection. So the land 


THE HERALD OF WO. 117 


of darkness, and of the shadow of death, Job x. 22, we suppose to repre- 
sent the position of the sinner under the law, and obnoxious to its penalties, 
as he is in fact, or as he supposes himself to be. The region of the shadow 
of death, and the valley of the shadow of death, expressing the same posi- 
tion of destitution ; to provide against which the sinner can only trust in 
Christ as the Lord his righteousness, enabling him to say with the Psalmist, 
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no 
evil, for thou art with me,” Ps. xxiii. 4. . 

It is not necessary for us to ascribe the state of darkness we have been 
contemplating to any particular period in the history of the church. It is 
something experienced by every convert ere the day dawn, and the day-star 
arise in his heart. Perhaps in a spiritual sense there is as much of this dark- 
ness amongst us of the present day, who say we see, as there was amongst 
those of the middle ages, whose blindness we are apt to look upon with so 
much proud commiseration. 

The sounding of the fourth angel’s trumpet is not said to be followed 
with an appearance of clouds, but, from a comparison of the passage with 
that quoted from Ezekiel, the instrument of obscuration may be presumed 
to be the same. 

Clouds emanate from the earth through the action of the sun, whose 
rays they at the same time intercept. So the misconceptions of revealed 
truth, arising from a literal construction, prevent the discernment of that 
truth. The revelation emanates from on high, but the misconceptions origi- 
nate, like vapours, from an earthly source. Were there no sun, there would 
be no exhalation; and if there were no revelation, there would be no mis- 
construction ; but the same sun which causes the vapour to arise, dissipates 
the cloud: the Sun of righteousness is to rise, with healing in his wings, 
The truth will then be manifested, and God’s exhibition of his plan of 
mercy, may then be apostrophized in the language of the prophet: “ Arise, 
shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For 
darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people ; but the Lord 
shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee,” Is. Ix. 1, 3. 


THE HERALD OF WO. 


V.13. And I beheld, and heard an Καὶ “εἶδον, καὶ ἤκουσα ἑνὸς & ἀετοῦ πετο- 
angel flying through the midst of heaven, μένου ἐν μεσουφαν ἤματι, λέγοντος φωνῇ με- 
saying with a loud voice, Wo, wo, wo, to ἢ 
the inhabiters of the earth, by reason of γαλη" οὐαί, οὐαί, οὐαὶ τοῖς κατοικοῦσιν ἐπὲ 
the other voices of the trumpet of the τῆς γῆς, ἐκ τῶν λοιπῶν φωνῶν τῆς σάλπιγγος 
three angels, which are yet to sound. τῶν τριῶν ἀγγέλων τῶν μελλόντων σαλπί- 


- ζειν. 


ᾧ 205. An angel, or eagle, according to some editions. If an angel, a 
messenger, or ministering spirit ; if an eagle, the figure of a communication 


118 THE SEVENTH SEAL. 


of the Holy Spirit, or Comforter, (Ὁ 128.) The distinction is not material. 
The warning voice is that of some instrument of interpretation, directing at- 
tention to the three subsequent developments as causes of apprehension ; not 
to all beings, but to those denominated “ inhabiters of the earth.” That is, 
as we suppose, elements of the earthly system—doctrinal principles, depend- 
ent upon the earthly scheme of redemption, or upon the earthly view or 
construction of the divine scheme. 

Flying» through the midst of heaven, or through the middle heaven, or 
perhaps we may say the second heaven; that is, the exhibition of divine 
truth afforded by the revelation of the Old and New Testaments, taken in 
their ordinary sense: the spiritual construction of the same revelation being 
equivalent, as we have suggested, ($ 192, 193,) to that which Paul describes 
as the third heaven. 

An angel flying through the mid-heaven, is thus the figure of a spirit 
of interpretation running through the whole Scriptures, and virtually pro- 
nouncing the woes alluded to, as something particularly destructive to these 
earthly elements, or principles ; every preparation for this destruction having 
been previously made, as indicated in the exhibitions attending the sounding 
of the four previous trumpets. The destruction spiritually of the earth, of 
the trees, and the green herbage ; the bloody appearance of the sea, with its 
fatal action upon every thing in it; the destruction of the ships, the bitter- 
ness of the rivers and fountains of the earth, and the deleterious qualities of 
their waters, together with the state of universal darkness, or manifest ab- 
sence of every element of divine righteousness, all show a state of things 
incapable of affording a refuge or shelter. ‘The wrath itself has not yet 
been exhibited against these inhabiters, but the impossibility of escaping has 
been shown—all retreat has been cut off; and in this desperate position, the 
objects “ fitted to destruction” await the impending visitation. 

These inhabiters of the earth we suppose to be the principles of the 
earthly system—the peculiar objects of wrath—principles dependent upon 
this fallacious system, as the inhabitants of the earth are literally dependent 
upon the globe which they inhabit ; and principles dependent upon subordi- 
nate elements, as the inhabitants of this globe are literally dependent upon 
its productions for life and protection. ‘These subordinate principles, or 
subordinate earthly elements, are now taken away. It is therefore against 
the distinguishing and most important of these doctrinal elements, with their 
systems, that the action of coming wrath remains to be exhibited; this 
last class of elements bearing the same comparative relations to the first, 
that the human race bears to the rest of created things belonging to the 
earth, animate and inanimate. We must ascertain, however, from the action 
of these coming woes, who or what are the subjects of this fearful denunci 
ation. 


THE HERALD OF WO. 119 


The heavenly messenger uttering this premonition of the scenes to be 
exhibited, apparently occupies the place of an interlocutory personage in a 
dramatic representation, indicating a pause, or separation ; equivalent to the 
introduction of a new act, not however as of something succeeding the pre- 
vious scenes, but as of something which may have been in operation at the 
same time, although separately contemplated. The parties engaged in the 
new exhibition being different in some measure from those before represented, 
but the action in both cases being contemporaneous. We must suspend our 
judgment on this point, however, for the present. 


17 


120 


THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 


CHAPTER IX. 


FIRST, WO—THE SCORPION LOCUSTS. 


Vs. 1,2. And the fifth angel sounded, 
and I saw a star fall from heaven unto 
the earth: and to him was given the key 
of the bottomless pit. And he opened the 
bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke 
out of the pit, as the smoke of a great fur- 
nace ; and the sun and the air were dark- 
ened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 


V © J 3 , - 
Καὶ ὃ πέμπτος ἄγγελος ἐσάλπισε, καὶ εἰ- 
> > ~ 2 - 
δον ἀστέρα ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ πεπτωκότα εἰς 
. ~ ΝΥ > , > ~ c ἣν ~ ’ 
τὴν γῆν, καὶ ἐδόϑη αὐτῷ ἡ κλεὶς τοῦ φρέ- 
* Sins ” ‘ ' «ὦ 
ατος τῆς ἀβύσσου" καὶ ἤγοιξε τὸ φρέαρ τῆς 
IQ” >) ig > re 
ἀβύσσου. uxt ἀνέβη καπνὸς ἐκ τοῦ φρέατος 
c ‘ A 2 
ὡς καπνὸς χαμίνου μεγάλης, καὶ ἐσκοτίσϑη 
coe c = Jas | 2 ~ ~ ~ 
ὁ ἥλιος καὶ ὁ ἀὴρ ἐκ τοῦ καπνοῦ τοῦ φρέ- 


ατος. 


ᾧ 206. ‘ And the fifth angel sounded.’—Here there appears to be a 
partial change of scenery in the foreground of the exhibition ; the succes- 
sion of trumpet representations being resumed. 

1 saw a star fall,’ &c.—As we noticed, in remarking upon the star 
Wormwood, the word translated fall does not necessarily involve the idea 
of degradation, (ὃ 199.) The expression occurs in the Scriptures only in 
these two passages. A star, an instrument of light, comes from heaven to 
earth. A revelation from the heavenly system is brought into contact, or 
into juxtaposition, with the earthly system. »Some important principle of 
interpretation, perhaps, is evolved from the heavenly exhibition and applied 
to the earthly, so as to become the means of exposing certain errors or falla- 
cies of this latter scheme. 

‘To him was given the key.—That is, to the star, the heavenly mes- 
senger, not to the fifth angel. As already suggested, ($$ 37, 89,) we sup- 
pose a key to be the figure of a power to open or reveal a mystery. To 
this star or instrument of revelation is given, allotted, or committed the func- 
tion of developing the mystery, figuratively termed the bottomless pit ; show- 
ing the destructive character, or baleful tendency of its principles. 

‘Of the bottomless pit,’ or verbatim, of the pit of the bottomless ; the 
shaft of the profound deep, or infinite deep, or deep without a bottom.— . 
The Greek word φρέαρ, signifies a pit of any kind ; the word ἀβύσσος, con- 
nected with it in the genitive, is expressive of something without a bottom ; 
of which there is of course no end to the depth, (Rob. Lex. 2, 114,) infi- 
nite profunditatis vorago, ex a priv. and Ion. βύσσος pro βύϑος fundum, 
(bottom,) Suiceri. Lex. We have adopted the term abyss in English, ap- 
plying it to any supposed bottomless gulf. The same Greek term, Luke 
vill. 31, expresses a lake or sea; and Rom. x. 7, the place of the dead, or 


THE SCORPION LOCUSTS. 121 


the opposite of heaven. So we sometimes speak of the ocean, from its im- 
mense depth, hyperbolically, as the abyss, or bottomless. In the Old Test- 
ament the Hebrew term, expressed in our common version by the deep, 
the depths, and sometimes the sea, is rendered in the Septuagint by abyss 
and abysses, as an equivalent, or something more than an equivalent of the 
term sea or seas, (ϑάλασσα.) 

The compound term pit of the abyss, occurs nowhere else in the sacred 
writings. The Greek term rendered pit here, is employed in common 
with λάκκος in the Septuagint, for the rendering of a Hebrew term signifying 
pit, well, and cistern. We must judge therefore of the pit, or shaft, by that 
which is connected with it. Here the pit of the abyss is the passage lead- 
ing to that which is without a bottom; the key of the pit corresponding 
with the key of a door or gate. 

A pit is the opposite of a rock or mountain ; and a pit leading down to 
a chasm of infinite depth, or without a bottom, must be the converse of a 
mount, or hill, or any structure having a solid foundation. . As the abyss or 
deep is an opposite of heaven, (Rom. x. 7,) so the key of the entrance of 
the abyss may be considered an opposite of the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven ; and as we suppose the kingdom of heaven to be a figure of the 
system or economy of salvation, so we may suppose this abyss to be put for 
an opposite system—a system of salvation affording no basis or foundation— 
a system placing the disciple in the position of one who is in a bottomless 
pit without a foothold, without a rock or stone upon which to build his 
hope of escape. As the shaft of a dry well or a miry pit is the opposite 
of a well of living water, so an abyss is a figure the opposite of that of a 
city which hath foundations, (Heb. xi. 10 ;) or perhaps, more strictly, the pit 
is an opposite of the city, and the abyss the opposite of the foundations of 
the city ; Christ being the foundation of the city system, and the pit system 
being entirely bottomless. It is of course a system which does not exhibit 
Christ as the foundation, stone, or rock, upon which the disciple’s faith is to 
rest. 

The position peculiar to a system of this character must be one of legal 
condemnation, without a hope of escape ; the miserable occupant of this 
position being out of Christ, under the law, obnoxious to its penalties, with- 
out a righteousness of his own, convicted of sin, and without a Saviour, 
To such a peculiar position repeated allusion is made in the Old Testa- 
ment, in view of the gracious provision of redeeming mercy : ‘“ He keepeth 
back his soul from the pit ;” “ Deliver him from going down to the pit: J 
have found a ransom,” Job xxxiii. 18 and 24; “ He brought me out of the 
horrible pit, and set my foot upon a rock,” Ps. xl. 2; and Is. li. 1, “Look 
to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged’’—look back to the desperate 
condition in which you were placed by nature when, under the law, depend- 


122 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 


ent upon your own merits, there was no intercessor, and none to help, (Is. 
lix. 16.) 

§ 207. ‘ And he opened the bottomless pit..—This mystery of iniquity 
ls now being developed; its principles are to be brought forth, and their 
true nature exhibited. This exhibition, too, constitutes the first wo—a wo 
falling upon the inhabiters of the earth, or upon the elements of the earthly 
view of the economy of divine government. 

‘ And there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace.’ 
—The peculiar employment of a furnace is that of testing the purity of 
metals: ‘“ The fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; but the Lord 
trieth the hearts,” Prov. xvii. 5. The feet of the Son of man, Rev. i. 15, 
appeared as if they burned in a furnace. So the bush (Ex. 11. 2) burned 
with fire, but was not consumed,—as truth may be subjected to the most 
powerful scrutiny without being impaired by it. 

The appearance of smoke from a furnace is an indication that the pro- 
cess of trial by combustion is in operation. The smoke of a great furnace 
indicates the magnitude of this trial. The fire which is to try every man’s 
work, (1 Cor. iii. 18,) we may suppose to be here employed. Not that the 
pit itself is a furnace, but that there is a trial going on with the elements of 
this pit system, which is like that of a furnace. We are not obliged to sup- 
pose this trial to have just commenced as the pit was opened. It may have 
been previously in operation, but the unlocking and opening of the pit shows 
now what was before concealed. The tares were suffered to grow with the 
wheat until the harvest, that the characteristics of both becoming more promi- 
nent and decided, as they advanced to maturity, the necessary discrimina- 
tion, at the proper time, might more easily be made. So, while the advo- 
cates of truth are lamenting the prevalence of erroneous views and doc- 
trines, the test of the divine crucible is being applied. The process of dis- 
crimination is going on, although the manifestation of the process and of its 
results may be reserved for a distant period. 

ᾧ 208. ‘ And the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke 
of the pit..—Smoke is the unavoidable accompaniment of a trial by fire, and 
where there is a great smoke all objects of vision beyond it are necessarily 
obscured. During the trial undergone by the elements of this pit system, 
in the nature of the case there is an obscuration of the heavenly bodies. 
This, perhaps, is one of the means requisite for rendering the elements of 
the pit system more prominent and distinguishable; as we often find it to 
be not till the effect of certain errors has reached an extreme in the con- 
cealment of truth, that we are fully convinced of their mischievous ten- 
dency. 

‘The sun was darkened.’—The emanation from the bottomless pit sys- 
tem, while under trial, manifests its tendency to obscure the Sun of right- 


THE SCORPION LOCUSTS. 123 


eousness—to hide from the eye of faith the important truth that the Lord 
God is a sun and shield. The Saviour no longer appearing as Jehovah our 
righteousness, the disciple sees no refuge from the terrors of the law ; and 
thus the smoke of the pit and the smoke of Sinai correspond in their results, 
(Ex. xx. 18.) 

The atmosphere is darkened.—This emanation, or exhalation, from 
the pit affects the medium through which heavenly things or the truths of 
the Gospel are contemplated. The exhibition of the economy of grace is 
not perceptible in consequence of, and during the emanation from, the pit. 

This darkening of the heavens corresponds with the effect produced 
by the star Wormwood, as also with the results of the opening of the sixth 
seal, (Rev. vi. 12, 13,) showing these changes not to be successive and 
accumulative, as following one upon another, but to be each of them dis- 
tinct and independent pictures. We are not to imagine the sun first black 
as sackcloth of hair, and then, in addition to this, one third of it to be smit- 
ten. and then to be further darkened by the smoke; but we are to take 
each of these representations as separate illustrations, not immediately con- 
nected with each other, although perhaps applicable to the same truths— 
each seal, each trumpet, &c., furnishing a series of figures of its own. 

The Greek term ao, translated air, is said to be applicable especially to 
the thick atmosphere encompassing the earth, in contradistinction to the 
pure air αἰϑὴρ, (ether,) supposed to pervade the celestial regions beyond the 
attraction of this material globe, (Jones’s Lex.,) our own gross atinosphere 
representing, perhaps, an imperfect medium of contemplating revealed truth 
—a literal construction, or a mode of interpretation encumbered with literal 
and erroneous apprehensions. Accordingly, we find the spirit working in 
the children of disobedience denominated, Eph. ii. 2, the prince of the 
power of the air, ἀέρος, the foul atmosphere. This medium of vision, 
encumbered as it is in its own nature, is rendered still more dense by the 
exhalations from the pit. 


V. 3. And there came out of the smoke Kat ἐκ τοῦ καπνοῦ ἐξῆλϑον ἀκρίδες εἰς 
locusts upon the earth: and unto them τὴν γῆν, καὶ ἐδόϑη αὐταῖς ἐξουσία ὡς ἔχου- 
was given power, as the scorpions of the By depiGlo OL oxebntbe’ rie Hee 
earth have power. Ἡ ἘΣ ΠΣ 

- 


§ 209. ‘And there came out of the smoke locusts, &c.—Here we 
have the characteristics of the principles of the pit system, as they are 
evolved by the refming process whence the smoke originates. The princi- 
ples of this bottomless system are tried as with fire—subjected to a test— 
to ascertain their true character, nature, and tendency. ‘They are permit- 
ted to operate, and power is given them to develope themselves, that their 
peculiar features may be fully exhibited. 

The locust was one of the plagues of Egypt; it was probably an 


" 


194 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 


unclean animal Levitically—a flying creeping thing with four feet, an abom- 
ination. The locust permitted to be eaten, being designated in the Hebrew 
by a different appellation from that given to the destructive plague,* and 
being elsewhere rendered in our common version by the term grasshopper, 
Ley. xi. 23. Locusts were remarkable, it is said, not only for their voracity 
and vast numbers, but also for their infectious touch, and the deleterious effects 
of their dead bodies upon the atmosphere. Hence they have been supposed 
to represent in Revelation “authors or teachers of false doctrines, who infect 
others by distilling their poisonous doctrines into them,” (Cruden.) We sup- 
pose them rather to represent the elements or principles of such doctrines, 
in conformity with our general rule of interpretation. Not that these false 
principles are strictly and literally as multitudinous as an army of locusts, 
but that they are sufficiently so to admit of the hyperbole in a description 
of them. 

Egypt was a land of bondage ; as such it was a type of the position of 
man by nature under the law, and dependent upon his own merits. A 
locust plague apparently is designed to represent a spiritual plague or legal 
consequence peculiar to this position of bondage. As an unclean animal, 
the locust may represent certain pretended merits of man resulting from 
legal observances ; as an unclean animal armed with a sting, they repre- 
sent these elements of merit, involving, as they necessarily must,’the sting 
of death or sin, the strength or power of which is in the law. 

‘ And unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have 
power.’—The natural action of the locust is upon the vegetable productions 
of the earth, injuring man only indirectly, by depriving him of the means 
of sustaining life—acting upon the green covering of the earth as the moth 
acts upon the woollen garment, showing its corruptibility. The one figure 
illustrating the insufficiency of all human merits as a means of eternal life ; 
the other the nothingness of every righteousness of human fabric as a gar- 
ment of salvation. 

But besides their natural action, a special power is given to these locusts 
—a power compared to that of the scorpions of the earth. 

Scorpions are bred and nourished amidst the corruption of the earth. 
They are generally found under and amidst stony rubbish and old ruins. 
Their power is in their sting—deprived of this, they are harmless animals, 
incapable even of self-defence; but their sting is exceedingly venomous, 
producing most excruciating, torturmg pain: the wound not generally 
mortal, but capable of becoming so, especially where there is a predisposition 
to mortification, unless a remedy be speedily provided. In this respect 


* M|IN “Axois, Locusta, Ex. X. 337 ἀκρίς Locusta etiam cicada, Lev. xi. 22. 
Trommii. Con, Tom. I. 62. 


THE SCORPION LOCUSTS. 125 


they resemble the serpent—the venom of the sting being the same in kind, 
but differing in degree. A difference perhaps comparable to that between the 
action of the conscience of a criminal before he is brought to justice, and 
the action of the public prosecutor in bringing about his apprehension and 
condemnation. 

Scorpions, as generated from the earth, and drawing the poison of their 
stings from the earth, represent principles of the ‘earthly system, drawing 
their tendency to condemnation from the system to which they belong. 
The sting of death is sin: the sting of the great serpent (the accuser) re- 
sults in death or legal condemnation. The sting of the scorpion conscience 
tortures and torments, although it may not produce condemnation till the 
accuser’s power is brought into action. The strength of sin is the law: 
there would be no sting or power to destroy in sin if there were no law; 
because without law there could be no transgression, and sin, strictly speaking, 
is the transgression of the law. The earthly system we suppose to be a legal 
system ; the scorpion principle is an element of this earthly system, and draws 
his power to sting, torture, and torment, from the legality of that system. 

These locust-principles, therefore, originating from the bottomless pit 
system, have the power of bringing the law to act upon the conscience— 
convincing of sin, showing the sinner’s destitution of righteousness or merit 
—producing a state of torture next only in degree to that of actual con- 
demnation. To them was given, that is, to them it was allotted—such was the 
It was designed to manifest that these bottomless pit 
showing these principles to be in 


part assigned them. 
elements possess in fact this legal sting ; 
effect of the same character and tendency as those of the legal dispensation, 
in the most extensive acceptation of the term. The subject affected by 
this scorpion sting is operated upon as an individual under the law is affected 
by the power of accusation: the elements of corruption within him, and the 
accusing power of the principles of his own earthly system, as locusts mani- 
festing his destitution of all merit, depriving him of every refuge ; and, as 
scorpions, bringing him into a position of positive transgression, threatening 
him with immediate legal death or condemnation, 


Vs. 4,5. And it was commanded them 
that they should not hurt the grass of the 
earth, neither any green thing, neither 
any tree; but only those men which have 
pot the seal of God in their foreheads. 
And to them it was given that they should 
not kill them, but that they should be 
tormented five months: and their tor- 
ment was as the torment of a scorpion, 
when he striketh a man. 


ws Pre > ~ « ‘ = , 
Kai ἐῤῥέϑη αὑταῖς, ἵνα μὴ ἀδικήσωσι 
‘ , ~ ~ > ‘ ~ 
TOY χόρτον τῆς γῆς, οὐδὲ πᾶν χλωρόν, οὐδὲ 
~ ’ > ‘ . > , 
πᾶν δένδρον, εἰ μὴ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, οἵτινες 
> ΕΣ , ~ ~ ~ ~ 
οὐκ ἔχουσι τὴν σφραγῖδα τοῦ ϑεοῦ ἐπὶ τῶν 
, c ~ > ΄ ~ ’ 
μετώπων αὐτῶν. Καὶ ἐδόϑη αὐταῖς, ἵνα 
' > » ΄ > 2 «κ᾿ 
μὴ ἀποκτείνωσιν αὐτούς, ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα βασανι- 
~ ~ ’ c 
σϑῶσι μῆνας πέντε" καὶ ὃ βασανισμὸς av- 
~ © ‘ ° 
τῶν ὡς βασωνισμὸς σχορπίου, ὅταν παίσῃ 
ε 
ἄνϑρωπον, 


126 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 


ᾧ 210 ‘And it was commanded them that they should not hurt,’ &c. 
—The term rendered hurt, we have already shown to signify something the 
opposite of justifying, (ὃ 174,) or of manifesting a person or thing to be 
just. We suppose the action of these locusts to represent the operation of 
the principles of a certain system in showing the incompatibility of other 
principles with the process of justification ; these other principles being 
those figuratively denominated inhabiters of the earth—principles of the 
earthly system, the insufficiency of which is shown by the operation of the 
elements of the bottomless pit system. Of these mhabiters of the earth, 
however, the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed ones are excep- 
tions ; all the rest spoken of as men are subject to the action of the locusts, 
( 175 ;) although the natural propensity of these locusts to destroy vege- 
table productions is restramed, and their force is directed only against things 
figuratively designated as men not sealed. We are not to suppose the pro- 
hibition as to the grass and every green thing to exhibit these productigns 
of the earth as subjects of favour. At the first trumpet’s sound all green 
grass was burnt up, under the visitation of hail and fire mingled with 
blood cast upon the earth. This prohibition, therefore, only shows the 
action of the locust-principles to be configed to certain objects, leaving 
other unsealed objects equally fitted for destruction subject to the action of 
other instruments of judicial visitation. ‘The part assigned to the locust was 
to operate upon one class of beings only ; we must look elsewhere to ascer- 
tain the fate of any other class or classes.* 

‘And it was given to them that they should not slay them, but that 
they should be tormented (tortured) five months.’—The part allotted to the 
locusts was not to destroy, but only to try or to put to the test. ‘The word 
translated torment signifying the kind of torture used in extorting confession 
from accused persons, when subjected to the rack ; the term bemg derived 
from the name of a stone (βάσανος, lapis Lydius) employed in testing the 
purity of metals, indicating the alloy with which they may he mixed, (Rob. 
Lex. 101.) 


* Some editions of the Greek have the word μόνους after ἀνϑρώπους, and Leusden 
yenders the passage nisi homines solos, except the men only ; while Beza’s rendering 
corresponds better with that of our common version: Sed ipsis est dictum ne lederent 
gramen terre, 6. ; sed tantum homines qui non haberent signum Dei in Srontibus suis, 
—that they should not injure the grass of the earth, &c., but only the men which had 
not the sign of God in their foreheads. The difference is not material, so long as we 
consider the term men to be figurative as well as the terms grass, green things, 
trees, &c.; and it seems unreasonable to suppose, that in the same divinely inspired 
composition, vegetables, birds, beasts, serpents, monsters, and even women, are 
uniformly figures, while the term men and its equivalents are to he literally inter- 
preted. 


THE SCORPION LOCUSTS. 127 


‘Five months.’—This power to torture or to try was to continue five 
months, a term supposed by some to signify a chronological period in the 
history of Christendom, equal to one hundred and fifty years ; correspond- 
ing, it is said, with the incursion of the Saracens under Mahomet. Perhaps 
there would be no difficulty in finding other periods of literal torment, or of 
similar incursions, of an equal duration, either in political or ecclesiastical 
history. This, however, may not be necessary; the term may be only 
a mystic term—a key of correspondence with some other figure or scrip- 
tural type—as this period of five months’ trial by the locust power corres- 
ponds with the five months during which the waters “ prevailed upon the 
earth,” (Gen. vii. 24,) as also with the time during which the waters 
were retiring from the face of the earth. If, however, these five months 
designate, literally, a period of time in the history of the world, we may 
presume it is not to be understood till the final development of truth takes 
place. It is not for us to know the times and the seasons, (Acts i. 7.) 

The periods of time mentioned in the Apocalypse have not like those 
of the prophet |Daniel an epoch assigned them, a from and after, from 
which we may date their commencement; and the termination of a dura- 
tion, of which the commencement may be assigned ad labitum to meet one 
event or another, can afford no proof by which to verify the fulfilment of 
a prediction. Besides, the expiration of Daniel’s periods affords proofs, cal- 
culated as they may be from their dates, of the identity of the coming of 
Christ in the flesh, with the advent of him who, as the Jews well under- 
stood, “‘ was to come.” But there cannot be the same proof required of the 
second coming of the Saviour, for, from all that is said of that event, it is plain 
that whenever it takes place there can be no misjudging respecting it: “ As 
the lightning that cometh out of the one part under heaven, and shineth unto 
the other part, so will the coming of the Son of man be.” Until this is in 
some sense apparent, we may be confident that the time has not arrived ; 
the assurance being repeatedly given in the Scriptures that the day of the 
Lord, whenever it does come, will come as a thief in the night,—suddenly 
and unexpectedly. ‘There seems to be a degree of presumption in assum- 
ing dates and calculating periods, to defeat if possible this declared purpose 
of the Almighty ; we incline therefore to the opinion that these five months 
are not a portion of the history of the world, but that they have some other 
signification, in respect to which we must for the present suspend our 
opinions. 

§ 211. ‘And their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he 
striketh a man.’—It is said of the scorpion that it fixes itself violently with 
its mouth and with its feet upon those whom it wounds, so that it cannot 
be plucked off without great difficulty. The figure in this respect may 
represent the almost fatal adhesion of certain deductions from legal princi- 


128 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 


ples to human pretensions of merit ; trying their validity, and, if not utterly 
destroying them, showing at least their corrupt tendency—their inability to 
stand in the fiery trial, alluded to 1 Peter i. 7, and 1 Cor. iii. 13, destined 
to try every man’s work. 

(1 beheld,” said Jesus to his disciples, ‘Satan (the accuser) as light- 
ning fall from heaven. Behold, I give you power to tread on serpents and 
scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any 
means hurt you,” (Luke x. 18, 19,) οὐδὲν ὑμᾶς οὐ μὴ ἀδικήσει. To see Satan 
fall from heaven is equivalent to seeing the triumph of the economy of grace 
over the legal dispensation ; and the power of the apostles to tread on ser- 
pents and scorpions unharmed, may be taken as a figure of the power of 
the elements of the gospel (sealed ones) to overcome those principles of 
legal condemnation, arising from the transgression, which constitute the 
sting of death ;—that action of sin which must result in spiritual death. 
Corresponding with the same figure, the disciple adopted in Christ, by virtue 
of his imputed merits, triumphs over all the power of the enemy, having 
the same encouragement for his faith and confidence as that given to the 
prophet: ‘“ And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid 
of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell 
among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their 
looks,”’ Ezek. 11. 6. 


V.6. And in oe cen ΕΗ men Καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις ζητήσουσιν 
seek death, and shall not find it: and οὗ ἄνϑρωποι τὸν ϑάνατον, καὶ οὐ μὴ εὕ- 
shall desire to die, and death shall flee ° ‘ εἴ 


> ΄ Π ~ 
Mol αὐτόν ° χαὶ ἐπιϑι' ησουσιν ἀποϑανεῖν 
from them f ᾿ 


Ny Tee c ΄ ee) 2 
καὶ φευξεται ὁ ϑανατος ἀπ QUTWY. 


ᾧ 212. ‘And in those days,’ &c.—This is a strong hyperbolical descrip- 
tion of a state of mental distress incident to the plague of the scorpion 
sting, and indicating an extremity of trial. The action of this visitation is 
not final ; it appears rather preparative for something else. ‘The scorpion- 
locust power was directed against but one class of objects ; even the mem- 
bers of this class were not to'be destroyed, they were only to be tried; a 
part of their trial or torture appears, however, to have consisted in a fearful 
looking for of something still more to be deprecated: ‘‘ Men’s hearts failing 
them for fear, and looking after those things which are coming on the earth,” 
(Luke xxi. 26.) 

In a literal sense, those exposed to the fire and sword of the Saracen 
could hardly be said to have desired death without being able to find it ; 
and, in a spiritual sense, the state of condemnation figuratively spoken of 
as death, cannot be supposed to have been at any period desired or sought 
for. As to the desire of annihilation, it may be said to be and to have been 
always common with every conyicted sinner without a better hope, It 


THE SCORPION LOCUSTS. 129 


may be “an after-thought—a wish unborn till virtue dies ;” but where 
sin is, virtue has died; and hence the after-thought. This is not a pecu- 
liarity, however, to be confined to five months, or to one hundred and 
fifty years ; it has existed ever since our first parents strove to hide them- 
selves amidst the trees of the garden. 

The locusts from the smoke of the pit were not literally animals bear- 
ing that name, nor were they literally armed with the sting of other animals 
termed scorpions, nor were those stung or Aurt by them literally animals 
termed men or human beings. This, we think, must be evident, if we sup- 
pose the figures of divine revelation to be consistent with each other; and 
we can conceive of no other construction to be put upon the passage, than 
that these tortured beings are principles of self-rightousness, tried, as on the 
rack to the utmost, by elements of legal condemnation springing from the 
bottomless pit. 


Vs. 7, 8. And the shapes of the locusts 
se like unto horses prepared unto bat- 

e; and on their heads (were) as it were 
crowns like gold, and their faces (were) 
as the faces of men. And they had hair 
as the hair of women, and their teeth 
were as (the teeth) of lions. 


Καὶ τὰ ὁμοιώματα τῶν ἀχρίδων ὅμοια 
ἵπποις ἡτοιμασμένοις εἰς πόλεμον, καὶ ἐπὲ 
τὰς κεφαλὰς αὐτῶν ὡς στέφανοι ὅμοιοι χρυ- 
σῷ, καὶ τὰ πρόζωπα αὐτῶν ὡς πρόςωπα On’ 
ϑρώπων, καὶ εἶχον τρίχας ὡς τρίχας γυναι- 
κῶν, καὶ οἵ ὀδόντες αὐτῶν ὡς λεόντων ἦσαν, 


§ 213. ‘And the shapes,’ &c.—The general appearance, (ὁμοίωμα.) 
The locusts resembled war-horses in their state of preparation for battle. 
The allusion is probably to the ancient custom of covering the horse as well 
as the rider with armour. Horses, at the same time, as well as their armour, 
are human means of safety or of power to contend with an enemy ; and 
thus represent principles of self-righteousness, upon which some may expect 
to justify themselves or to contend with the requisitions of the law ; as it 
is said, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember 
the name of the Lord our God,” Ps. xx. 7. So, also, they may represent 
principles or legal elements acting against the self-righteous by their ten- 
dency to enforce the requisitions of the law: “ Those that take the sword 
shall perish by the sword,’ (Matt. xxvi. 52 ;) so those who depend upon 
legal elements for their justification, must by the same elements meet their 
condemnation. We may say metaphorically of a polemic, with his array of 
arguments, that he appears as a war-horse equipped for battle ; and so we 
say spiritually of these scorpio-locust principles from the abyss system with 
their legal furniture armed for the contest. 

‘On their heads were as it were crowns like gold ;’ ozépavoi—the 
kind of crown given to victors at the games. ‘The crowns appeared like 
gold, and in a certain respect, perhaps, were justly entitled to this appearance. 

The action of these locust-principles, we are to remember, is against 
other principles represented by inhabiters of the earth, not having the seat 


130 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 


or mark of God in their foreheads. ‘They war against principles not 
belonging to God’s plan of redemption, as set forth and testified to by the 
one hundred and forty-four thousand elements of the Old and New Testa- 
ment revelations—the twelve multiplied by twelve, (ᾧ 175.) Gold we 
suppose to represent truth, and a crown of gold to be the token of triumph 
in the cause of truth. These locust-principles appear crowned as victors 
in the cause of legal truth, although they are not the champions of gospel 
truth. The law is good when it is used lawfully ; so these elements of the 
law, bringing the scorpion-sting to act upon the elements of self-righteous- 
ness, appear crowned as successful champions of truth. The elements of 
the bottomless pit system, represented by these locusts, are victorious in 
their contest with the elements of the earthly system ; they would not be 
so, if they were contending, with principles of the heavenly system of 
sovereign grace. 

‘ And their faces were as the faces of men.’—The human face we have 
already supposed (ᾧ 128) to indicate wisdom, reason, &c. These faces of the 
locusts may be the characteristic of wisdom generally, or of human wisdom 
only. The law in its strictest sense bears the stamp of divine wisdom, and, 
lawfully applied, this wisdom is manifest in it. So the legal elements of 
the abyss system, crowned as they are with legal truth, and employed 
against the fallacious elements of self-justification, must bear the character- 
istic of divine wisdom. On the other hand, the same elements of legality, 
if employed to sustain a system of self-righteousness, would bear the stamp 
of human wisdom ; for, strange as it may appear, man’s wisdom favours 
most the elements of divine government least favourable to sinful humanity. 
Here, however, the locust-principles, operating against the inhabiters of the 
earth, representing elements of legal truth acting upon fallacious elements 
of a human system, must bear the stamp of divine wisdom, or of wisdom in 
the general sense of the term. 

ᾧ 214. ‘They had hair as the hair of women.’—The hair of women is 
given them for a covering or veil, (1 Cor. xi. 15,) symbolical of the cover- 
ing of righteousness with which the disciple must be arrayed, or must be 
accounted to be arrayed, ere he can appear in the presence of his God. 
Such a covering of righteousness is at the same time a protection and a 
glory ; woman, in this respect, is the image or symbol of the man. Her 
hair, it is said, was given for a covering: God gave it to her; and so the 
ascription or imputation of divine righteousness (the only true righteousness) 
to man, is the gift of God. ‘The hair of the Nazarite was a similar figure. 
The disciple, though strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, 
loses his strength when out of this position ; because, out of this position, 
he is without the imputation of his Redeemer’s righteousness, and is no 
longer capable of meeting the requisitions of the law. Long hair, except 


THE SCORPION LOCUSTS. 131 


in a Nazarite, is, as it is said 1 Cor. xi. 14, a shame to man; because man 
in this particular is an image or symbol of the Redeemer, bearing the same 
relation towards the woman that Christ bears towards his redeemed ; for 
which reason also the disciple is to come boldly to the throne of grace— 
without hair, uncovered—trusting to his adoption in Him in whose name he 
comes. But if a man wear long hair, he places himself as a symbol in the 
position of a woman, or, figuratively speaking, he makes a woman of himself; 
an act of effeminacy to which there is in the mind of man an almost universal 
repugnance. 

If the disciple, instead of coming boldly to the throne of grace, trusting 
in the name and merits of his Saviour, come in his own name, trusting in 
his own merits, he is as a man glorying in his own long hair—trusting in a 
righteousness of his own—in a covering emanating from his own strength. 
So Absalom gloried in his hair, which proved to be the instrument of his 
destruction. 

As these locusts represent legal principles, so their hair or covering 
represents a legal righteousness, or that righteousness which the law requires. 
They exhibit this necessary covering as a standard under which they con- 
tend—a formidable equipment intimidating their adversaries. If these locusts 
contended on the side of the earthly system, we should consider their long 
hair a symbol of self-righteousness ; but they contend against the earthly 
system of self-justification, and the hair of woman is a symbol of the legiti- 
mate and proper covering or veil—a legitimate and proper righteousness. 
Their exhibition of this hair, therefore, is a portion of their martial array, 
equivalent to their exhibition of the legal position—the soul that sinneth, it 
shall die. 

‘And their teeth were as the teeth of lions. —The lion we have 
assumed to be a figure of the element of justice, (ᾧ 126.) The teeth of the 
lion may be said to be the power of justice, capable of destroying the 
criminal—the sinner; as, in the divine denunciation against a rebellious 
people, it is said, Deut. xxxii. 24, “They shall be burnt with hunger, and 
devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction. I will also send 
the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.” 

As these legal elements of the pit thus showed the righteousness re- 
quired by the law, so they exhibited the power and right of divine justice 
to exact the life of the sinner, to destroy where this righteousness is 
wanting ; as it is said, Joel i. 6, “For a nation is come up upon my land, 
strong and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath 
the cheek teeth of a young lion.” So the Psalmist, in allusion to the same 
action of legal elements exclaims, ‘‘ Break their teeth, Ὁ God, in their mouth ; 
break out the great teeth of the young lions ;” and Ps. exxiv. 6, “ Blessed 
be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped 


΄ 


132 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 


as a bird out of the snare of the fowler: the snare is broken, and we are 
escaped.” All these passages confirm the supposition that the teeth of 
lions, such as possessed by. these locust-principles, represent elements of 
divine justice, adverse indeed to the salvation of the sinner, but still more 
adverse to every pretension of that sinner to self-justification. In this con- 
test the teeth of the lion remain unbroken: they are broken only by the 
power of sovereign grace—by that exercise of mercy which finds a ransom 
for the victim of justice. 


Vs. 9, 10. And they had breast-plates, 


v } καὶ εἶχον ϑώρακας ὡς ϑώρακας σιδηροῦς, 
as it were breast-plates of iren; and the 


καὶ ἢ φωνὴ τῶν πτερύγων αὐτῶν ὡς φωνὴ 


sound of their wings (was) as the sound 
of chariots of many horses running to 
battle. And they had tails like unto scor- 
pions, and there were stings in their tails: 
and their power (was) to hurt men five 


ἁρμάτων ἵππων πολλῶν τρεχόντων εἰς πό- 
λεμον. Kai ἔχουσιν οὐρὰς ὁμοίας aa 
πίοις, καὶ κέν Too ἥν ἐν ταῖς οὐραῖς αὐτῶν, 
καὶ ἡ ἐξουσία αὐτῶν ἀδικῆσαι τοὺς ἀνϑρώ- 


months. πους μῆνας πέντε. 


ᾧ 215. ‘And they had breast-plates.’—Ogaf, armour for the body, 
covering the breast and back, (Rob. Lex. 309.) Old English, habergeon, 
a coat of mail, (Webster,) a complete covering for the trunk of the body— 
a cuirass. 

‘As it were breast-plates of iron.’—Iron is a metal proverbially dis- 
tinguished in Scripture, as well as in common parlance, for its strength ; it 
is however an earthy material. The breast-plate of the locust is not the 
breast-plate of imputed divine righteousness, (Eph. vi. 14.) It is a legal 
breast-plate—the righteousness required by the law from all who are under 
the law. The legal principle in its contest with the elements of self-justifi- 
cation has its strength in the rigid exactions of law ; as if the accuser him- 
self appealed to this principle of divine justice to urge the condemnation of 
all those depending upon their own merits—the habiters of the earth. 

‘ And the sound of their wings,’ &c.—The sound of the onset of a mul- 
titude of chariots and horses must be an alarming sound, calculated to strike 
the opposing ranks with panic and fear. ‘Terrific sounds are one of the 
characteristics of legal denunciation ; as, in the giving of the law from Sinai, 
there were voices and sounds, as well as thunderings and lightnings. ‘Thus 
we may say the charge of these locust-principles upon the elements of the 
earthly systems possesses the peculiar characteristic of the terrors of the law. 

‘And they had tails like unto scorpions..—The prophet that speaketh 
lies is said to be the tail, Is. ix. 15, and the devil (the accuser) is declared 
to be a liar, and the father of lies, John viii. 44. A prophet, as we have 
noticed, is an interpreter of the divine will or purpose—a prophet or inter- 
preter of revelation, representing the purpose of God as a system of condem- 
nation, acts the part of the accuser; while he is at the same time the 
father of a lie in respect to this misinterpretation of the economy of 


. THE SCORPION LOCUSTS. 133 


grace, to which he attributes a sting of death belonging only to the legal 
dispensation. In allusion to this peculiarity, perhaps, it is represented that 
these locust-principles from the bottomless pit system, not only have the 
sting of the scorpion, but also that the tail is the seat of the poison, the 
instrument by which the sting of death (sin) is brought into action. 

«And stings were in their tails,’—or, the stings were in their tails.— 
There is no article in the original, but it may be supplied with propriety ; 
as the sting spoken of is no doubt the scorpion power said to be given to 
these locusts in the third verse, and their instrument of torment or torture, 
spoken of in the fifth verse, already noticed, (¢ 209.) 

‘ And their power was to hurt (ἀδικῆσαι) men five months.’—The hurt 
being the same as that supposed to be the opposite of justification. The 
whole equipment of these locust-principles exhibits them as legal elements 
arrayed with all the power of the law, except that they do not enforce con- 
demnation. They are strong in the law, and exhibit the terrors of the law, 
but they do not exhibit the requisitions of the law as carried out to the 
death. ‘The scorpion power may be said to be that of the law carried out 
to an extreme of refinement, corresponding with doctrinal views rendering 
the requisitions of the Gospel even more severe and more grievous to be 
borne than those of the Levitical dispensations ; views exhibiting the spirit 
expressed in the threatening of the ill-advised king of Judea, 1 Kings xii. 
11: “ My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my 
father hath chastened you with whips, but I will chastise you with scor- 
pions ;’’—and this too as the construction of the language of him who invited 
all labouring under this bondage to come unto him, with the assurance that 
his yoke is easy and his burden light, (Matt. xi. 30.) 

‘To hurt men five months.’—We can only at present compare this period 
of time with that of the prevailing or increasing of the waters of the deluge, 
by which the elements of the material earth were tried—indicating a trial 
of a character somewhat analogous; the earth representing a system, of 
which its men or inhabiters are the principles, to which principles the legal 
elements, styled the scorpions of the earth, are peculiarly hostile, although 
both are peculiar to the same system, (¢ 210.) 


V. 11. And they had a king over them, "Eyovow ἐφ᾽ αὑτῶν βασιλέα τὸν ἄγγελον 
Sg is) the hats ses it de pa δι) τῆς ἀβύσσου, ὄνομα αὐτῷ “βραϊστὶ ᾿Αβαδ. 
whose name in Θ ebrew tongue (18 ΄ δ δὺ χα datas ἀρ 2 
Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath ag mab ἐν τῇ λληνιαῇ ὀνόμα ἔχεν IARI: 
(his) name Apollyon. ~ agate 

§ 216. ‘ And they had a king,’ &c.—It is said of the destructive species 
of locusts, Prov. xxx. 27, that “ they have no king,” although they have the 
wisdom to go forth in bands. In allusion to this, it may be stated of these 


spiritual locusts, as something the more remarkable, that they have a king or 


134 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 


leader. The word rendered king signifies a chief of almost any kind. We 
suppose the king here to be a chief or leading principle, the ministering 
spirit, a controlling tendency of the bottomless system. 'The name Apollyon 
signifying, as generally admitted, the destroyer, from the verb ἀπόλλυμι; to 
destroy. ‘The action of these locusts, as that of this first wo itself, is 
against the wnsealed inhabiters of the earth, or the elements of the earthly or 
self-righteous system. The destruction in view is, consequently, that of 
these self-righteous elements ; as the elements of the law, when brought to 
bear upon the pretensions of man to a merit of his own, must exhibit the 
folly of these pretensions, and thus destroy them. Apollyon is the destroyer, 
not of gospel principles, for these bear the seal in their foreheads, and are 
protected from his power, but he destroys those elements of justification by 
works upon which man would depend if there were no economy of grace. 
This ruling spirit of the bottomless pit is thus in effect the destroyer of those 
out of Christ, but not of those in Christ: in this respect, the action of 
Apollyon very nearly corresponds with that of Satan the accuser, and justifies 
the general supposition of the identity of the two characters. The province 
of Apollyon, however, may be limited to the destruction of the hopes of 
sinners derived from any merits of their own, while the power of Satan, the 
devil, the accuser, is excited to destroy the hopes of the sinner, whatsoever 
may be their foundation: the work of the Redeemer, as we shall hereafter 
find, consisting in a contest between the power of propitiation and the power 
of legal accusation—between the power of sovereign grace, and the unmiti- 
gated claims of justice. 


RETROSPECT. 


V. 12. One wo is past; (and) behold, “Ἢ οὐαὶ ἡ μία ἀπῆλϑεν: ἰδού, ἔρχονται ἔτι 
there come two woes more hereafter. δύο οὐαὶ μετὰ ταῦτα. 


τς § 217. ‘One wo is past.’—That is, the exhibition of the character of 
one wo is finished. -We are not obliged to consider these woes as literally 
successive events ; nor is the final result of this first wo fully detailed. We 
are told only that men, in consequence apparently of the torture to which 
they were subjected, desired death without being able to obtain it. The 
name of the leader of this band of tormentors was the destroyer, and we 
may presume that he acted as a destroyer; and if we suppose the five 
months to be put for something else than a chronological period, we may 
say perhaps the same principles still hurt and still destroy not men literally, 
but doctrinal elements, figuratively spoken of as men. 

In what then does this wo consist? Our thoughts on this subject must 
be taken merely as suggestions, for we are decided only in believing these 
locusts to represent something else than Saracen or Mahometan troops. 


» 


RETROSPECT. 135 


We have supposed the design of opening the bottomless pit to be, that of 
developing the true character of its elements. |The question still presents 
itself, how such a development can be a wo to the inbabiters of the earth? 
what connection is there between the earth and the bottomless pit? 

When the fifth angel sounded, a star was seen to fall from heaven to the 
earth, to which the key of the bottomless pit was given. The bottomless 
pit must be therefore something belonging to the earth; else why should 
the messenger employed to open it be sent to the earth? This pit must be 
a pit in the earth ;—the figure corresponding with the ancient notion of the 
earth as a large, square, flat surface, of a certain undefined thickness, but of 
such a character, that a pit or shaft passing entirely through this stratum of 
earth would finally reach an abyss where there was nothing more of matter 
to be met with, or nothing capable of furnishing a bottom. But as the shaft 
of a well requires earth around it to make it a shaft, so this pit could not be 
a pit without the existence of the earth in which it is supposed to be located. 

Analogous with this, we suppose the bottomless pit system to be a part 
of what we call the earthly system, the first being an important feature 
in the character of the last: the principles of the earthly system depend- 
ing for their supposed correctness upon the nature of the pit system. For 
which reason, to exhibit the real incorrectness of this earthly system, the 
true character of the elements of the pit system must be developed. 

We have seen (¢ 206) that the word rendered pit in English, and 
τὸ φρέαρ in the Greek, is in the Hebrew as well as in the Septuagint ap- 
plied to what we call a well, whether it be full or dry—a well or pit of 
living water, or a dry well. By way of illustration, we may suppose a 
person about to take up his residence in a tract of country where he must 
depend upon a single well for his supply of water—the whole char- 
acter of this tract of country we may say is involved in that of this well. 
If it be a never-failmg spring of wholesome water, the location is a good 
one, it will afford the means of existence or support ; but if the well prove 
to be a dry pit having no water, or if the water be unwholesome and 
destructive to life, the whole tract of country is worthless. Under such 
circumstances the new settler’s first object will be to have this well or pit 
opened, that he may know what the character of its contents is before he 
hazards his future happiness by a dependence upon it. 

What we call the earthly system, corresponds with the tract of country 
we have imagined. In the midst, and as a part of this earthly system, is a 
provision for eternal life, the distinguishing feature of the system, and that 
upon which its whole value depends. If the principles of this provision be 
sound and well-founded, all is well; but if they be incorrect and entirely 
without foundation, and even of a character hostile to every hope of salva- 
tion, then the whole system involving this provision, and depending upon 

LE no 


136 .THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 


it, must be equally worthless, its elements being entirely incapable of being 


¢ 


sustained. 
We find in the history of the patriarchs a well of pure water to be con- 


sidered an essential of life. As such, we consider a well symbolic of what- 
ever is essential to eternal life, comprehending all that is requisite to justify 
men in the sight of God. Wells are not spoken of, however, as means of 
ablution ; we therefore do not suppose them to represent the element of pro- 
pitiation or atonement, but rather what was supposed under the old dis- 
pensation to be the essential of eternal life, that is, fulfilment of the law. 
So the wells of the patriarchs were deserving of little confidence, for they 
held good but for a short time, and were frequently found to be dry. 

Accordingly, we suppose the bottomless pit system to represent a self- 
righteous scheme for the inheritance of eternal life, which precludes the idea 
of propitiation ; something anterior to the supposition of man’s need of an 
atonement. It isa pit without water, as well as a pit without a bottom. 
It is a plan of self-justification by works of the law, the elements of which, 
when fully analyzed and exhibited, show the subjection of man to the law; 
and thus bringing the elements of the law to act upon the principles of self- 
justification, exhibit the sting of death, and operate on the mind a convic- 
tion of sin, preparatory to further views of man’s insufficiency and of God’s 
gracious purpose. 

The true character of the elements of the abyss system is thus exhibited ; 
and such an exhibition is a wo to the inhabiters of the earth, because this 
development is the first step towards the destruction of the elements of the 
earthly system generally. Man being thus convinced of sin, the next step, 
as we shall see, will be to expose the folly, on the part of man, of any at- 
tempt to atone for this sin by a propitiation of his own working out ; still 
less can he depend upon any atonement wrought out by a fallen man in his 
behalf: ‘None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to 
God a ransom for him,” (Ps. xlix.7.) But this we suppose to be the sub- 


ject of the next wo.* 


* The first wo occupies but eleven verses of the ninth chapter; whereas ten verses 
of the ninth chapter, the whole of the tenth chapter, and thirteen verses of the eleventh 
bapter, in all thirty-four verses, are taken up with the relation of the second wo ; 
and the third wo appears to extend from the fifteenth verse of the eleventh chapter 
to the conclusion of the Apocalypse, or at least as far as the end of the twentieth 
chapter,—the remaining two chapters being occupied principally with the descrip- 
tion of a scene of triumph and blessedness, the converse or opposite of the scenes 
represented under the three woes. 

We see nothing in this first wo which may not take place in the mind of every 
disciple, as an exhibition of the true character of certain doctrines: a process in the 
development of truth entirely distinct from matters of political and ecclesiastical 


history. 


RETROSPECT. 137 


Under the first wo the earthly supply of sustenance is not cut off: men 
are tormented or tortured by the sting of the scorpion-locusts, but they still 
depend upon the productions of the earth, the grass, green things, and trees, 
for the means of life, and perhaps for remedies under their sufferings. So 
the self-righteous man, even under the conviction of sin, may still depend 
upon some system of works to furnish the means of eternal life ; and analo- 
gous with this, the elements of an earthly system may continue to be set off 
as the means of eternal life, against the principles of legal condemnation 
exhibited under the character of these venomous locusts. 


138 


THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


CHAPTER IX .—(Continued.) 


SECOND WO.—THE EUPHRATEAN CAVALRY. 


Vs. 13, 14. And the sixth angel sound- 
ed, and I heard a voice from the four 
horns of the golden altar which is before 
God, saying to the sixth angel which 
had the trumpet, Loose the four angels 
which are bound in the great river Ku- 
phrates. 


SE a 7 SP iy ἄγ 53} 
Kat ὁ ἕκτος ἄγγελος ἐσάλπισε, καὶ ἤκου- 
. - 
σα φωνὴν μέαν ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων κεράτων 
τοῦ ϑυσιαστηρίου τοῦ χρυσοῦ τοῦ ἐνώπιον 
~ ~ ' ~ idZ 2 c 
Tov ϑεοῦ, λέγουσαν τῷ ἕκτῳ ἀγγέλῳ, ὁ 
2 ‘ 7 > ‘ ' 
ἔχων τὴν σαλπιγγα: λῦσον τοὺς τέσσαρας 
> ' ‘ r ~ ~ 
ἀγγέλους τοὺς δεδεμένους ἐπὶ τῷ ποταμῷ 


τῷ μεγάλῳ Ligouty. 


ᾧ 218. ‘A voice from the four horns,’ &c.—We have already sup- 
posed the altar to represent the Logos, or sovereign purpose of God, (ὃ 
161 ;) its material, gold, being mdicative of the truth of the doctrine or 
principle of divine sovereignty involved in this purpose. The four horns 
may represent the same elements of power as those exhibited under the 
figure of the four living creatures, in the midst of and round about the 
throne, (Rev. iv. 6, $$ 126, 7, 8;)—Horns also representing powers, ($ 
137,) as the horn of an animal constitutes its weapon, or power of defence 
or attack. The horns of the altar, accordingly, represent the principles of 
divine government upon which, or by the aid of which, the plan of redemp- 
tion is carried into effect. The horns of the altar were made use of for 
securing the sacrifice to, or upon, the altar, Ps. exvii. 27: ‘“ Bind the sacri- 
fice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.” The great sacrifice ever 
in contemplation with the Most High, is the propitiation of Christ. Appa- 
rently, these four horns are so many important principles connecting this 
sacrifice for sin with the sovereign purpose of God. 

The altar of burnt-offering was to have horns upon the four corners, 
Ex. xxvii. 2, and xxx. 10. Aaron was to offer the yearly sacrifice on the 
horns of the altar of incense. The horns are not put for the atonement 
itself, but for something exhibiting the vicarious offering of Christ, as neces- 
sarily involved in the purpose of Sovereign Grace. So our trust in the 
atonement of Christ, as effectual in the salvation of sinners is confirmed by 
the belief that the sovereignty, the purity, the justice, the mercy of God, 
all co-operate in showing the intimate connection of such a propitiation with 
the purpose of grace. As the altar sanctifies the gift, and not the gift the 


THE EUPHRATEAN CAVALRY. 139 


altar, so the divine purpose sets apart the atonement of Christ ; it is not the 
atonement which sets apart the purpose. 

God’s sovereignty gives him the right to require and to accept any pro- 
pitiation he pleases. His purity involves the infinite distance between his 
perfection and the imperfection of man, showing the corresponding infinite 
degree of propitiation required. His justice exhibits the necessity of some 
adequate means, by which its claims may be satisfied ; and his mercy affords 
the assurance that the adequate propitiation required will be provided. ‘The 
attribute of wisdom being involved in that of merey or goodness, the coun- 
sels of wisdom are those of goodness or loving-kindness, as we find from 
the general tenor of Scripture, especially from the book of Proverbs. 

We lay hold of one of the horns of this altar when, with deep convic- 
tion of our sinfulness, we humble ourselves before God ; acknowledging his 
sovereignty, and relying for pardon upon his grace, through the great Sacri- 
fice offered in our behalf. We lay hold upon another of these horns when, 
convinced of our sins, we feel ourselves deserving of the punishment his 
justice requires, having no hope but in the same vicarious sacrifice. So, 
when we contemplate the infinite distance there is between the perfection of 
the Deity and our unworthiness, and thence infer our need of redeeming 
mercy, we lay hold of another of these horns ; and this, if possible, still 
more when we look to his goodness and loving-kindness, and trust in his 
promises of salvation. 

§ 219. ‘Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet,’ &c.—The 
sixth messenger or instrument of revelation, is called upon by the four ele- 
ments just enumerated to loose certain other messengers previously re- 
strained or bound. The whole process refers to a development of truth ; 
the loosing of these angels being a figure of the same kind as that of the 
opening of the bottomless pit. , 

‘ Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.’ 
—This river, like the bottomless pit, we take to be the figure of a system. 
The four'messengers (angels) bound in it must be four elements, which as 
soon as loosed become instruments of revealing the true character of this 
system, and that of its principles. 

The Euphrates bounded the land of Canaan on the east, but was not a 
portion of the promised territory. It was rather a heathen river. It ran 
through the city of Babylon, being a means of purification and sustenance, 
upon which the inhabitants of that city depended ; although eventually it 
became the instrument of delivering the city into the hands of a foreign 
power. Its figurative use in Scripture seems to be that of an opposite of 
the river alluded to by David, “the stream whereof shall make glad the 
city of our God,” Ps, xlvi. 4; as it is also probably an opposite of the river 


140 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


of the water of life, described Rev. xxii. 1, as proceeding from the throne 
of the Most High. 

The term great may be applied to the Euphrates here, to direct the 
mind to that which is represented by the river; the spiritual river bemg the 
ereat river as distinguished from the literal ; or it may be a sarcastic allusion 
“Ts 


said the vain-glorious monarch, “ great Babylon, which I have 


to human apprehensions of the river—that which man esteems great. 
not this,” 
built.” 

As we suppose the river of the water of life to be the real means of 
purification from sin, so we may take the Euphrates to be a figure of some 
human system, or pretended means of propitiation—means really calculated 
to prove the ruin of those depending upon them—the river bearing a rela- 
tion to the city of Babylon afterwards spoken of, (Rev. xiv. 8,) similar to 
that borne by the bottomless pit to the earth, (ᾧ 217 ;) the Euphrates being 
a source of purification and sustenance depended upon by the inhabiters of 
the earth. The approaching exhibition of the false and destructive charac- 
ter of this source is a wo, or the commencement of a wo, to the elements of 
the earthly system spoken of as the men or inhabiters of the earth. 


Vs. 15, 16. And the four angels were Καὶ ἐλύϑησαν οἱ τέσσαρες ἄγγελοι ob 


loosed, which were prepared for an hour, 
and a day, and a month, and a year, for 
to slay the third part of men. And the 
number of the army of the horsemen 
(were) two hundred thousand thousand : 


c > ‘ co c ' 
ἡτοιμασμένοι εἰς THY ὥραν καὶ ἡμέραν καὶ 
- la ὁ 2 

μῆνα καὶ ἐνιαυτόν, ἵνα ἀποκχτείγωσι τὸ τρί- 
- 2 ΄ aN) 1 ~ 

tov τῶν ἀνϑρώπων. Καὶ ὃ ἀριϑμὸς τῶν 

, ~ ~ , , 
στρατευμάτων τοῦ ἱππικοῦ, δύο μυριάδες 


and I heard the number of them. μυριάδων: ἤκουσα τὸν ἀρυϑμὸν αὐτῶν. 


ᾧ 220. ‘And the four angels were loosed.’—This call from the horns 
of the altar is a fiat of the Almighty ; the requisition of his attributes being 
as imperative as his command: and God said, Let there be light, and there 
was light. He spake, and it wags done. ‘The voice said, Loose the four 
angels, and the four angels were loosed. 

‘ Which were prepared for an hour,’ &c.—or, more strictly, acc ording to 
the Greek, which were prepared unto the hour, day, month, and year; the 
enumeration of these portions of time giving intensity to the expression 
designed to show that this particular revelation is kept back until the proper 
moment for it, and the use of the definite article before the word hour 
marking such an appointed time.* ‘The indefinite article an, of our com- 
mon version, does not appear warranted by the text of any edition of the 


Greek. As the four angels holding the four winds of the earth were pre- 


* This also appears to be the common use of the Greek preposition εἰς, with an 
accusative, (Rob. Lex. 191,) as 2 Tim. i. 12, εἰς ἐχείνην τὴν ἡμέραν. See also the 
use of the same preposition, Jude 6, even without the article: sg zgfow μεγάλης 
ἡμέρας. 


THE EUPHRATEAN CAVALRY. | 141 


vented from hurting any earthly element till the one hundred and _forty- 
four thousand were sealed ; and as the locusts were not permitted to kill, but 
only to Aurt, during the reign of terror allotted them ; so these four angels 
have been kept back from making their revelation till the precise moment 
for bringing it forth. This moment, however, may not be literally an epoch 
in the history of the world: it may be designed to point out a certain stage 
of development ; the exposure of a certain error being necessary, before its 
opposite truth can be fully exhibited.* 

‘To slay the third of men ;’ that is, men in the third, or spiritual sense, 
(Ὁ 191.)—We presume these men to be the inhabiters of the earth against 
whom the three woes are pronounced, (Rev. viii. 13,)—unsealed principles 
or elements of the earthly system, not intended to be preserved. ‘The word 
translated slay signifies simply to kill, as distinguished from slaughtering a 
victim for sacrifice. ΤῸ kill is to destroy—to deprive of life—perhaps, in 
matters of doctrine, to show the elements of a system to be altogether literal, 
without the spirit or essential of life. The issuing of the four angels with 
their forces being equivalent to a revelation, the tendency of the revelation 
is to destroy especially certain erroneous principles, manifesting them to be 
without life, or without the principle of life. The elements of the pit sys- 
tem were not permitted to destroy ; they were only to torture—to elicit 
truth ; but the elements of the Great River go further—they are permitted 
to kill; the verb translated in the fifth verse to kill, being the same as 
that in the fifteenth verse rendered to slay—as if to direct us to com- 
pare the prohibition in the one case with the express design in the other. 

‘ And the number of the army of the horsemen (were) two hundred thou- 
sand thousand, —Gr. two myriads of myriads—or twice ten thousand times 
ten thousand, equal to two hundred millions: a number very far beyond that 
of any literally invading forces ever yet known, horse and foot included ; and 
perhaps equal, at the time of the prophecy, to one third or one quarter of the 
whole population of the globe. We suppose this number to represent some- 
thing infinite or countless. There may besides be a further meaning in the 
duplex sign, two. Calculating one horseman to every six individuals of a 
family, one hundred millions of horsemen would require a population of six 
hundred millions of men, women, and children, to permit them to be drafted. 
This number alone therefore appears sufficiently countless ; why then should 
it be doubled? Why should the sign of an infinite number be represented 


* This hour, day, month, and year, has been computed as three hundred and 
ninety-one years and fifteen days, a period said to correspond with the progress of 
the Turks from the time of the Crusades, A. 1). 1281, to their taking of Carmeniac 
from the Poles, 1672, (Bagster’s C. B.) But we leave the benefit of this calculation 
to those who take a different view of the design of the Apocalypse from that here 
proposed. 


142 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


twofold? And why should the emphatic declaration be added—‘* I heard 
the number of them?’ There seems to be also a correspondence between 
the number of twice ten thousand times ten thousand, and the number of 
the angels round about the throne, Rev. v. 11, “ten thousand times ten 
thousand and thousands of thousands.’”’ We suppose these horsemen to 
represent doctrinal powers or elements of a system, figuratively styled the 
great Euphrates: these elements being designed to act upon those of the 
earthly system spoken of as the third ef men. The twofold character of 
the number of these destroying elements we may suppose to represent the 
twofold action of both the letter and the spirit. That is, whatever this 
Euphratean system may represent, its elements, both in a literal and spiritual 
sense, tend to show the fallacy of the principles of the earthly system. So 
we suppose the cloven tongues of the Holy Spirit to represent the twofold 
action of the literal and spiritual meaning of the language of inspiration. 

There can be no doubt but that the two hundred millions of horsemen 
represent the same power as that figured by the four angels; the sudden 
change of this number four into such a multitude, being somewhat similar 
to that met with in the account of the evil spirits, Mark v. 9, first spoken in 
the singular number, and immediately afterwards represented as a legion, 
several thousands, or a multitude. The term λεγεών, indeed, is supposed by 
some to be the name of a prince or commander of a multitude, (Rab. Lex. 
406.) So these four angels may represent four chiefs of the two hundred 
millions of horsemen. The difference as a figure is not material ; it is only 
the difference between speaking of a certain assailing power as the leader 
of a band, or as a band with its leader. We may suppose the quadruple 
figure of the four angels to represent all the leading features of a system ; as 
the four comers of the earth are put for all the earth, (¢ 172.) 


V.17. And thus 1 saw the horses in Kat οὕτως εἶδον τοὺς ἵππους ἐν τῇ ὁρά- 
the vision, and them that sat on them, 
having breast- plates of fire, and of jacinth, 
and brimstone: and the heads of the je Ti geet: : 
horses (were) as the heads of lions; and ϑειώδεις, shape ie of kage ἘΠ ἘΠΕ tsi: 
out of their mouths issued fire,and smoke, φαλαὶ λεόντων, καὶ & τῶν στομάτων αὐτῶν 
and brimstone. ἐχπορεύεται σεῦρ χαὶ καπνὸς καὶ ϑεῖον. 


Ν ‘ UG 3 Ὁ > ~ 2» 
Tél, καὶ τοὺς καϑημένους ἐπ᾿ αὐτῶν, ἔχον- 
, c 
tus ϑώρακας πυρίνους καὶ υσκινϑένους καὶ 


ᾧ 221. : Απά thus I saw,’ &c.—We have supposed the Apocalypse te 
be a revelation, through the instrumentality of a vision or waking dream ; 
but here we have a specific application of the term to it: “I saw in the 
vision,” ἐν τῇ ὁράσει. The same term occurs only in one other passage of 
the New Testament, Acts ii. 17, “ your young men shall see visions.” In the 
Septuagint it is of frequent occurrence. ‘The predictions of the prophets are 
called visions—* prophetarum predictiones vocantur ὁράσεις, Lex. Suice- 
ri. The Hebrew word rendered in our common version burden, is expressed 
by this term in the Greek, Is. xix. 1, ὁράσεις αἰγύπτου, and xxx. 6, the bur- 


THE EUPHRATEAN CAVALRY. 143 


den or vision of the beasts of the south, (Concord. Tromii.) [τ is applied, 
Zech. x. 2, to the false dreams or visions of soothsayers and divines, οἱ μάντεις 
ὁράσεις wevdeis—* the diviners have seen a lie,” or false vision. The term 
may have been first applied amongst the Greeks to pictures supposed to be 
presented to the minds of those who professed to interpret the will of the gods, 
and whose pretensions to visions probably took their rise from a traditionary 
knowledge of the mode in which the Hebrew prophets were instructed. 
The apostle John no doubt used the word as it was commonly understood 
in his time, viz., as a waking dream: the mental vision of one whose 
thoughts are entirely abstracted from earthly objects, and in this situation 
contemplates a symbolic exhibition, to be interpreted by its own rules. 

‘The horses in the vision, and them that sat on them.’—These were 
war-horses, and their riders warriors, representing doctrinal powers engaging 
in what we may call a contest of principles. The white horse and his 
rider, (Rev. vi. 2,) we have supposed to represent the. redeeming power, 
going forth to overcome the legal elements opposed to the salvation of the 
sinner ; the great champion not only going forth himself, but controlling the 
action of subordinate powers, to carry his purpose into effect. As, in a lit- 
eral sense, the wars between nations are subordinate to the purposes of God 
for carrying out his designs, so the war between the elements of the Eu- 
phratean system, and the elemehts of the earthly system, is something sub- 
ordinate to the action of the Rider of the white horse. If the two hundred 
millions of horsemen be not conducted by this champion, their action is 
something under his control. They are employed to destroy certain erroneous 
principles, in order to prepare the way for his coming, and his final victory. 
As in the invasion of a country by a foreign power, one portion of the inhab- 
itants may contend with another portion, and thus facilitate the conquest on 
the part of the invader; so, preparatory to the victory of Gideon, in the 
host of the Philistines every man’s sword was set against his fellow, Judges 
vil. 22. 

As the bottomless pit was a portion of the earth, so the Euphrates is 
also an earthly river; and as the blinded inhabitants of the earth may have 
taken their pestiferous abyss for a well of living water, so, with the same 
blindness, they may have depended upon this great earthly river as a river 
of the water of life. The true character of the elements of this great 
Euphrates is now developed, and the inhabiters of the earth proved to be 
destroyed by the very power to which they trusted. This delusive system 
of atonement being unfolded, an infinite number of legal principles are seen 
to proceed from it. These principles, like those who seek to justify them- 
selves, resembling the war-horse in his eagerness for the conflict, heedless 
of the consequences: as it is said, Jeremiah vill. 6, “ No man repented 
him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Every one turned to his 


144 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.” At the same time these prin- 
ciples are just those upon which it is to be shown that sinful man can have 
no power to provide a propitiation for himself. If he perform all required 
of him by the law, he does no more than his duty ; consequently, if he come 
short in the performance of a single requisition, he can subsequently do 
nothing more than his duty to atone for that single transgression. On legal 
or judicial principles, a whole eternity of obedience cannot atone fora single 
hour of rebellion. The angels that excel in strength, that do the com- 
mandments of God, hearkening unto the voice of his word, (Ps. ciii. 20,) 
can do no more than their duty. They cannot, therefore, atone for the short- 
coming of others; and the same may be said of every created being—yea, 
the heavens are unclean in the sight of the Most High! How much more 
abominable and filthy is man, who drinketh in iniquity like water! Such 
is the axiom of the divine law ; and such the action of every principle ema- 
nating from it. A system of atonement therefore involving these princi- 
ples, must have in effect the operation of δαδριαρω σον ΘΥ̓ΘΡΥ. earthly ele- 
ment of cKcanarenane 

§ 222. ‘Having breast-plates of fire, of hyacinth, and brimstone.’— 
These warriors were arrayed in armour of very extraordinary materials, and 
this not merely in appearance. Such was the real character of these breast- 
plates. The hyacinth is said to be a gem of a yellowish-red colour ; but 
is described by Pliny (Rob. Lex. 773) as of a dark cerulean colour, 
probably the bluish tinge peculiar to the flame of burning sulphur; the 
hyacinth of these breast-plates being a compound of the two other mate- 
rials, fire and brimstone ; the composition of the armour for protection, corres- 
ponding with the materials of what is afterwards described as the weapon 
of offence, or means of destruction. ‘The cuirass, or coat of mail of heavy 
cavalry, is not simply a means of defence ; such troops being principally 
employed to bear down and break the enemies’ line by the weight of their 
charge, which they are enabled to do as much by their armour as by the 
use of sword and spear. So the shield or buckler of the ancients was some- 
times employed as an instrument of attack, as well as of defence, beg armed 
with sharp spikes, or pointed bosses; as, to rush on the thick bosses of 
Jenovan’s buckler, Job xv. 26, is expressive not merely of a vain and 
fruitless attack, but of the madness of determined self-destruction, The hya- 
cinth or jacinth gem is an impenetrable substance, and therefore an appro~ 
priate figure for a material of the breast-plate ; the gem being supposed to 
combine the qualities of the fire and sulphur with its own solidity. In the 
description of the means of offence, we find smoke substituted for jacinth; 
this smoke also combining the same qualities, But a breast-plate of fire 
and smoke and sulphur would be a figure hardly admissible. 

We suppose fire to represent the trying power of the revealed word, 


THE EUPHRATEAN CAVALRY. 145 


and brimstone the perpetuity of the action of this fire. The employment 
of these breast-plates, therefore, is something equivalent to the perpetual 
action of the revealed word, in opposing the erroneous influence of the 
elements of the earthly system. 

‘ And the heads of the horses were as the heads of liens.’ —The defen- 
sive armour only of the rider is mentioned; the means of offence or attack 
are ascribed to the horse. These had the heads of lions. 'They possess 
the characteristic quality of lions ; as animals with a human face are sup- 
The lion we have con- 
These, horses are 


posed to possess the characteristic of man—reason. 
sidered as representing the attribute of justice, (¢ 126.) 
therefore elements or powers of justice ; powers by which the opposing ele- 
ments of a self-righteous or earthly system are destroyed. The locusts had 
teeth as of lions, but as they were not permitted to kill, their teeth could 
These horses with the judicial characteristic 
the lion’s head 


only intimidate or torture. 
of the lion, had also the lion’s power to destroy or to kill: 
possessing the lion’s mouth. 

‘ And out of their mouths issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone.’-——That 
is, out of the mouths of the horses, whose heads had just been described. 
The horse and the rider, however, may be taken as one figure of the power 
and action of a principle of doctrine. The fire, smoke, and brimstone; cor- 
respond in all but the middle term with the composition of the breast-plates ; 
smoke also combining the qualities of the fire and sulphur. The weapon 
of attack, therefore, whether proceeding from the mouth of the horse or of 
the rider, may be said to be of the same composition as that of the breast- 
plates. The offensive and defensive arms are alike composed of these ele- 
ments of trial, of perpetuity, and of the two combined. The armour of the 
locusts was as of iron—passively defensive only. The armour of the horse- 
men is of fire, and jacinth, and brimstone, actively defensive ; as the arrow, 
falling upon a breast-plate of iron, may be unable to penetrate it, but is un- 
injured by it; while an arrow falling upon a breast-plate of fire and sulphur, 
as well as of an impenetrable gem, may be supposed to be consumed and 
destroyed by these combustible materials with which it comes in contact. 


‘Vs. 18, 19. By these three was the 
third (part) of men killed, by the fire, and 
by the smoke, and by the brimstone, 
which issued out of their mouths. For 
their power is in their mouth, and in their 
tails: for their tails (were) like unto ser- 
pents, and had heads, and with them they 
do hurt. 


᾿Ιπὸ τῶν τριῶν πληγῶν τούτων ἀπεκτάν- 
ϑησαν τὸ τρίτον τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἐκ τοῦ 
πυρὸς καὶ τοῦ καπγοῦ καὶ τοῦ ϑείου ἐχπτο-Ἅ 
QEVOMEVOU ἐκ τῶν στομάτων αὐτῶν, “I γὰρ 
i ’ ~ c > ~ ’ > ~ 
ἐξουσία τῶν ἵππὼν ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτῶν 
ἐστι καὶ ἐν ταῖς οὐραῖς αὐτῶν" αἵ γὰρ οὐ- 
ραὶ αὐτῶν ὅμοιαι ὄφεσιν, ἔχουσαι κεφαλάς, 
χαὶ ἐν αὐταῖς ἀδικοῦσι. 


ᾧ 223. ‘ By these three,’ or by these three plagues, ‘ was the third of men 
killed. —The third of men, corresponding with the view we have taken of 


146 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


the terms third (δ 191) and men, or inhabiters of the earth, (ᾧ 195,) are 
principles of the earthly system—doctrinal elements depending upon that 
system. The Euphratean cavalry constitutes the doctrinal power of the 
system represented by that great river. ‘The weapon of offence of this 
cavalry, as well as its armour, is the unquenchable fire of revealed truth, or 
the deductions from that truth, as smoke is a result of the combustion of fire 
and sulphur. ‘The source whence this portion of revealed truth emanates 
is the judicial attribute of the Supreme Being—the element of vindictive 
justice—the head and mouth of the lion; for if the heads of the horses were 
as the heads of lions, their mouths must have been as the mouths of lions. 
And this is just that object of dread which the convicted sinner, in view of 
the justice of God, must fearfully contemplate ; and which, in being contem- 
plated, must break down, champ, crush, and grind to powder every preten- 
sion to self-justification. ‘They gaped upon me,” says David, in allusion to 
such a state of conviction, “with their mouths, as a ravening and roaring 
lion. Save me,” he adds, “from the lion’s mouth,” Ps. xxii. 13, 21. The 
lion first described as in the midst and round about the throne, Rev. iv. 6, 
7, is like a lion; and perhaps we may say, in any plan of redemption, the 
first attribute of the Deity to be satisfied is justice. It is then the emana- 
tion of truth from this attribute of justice, which destroys the pretensions of 
human merit spoken of as the third of men. 

‘For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails.X—In their mouth, 
because, as we have seen, their mouth is the mouth of the lion; in their 
tails, for the reason subsequently given. 

‘ For their tails were like serpents, and had heads, and with them they do 
hurt,’—to hurt, being an opposite of justifying, (ᾧ 174.) Their tails were like 
serpents, in their use and action. They had heads, that is, serpent-heads : 
—as a lion’s head implies a lion’s mouth, so a serpent’s head implies a 
serpent’s sting. The serpent is the accuser—the accuser’s sting is the 
transgression of the law: the action of the accuser is to bring the trans- 
gressor under the law. ‘The false prophet, or false interpreter of the divine 
will, (the tail,) maintains the necessity of justification by the works of the 
law. Thus the principles of legality represented by these tails operate to 
hurt or counteract justification, and so expose its victim to the action of 
the sting of death, or sin,—the transgression of the law. Here, then, we 
perceive a double operation in this Euphratean-horse power. Principles 
emanating from the attribute of inflexible justice call for the death of the 
transgressor ; while principles of subjection to the law, in opposition to the 
justification of the disciple, pronounce the sentence of condemnation upon 
every soul that doeth evil, though he offend only in one point. 

§ 224. This view of the operation of these Kuphratean principles may 
throw some light on the character of the system. As a river of the earth, 


THE EUPHRATEAN CAVALRY. 147 


we have supposed this Euphrates to be the figure of a human scheme or 
proposed means of atonement. This scheme, we may suppose, admits the 
fact of man’s sinfulness ; but it proposes to atone for this sinfulness by works 
of propitiation of man’s performance, so as to compensate for the past by 
subsequent obedience, or to make up for past transgression and neglect of 
duty on one hand, by some extraordinary acts of submission or certain 
scrupulous performances. Such is the system of human wisdom. Very 
specious in appearance, so long as its real elements are bound, or not 
developed ; but as soon as they are fully exhibited, and the four angels 
are loosed, (four being put for all,) then the true character of its multi- 
farious principles is manifested, and they are all found to be composed of 
two elements alike destructive to man’s pretensions of justification by his 
own works. These two distinguishing elements may afford a reason, if 
that already given be deemed insufficient, (ὃ 220,) for the duplex denomi- 
nation of the centenary number of the horsemen, showing that whatever 
may be their multitude or variety, these emanations from the great river 
scheme are all of the twofold character alluded to. The mouth of the lion, 
and the serpent’s sting, is to be perceived in both. 

The bottomless pit system, we suppose to be a system of self-righteous- 
ness—a resting upon one’s own merits, unconvinced of sin—neither ad- 
mitting nor contemplating the necessity of atonement; recognizing the 
existence and power of the law, but proposing to meet its requisitions by 
works. Here the remedy required is an exhibition of the exceeding sinful- 
ness of sin ; not resulting in actual condemnation, (death,) but showing the 
call for some propitiatory provision, to meet the case of delinquency. 
Accordingly, the secret nature of this mystery being laid open, it is mani- 
fested to afford no bottom or foundation upon which a hope or trust of 
justification by works of the law can be built; while the features of the 
system, in proportion as they are developed, exhibit their direct tendency 
to hurt, or bring about the condemnation of the disciple, or to leave him at 
least in an unjustified position. 

The operation of the first wo we apprehend to be that of so exhibiting 
the folly of human pretensions to righteousness as to provide for the con- 
viction of sin. The necessity of some propitiation being now admitted, the 
next error to be combated is the supposition of the sinner’s ability to atone 
for himself. This error is exposed by showing what must be the true 
character of the elements of an atoning provision (a river) of this kind; 
how its principles directly counteract the claims of human merit to justifica- 
tion, and virtually cause the condemnation of those depending upon such 
a delusive scheme of redemption, instead of contributing in any degree to 
cleanse them from their guilt. 

The exhibition of this latter folly is the subject of the second wo—a wo 


148 THE SEVENTH SEAL —THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


to the inhabitants of the earth, (ᾧ 205,) or to the elements of the earthly 
system, because these false pretensions are destroyed by the exhibition of 
the legal elements,* represented by the overwhelming body of cavalry, 


brought into action in this second process of trial. 
We do not pretend to apply either of these exhibitions to a particular 


denomination or portion of the visible church. 


It is for all denominations, 


and all individuals of that church, to employ the mirror themselves, and to 
contemplate in it the peculiar features of their respective systems, as far as 


they may find them represented. 


Vs. 20,21. Aad the rest of the men 
which were not killed by these plagues 
yet repented not of the works of their 
hands, that they should not worship dev- 
ils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, 
and stone, and of wood: which neither 
can see, nor hear, nor walk: neither re- 
pented they of their murders, nor of their 
sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of 


ty ε - > , . 
Καὶ ot λοιποὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ot οὐκ 
> , ~ ~ 
ἀπεχκτάνϑησαν ἐν ταῖς πληγαῖς ταύταις, οὔ- 
, ~ 2 - - c 
τε μετενόησαν &% τῶν ἔργων τῶν χειρῶν αὖ- 
- « ΄ ‘ , 
τῶν, We μὴ προςχυνγήσωσι τὰ δαιμόνια καὶ 
‘ , ‘ ~ 4 > ~ 
τὰ εἴδωλα τὰ χρυσᾶ καὶ τὰ ἀργυρᾶ καὶ τὰ 
- ‘ ‘ ' ‘\ ‘ - κα a ΡΒ 
χαλκᾶ καὶ τὰ λίϑινα καὶ τὰ ξυλινα, α οὔτε 
, , ” > , »" 
βλέπειν δύναται οὔτε ἀκούειν οὔτε περιπα- 
Ξ 2 ΄ id , 
τεῖν, καὶ οὐ μετενόησαν ἐκ τῶν φόνων αὖ- 


their thefts. εὖ ” 2 = = ΣΌΣ ΕΠ ἐξ 
TOW OUTE EX τῶν φαρμακειῶν αὐτῶν OUTE EX 


~ c ~ ” ~ 7 
τῆς ποργείας αὐτῶν οὔτε ἐκ τῶν κλεμμάτων 
c ~ 
αὐτῶν. 


§ 225. ‘And the rest of the men.’—It is difficult to say even what is 
probably to be understood by this rest, or remainder, or those left of the men. 
By these three it is said, in the 18th verse, was the third (part) of men 
killed, leaving us no room to suppose but that the whole of this third was 
destroyed ; in which case there can be no remainder. On the other hand, 
the trees, the sea, the creatures in the sea, the ships, the rivers, the sun, the 
moon, the day, and even the night, (Rev. vii. 7-12,) all suffer in their 
third, and nothing is intimated with respect to their remaining two-thirds. 

We suppose men, or inhabiters of the earth, to be figures of doctrinal 


* We apply this term legal elements to these horsemen with less hesitation, be- 
cause the fire, smoke, and brimstone, of their equipment, correspond so nearly with 
the volcanic chacteristics of Sinai, that we think there can be no mistake in this 
particular. We may add here that, in addition to the feature of perpetuity supposed 
to be indicated by sulphur or brimstone, the smoke and effluvia arising from its com- 
bustion have been long considered antidotes to the infection of contagious diseases— 
purifying and cleansing substances submitted to their action; the exhalation from 
burning sulphur being perhaps destructive to the life of the animalcula entering into 
the composition of pestilential virus. Thus, as fire is the purifier and trier of metals, 
the smoke of burning sulphur is the trier and purifier of other substances ; while 
the sulphur itself, like the fuel of voleanic combustion, is that which gives per- 
petuity to both of these agents. The fire, and smoke, and sulphur, from the mouths 
of the horses, in their destruction of the one-third of men, thus represent the revealed 
word in its destruction of certain errors, combining three elements, two of which 
have the characteristic of trying and purifying, and one that of continual ceaseless 
operation. - 


THE EUPHRATEAN CAVALRY. 149 


principles of self-justification ; deductions from revelation, capable of being 
made in three different senses, that is, by taking Scripture in the literal 
sense, in the metaphorical sense, and in the spiritual sense. In this last 
sense these elements of self-justification are destroyed by the develop- 
ment of the great river system ; but in the other two senses they still 
remain unchanged and unaflected:—as we may say that no argument 
drawn from the literal, or metaphorical sense of revelation, will destroy 
these elements or change their tendency. » Something like this may be 
represented by the impeuitent state of the rest of the men. The literal 
construction of this vision, for example, does not counteract the erroneous 
view usually formed of man’s dependence upon his own works; neither 
does the ordinary figurative application of the vision to matters of church 
history ; but the spiritual view of it, when fully attained, we think will have 
this effect. If it do not appear so from the manner in which we have 
exhibited these truths, the fault is in our feeble ability, and not in the 
nature of the case. 

‘Yet repented not,’ &c.—The word yet is unnecessarily introduced 
here. Some editions of the Greek have οὐ μετενοῆσαν in the twentieth verse, 
instead of οὔτε. We should either read, the rest of the men repented not 
of the works of their hands, and repented not of their murders, &c., or 
neither repented of their works, nor of their murders, &c. This would givea 
finish to the sentence, which it seems to require ; for with these two verses the 
relation of thjs wo, so far as the four angels and the horsemen are concerned, 
ends ;—the one-third of men are killed, and the other two-thirds remain 
unchanged ; the next chapter commencing with an entire new exhibition. 

Whatever this res¢ or remainder of men may be, however, it is com- 
posed of those chargeable with idolatry, murder, sorcery, fornication, and 
theft. The idolatry, too, seems to be of the lowest kind,—the worship of 
demons and of dumb idols; and the crimes those of the grossest character, 
such as literally but a small portion of mankind actually commit; the 
reason and experience of man in every stage of society showing the neces- 
sity of punishing these crimes for the common welfare. We cannot but 
take it for granted, therefore, that something else than the ordinary literal 
meaning is here intended. 

‘That they should not worship,’ &e.—Idolatry, in a spiritual sense, we 
have already ($ 61) shown to consist in the motive of action—an intention 
to serve and promote the glory of self, instead of serving and glorifying 
God; and we suppose doctrinal principles favouring these motives to be 
here alluded to, under the figure of idolaters. Men worship idols made of 
earthly materials, and the work of their own hands, when they ascribe their 
salvation and eternal happiness to works of righteousness of their own per- 


150 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXHT TRUMPET. 


formance. They worship devils or demons, when their motive of action is 
a slavish fear of punishment, or a mercenary expectation of reward. 

There may be a variety of grades in this species of idolatry, according 
as the individuals chargeable with it are more or less intellectual and intel- 
ligent. One man may give a penny to a charitable or religious object, and 
another may build a temple or endow an asylum. If the motive be to 
establish a claim of merit, or to compensate for a want of merit, the act of 
idolatry is the same. One man may count his beads, and another may 
make long prayers ; one may fast once or twice a week, and another may 
be scrupulously abstemious throughout his life; one may observe days and 
months, and forms, and another may be as punctilious in certain outward 
acts of devotion, public and private ; one may depend upon the repetition 
of a creed, or the maintenance of a single point of doctrine, and another 
may contend for the importance of a code of doctrine. In all, if the motive 
be to establish a merit, the performance is a mere act of idolatry. The 
idols may be of different materials, but they are still the works of men’s 
hands ; the works have really no more merit in themselves than an idol of 
wood or stone has ability to save. They that make them are like unto 
them; so is every one that trusteth in them. In this respect the self-right- 
eous disciple of the most enlightened portion of the visible church of Christ 
may be as really an zdolater as the ignorant pagan of antiquity, or the infatu- 
ated South-sea worshipper of stocks and stones. In the apocalyptic sense, 
however, we suppose not the man, but the doctrinal principles leading to the 
idolatry in contemplation, are the rest of the men not killed, and not repent- 
ing. This subject of idolatry, as it will be perceived, occupies the whole 
of the twentieth verse; we can hardly therefore be blamable for having 
dwelt so much upon it here. 

§ 226. ‘Neither repented they of their murders, &c.—There are 
those, it is said, Heb. vi. 6, who crucify to themselves the son of God afresh, 
and put him to an open shame ; something analogous certainly to the crime 
of murder: and these are they, as it appears from the same passage, who, 
after having enjoyed the knowledge of the truth of salvation by sovereign 
grace, have turned back to a dependence upon their own merits. After 
having tasted of the heavenly gift—after having enjoyed the blessed assur- 
ance of pardoning mercy, through the atoning blood of a Saviour, they 
have rejected all for the vain purpose of working out a propitiation and a 
righteousness of their own ; returning as the sow that is washed to her wal- 
lowing in the mire. The devil is said to have been a murderer from the 
beginning, John viii. 44. His first act was to persuade his victims to make 
themselves as gods—bringing them into a position of condemnation or 
spiritual death, by rendering them obnoxious to the provisions of the law. 


RETROSPECT. 151 


So we may say, every principle of doctrine tending to bring man into this 
position, as opposed to the position of grace, is the principle or doctrine of 
a murderer, and may be spiritually so denominated. 

The term translated sorcerer, is that from which we derive the appella- 
tion given to the science of compounding drugs and medicines—pharmacy. 
The sorcerers of ancient times probably acquired their reputation in the first 
instance by professing to cure diseases, relieve complaints, and gratify the 
wishes of those coming to them for aid. A sorcerer is therefore, in Scrip- 
ture, an opposite of the true physician ; and is thus appropriately a figure of 
elements of doctrine professing to furnish other remedies for the diseases of 
the soul than those to be found in the merits of Christ. Perhaps, too, as 
sorcerers of old practised their arts for the purpose of obtaining money from 
the ignorant, and as Simon the sorcerer (Acts viii. 9) esteemed it a fair 
matter of trade to purchase the gift of the Holy Ghost, that he might sell it 
again ; so the apocalyptic sorcerer may be put for principles of a mercenary 
character, representing the work of salvation in the light of an affair of trade 
or barter, in which the sinner is supposed to have given an equivalent for 
the grace or benefit bestowed upon him. 

The nature of spiritual fornication we have already considered (¢ 62) 
as an opposite of the dependence of the believer upon his union and ac- 
counted identity with Christ. The principles figuratively spoken of as those 
not repenting of this crime, we suppose to be elements of doctrine leading 
to other views than those of reliance upon the merits of that Redeemer, 
who declares himself to be also the husband of his church, Is. liv. 5. 

Of thefts, or in allusion to such thefts as are here contemplated, it is 
said,,Mal. iii. 8, “ Will a man rob God?” Yet ye have robbed me.” We 
rob God, we commit a sacrilegious theft, when we set up any principle of 
doctrine tending to deprive Him of the glory due for our redemption. So 
every principle of self-righteousness, or doctrine of that character, is justly 
represented under the figure of a thief. 

We thus suppose the rest of the men (οἱ λοιποῖδ to be deductions from 
literal or figurative views of Scripture, as distinguished from spiritual views ; 
or they may be more loosely considered legal elements generally, treating 
the term the rest, or the remaining ones, as a license of vision of a character 
similar to that by which the four angels became suddenly metamorphosed 
into two hundred millions of horsemen, (vide ᾧ 255, note.) 


RETROSPECT. 
This development of the great river sy:tem we may consider the prin- 


cipal feature of the second wo, although that wo is not announced as passed 


19 


152 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


till after the account given of the two witnesses, and of the destruction of 
the tenth of the city by earthquakes, Rev. xi. 14; the tenth chapter being 
taken up with something like an intermediate scene or interlude, showing, 
as it were, what is taking place in the councils of heaven while this second 
wo is being in operation upon earth. As the prophesying, death, and resur- 
rection of the two witnesses is part of the second wo, we conclude that the 
incursion of the horsemen covers the same space as that represented by the 
history of the witnesses and the earthquake ; consequently, that the period 
of action of the two hundred millions of horse comprehends the twelve hun- 
dred and sixty days, and other periods of time mentioned in the vision of 
the witnesses. That is, if time be literally intended by these terms, the 
events of chapter xi. 1-14, synchronize with those of chapter ix. 14-21. 
We have, however, some doubts whether tzme, in a literal sense, is to be 
taken at all into contemplation. 

Meanwhile, we rest on the supposition that the first wo (the locust 
vision) developes the baseless and self-destructive character of the system, 
or of any system of man’s dependence upon his own righteousness, or of 
justification by his own works. ‘The second wo, as far as represented by the 
four angels and their forces, equally developes the folly of the sinner’s 
dependence upon any propitiation or system of atonement of his own work- 
ing out; the subsequent part of the second wo probably containing matter 
in confirmation of this development. 


“ὐπὸ Ὡππὰπ ων ως 


THE MIGHTY ANGEL, | 153 


CHAPTER X. 


THE MIGHTY ANGEL.—TIME NO LONGER.—THE LITTLE 
BOOK. 


V. 1. And I saw another mighty angel Καὶ εἶδον ἄλλον ἄγγελον ἰσχυρὸν κατα- 
come down from heaven, clothed with a βαίνοντα ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, περιβεβλημένον 


cloud: and a rainbow (was) upon his > 
head, and his face (was mae 5 oa the »εφέλην, καὶ ἢ ἶρις ἐπὶ τῇς κεφαλῆς αὐτοῦ, 


sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. καὶ τὸ πρόζωπον αὐτοῦ ὡς ὃ ἥλιος, καὶ οἵ 


A 2 - c ~ ’ 
πόδες αὐτοῦ ὡς στῦλοι πυρός" 


ᾧ 227. ‘ Ann I saw another mighty angel :᾿--τοῦ, in the Greek order, 
‘another angel mighty,’ or strong. ‘The word another, may refer to any 
or all of the preceding angels ; amongst which we suppose the star, Rev. 
ix. 1, to have been one. ‘The scene is not changed ; there is only an addi- 
tional personage introduced—pending, we may suppose, the action of the 
horsemen just described. But this is not merely another angel, he is an 
angel mighty or strong ; so was that proclaiming the challenge for open- 
ing the sealed book, Rev. v.2. The design of the first mighty angel 
seems to have been to show, in the most pointed manner, that the inter- 
pretation of the sealed book was to be made virtually by the Lamb, and by 
him only. The design of the second mighty angel is himself to present a 
revelation, under the figure of the little book or scroll, held in his hand ;— 
a message, of the character of which we may form some idea by the descrip- 
tion given of the messenger. 

‘Come down from heaven.’—As the new Jerusalem was seen coming 
down from God out of heaven, Rev. xxi. 2. It is a heavenly spiritual 
revelation, in contradistinction to any thing earthly, or emanating from the 
earth, or partaking of the earthly system. 

‘Clothed with a cloud..—Having wrapped himself in a cloud. So the 
second coming of Christ is said to be with clouds, Rev. i. 7, and elsewhere. 
These clouds being, as we suppose, the typical and figurative representation 
of him and of his second coming contained in the Scripture descriptions, 
through the medium of which he is intellectually to manifest himself, (John 
xiv. 21-26.) . 


154 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


‘And a rainbow upon (or over) his head ;/—or the rainbow, as it is in 
some editions ; referring to the rainbow before seen encircling the throne, 
Rev. iv. 3; supposed (ᾧ 120) to represent the assurance of divine mercy— 
the token of the new covenant. 

‘ And his face as it were the sun ;’—as it is said, Rev. i. 16, of the one © 
like unto the Son of man, ‘‘ His countenance was as the sun shineth in his 
strength ;” spiritually, the Sun of righteousness, (Mal. iv. 2.) 

‘And his feet as pillars of fire ;—corresponding also with the form 
described, Rev. i. 16, ‘ His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a 
furnace.” 

From all these particulars, we seem to be warranted in supposing 
this mighty or strong angel to be “ the messenger of the covenant,” (Mal. 
iii. 1,) or, according to the Septuagint, the angel of the covenant, whom ye 
desire or wish for. If not Christ himself, a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, 
exhibiting the attributes of Christ—the promised Comforter—mighty, because 
his message was mighty ; fully equal to that comprehended in the almost 
inscrutable mystery of the sealed book. 


Ve. 2, 3. And he had in his hand a little καὶ evan ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ βιβλαρίδιον 
‘book open: and he set his right foot upon ἀνεῳγμένον. καὶ ἔϑηκε τὸν πόδα αὑτοῦ τὸν 


the sea, and (his) left (foot) on the earth, 5... 
and cried with a loud voice, as (when) a δεξιὸν ἐπὶ τῆς ϑαλάσσης, τὸν δὲ εὐώνυμον 


ἄνες ae ν 2» - hen Be ae 
lion roareth: and when he had CERIO, «(hi 179 Ὁ. 715; RO Seen noel μεγάλῃ ὠςπερ 
. . ’ ~ Vo oy] 34 7 
seven thunders uttered their voices. λέων μυχκᾶται. καὶ ots Exouser, ἐλάλησαν 
αἵ ἑπτὰ βρονταὶ τὰς ἑαυτῶν φωνάς. 


ᾧ 228. « He had in his hand alittle book open.’—The original is ἃ dimin- 
utive of the word signifying a scroll. The term βιβλαρίδιον occurs nowhere 
else than in this chapter, either inthe New Testament or in the Septuagint. 
He had in his hand a small scroll. We are not to associate, however, with 
this term small the idea of insignificance ; such a diminutive being applied 
in some languages to any thing valued or cherished—not the less valued or 
less important because it is small. As in the divine manifestation to the 
prophet, 1 Kings xix. 11, 12, “ The Lord was not i the wind, nor in the 
earthquake, nor in the fire, but in the stall small voice.’ 

From the array of the messenger, and from the presumption that the 
small scroll in his hand contained his message, it appears probable that 
this book or scroll is a representation of the subject matter of what we call 
the New Testament ; that is, the gospel, the still small voice, as revealed 
to us through the instrumentality of the evangelists and apostles. This 
book was open, and so is the gospel open to investigation : it requires no 
subsequent dispensation for the interpretation of its contents ; although it 
may require a certain enlightening of the mind to be rightly understood. 


THE MIGHTY ANGEL. 155 


‘ And he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left* upon the earth.’— 
The sea is said to be God’s, for he made it, as he formed also the dry land, 
(Ps. xev. 5;) and the earth is also said to be his footstool, (Is. lxvi. 1.) 
Both of these elements are literally subservient to the power of the Creator. 
But we suppose, besides this, the sea to be put for a system of wrath—the 
legal dispensation, or something equivalent to it; and the earth to be put 
for the system of man’s position under the law, dependent upon his works— 
eating his bread by the sweat of his brow. In the attitude of this angel, 
we have a symbolic picture of the complete subjection of these two systems 
to.the gospel message :—the messenger taking his position, as it were, upon 
these two systems, and delivering his glad tédings as something called forth 
by them, or rendered necessary by them. 

© And he cried with a loud voice, as a lion roareth.—The Lamb slain is 
also the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The Paschal Lamb, the peace-offering 
for sinful man, is the lion towards every element opposed to his work of 
redemption. The roaring of the lion is the voice of intimidation: the time 
is now come for those opposed to the messenger and to his message to 
tremble. The purport of the voice appears to be to call attention to the 
subject of the message, or to the delivery of the little book, about to take 
place; or we may connect this loud cry with the solemn declaration 
afterwards uttered, considering the intermediat- action of the seven thunders 
as simultaneous. 

ς And when he cried, the seven thunders 'ittered their voices.’-—What- 
ever may have been the purporf of this tenific ery, it was such apparently 
as to call forth the opposition of these thunders. They are spoken of as the 
seven thunders specifically, according to tie Greek ; although we do not 
find any mention elsewhere in the Scriptures of them by that number. We 
suppose, however, the number seven to c.mprehend the whole of a class, 
as the seven spirits before the throne, (ὃ 7.) Thunders and thunderings 
are characteristics of the legal dispensation ; we may suppose, therefore, 
the loud voice of the gospel messenger to call forth something in the nature 
of a protest on the part of the attribute of divine justice. Sinai puts in, as 
it were, her last claim, uttering her seven denunciations: all indeed that the 
law can urge for the condemnation of the sinner. But the voice of the Lion 
of the tribe of Judah is heard simultaneously with that of these judicial 
elements, and the Lion’s voice prevails over all others. 


* The term rendered left, in this passage, is said to be a word of good omen sub- 
stituted by the Greeks for ἀριστερός, which was one of sinister, or bad import. So the 
action of this angel, whether as to the sea, or as to the earth, is one of good omen to 
men ; the messenger is one of glad tidings—Rob. Lex. 277, art. Εὐώνυμος. 


156 


V.4. And when the seven thunders 
had uttered their voices, I was about to 
write: and I heard a voice from heaven 
saying unto me, Seal up those things 
which the seven thunders uttered, and 


THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


Καὶ ὅτε ἐλάλησαν αἵ into βρονταΐ, Ἐμελ- 
ov γράφειν" καὶ ἤκουσα φωνὴν ἐκ τοῦ ov- 
ρανοῦ λέγουσαν σφράγισον ἃ ἐλάλησαν αἵ 
ἑπτὰ βρονταί, καὶ μὴ αὐτὰ γράψης. 


write them not. 


§ 229. ‘I was about to write, and I heard,’ &c.—Whatever may have 
been the import of the language of these thunders, it is very evident that it is 
not permitted to form a part of this unveiling of Jesus Christ. The voice of 
wrath is now silenced, the law has been fulfilled “by the obedience of 
one,” (Rom. v. 19,) and a declaration now of its claims, like irrelevant 
matter, is not permitted to go upon the record. 

‘Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write 
them not.’—So far as the message of this angel is concerned, the denuncia- 
tory or accusatory matter contained in the voice of these thunders is done 
with; like documents offered upon a trial, not admitted as evidence, they 
are to be laid aside. ‘They are not permitted to interfere with the delivery 
of the little book, or to pervert the interpretation of its contents. Accordingly 
we find no further mention made, either of the seven thunders or of their 
voices. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God 
that justifieth ; who is he that condemneth ? 


Vs. 5, 6, 7. And the angel which I saw 
stand upon the sea and upon the earth, 
lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware 
by him that liveth for ever and ever. who 
created heaven, and the things that there- 
in are, and the earth, and the things that 
therein are, and the sea, and the things 
which are therein, that there should be 
[shall be] time no longer. But in the days 
of the voice of the seventh angel, when he 
shall begin to sound, the mystery of God 
should be finished, as he hath declared 
to his servants the prophets. 


r c ” a s ~ ~ 
Καὶ ὁ wyyshos, ὃν εἶδον ἑστῶτα ἐπὶ τῆς 
΄ - - 5 ‘ ~ 
ϑαλάσσης καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, NOE τὴν χεῖροι 
ε - ‘ A A 2 , ΡῚ 
αὑτοῦ τὴν δεξιὰν εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, καὶ ὦμο- 
- - ‘ ~ ~ 
oy ἐν τῷ ζῶντι εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώ- 
a A 2 - 
VO, ὃς ἔκτισε τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ, 
(ῳ ‘ ~ Ἂ χ > > ~ UN 4 , 
καὶ THY γῆν καὶ τὰ ἐν αὑτῇ, καὶ THY ϑά- 
‘ ~ ΄ 1 
λασσαν καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ, OTL χρόνος οὐκέτι 
3 ‘ ~ c ' ~ ~ ~ 
ἔσται" ἀλλὰ ἕν ταῖς ἡμέραις τῆς φωνῆς τοῦ 
ΤᾺ 2 , a 
ἑβδόμου ἀγγέλου, ὅταν μέλλῃ σαλπίζειν, καὶ 
Naat ‘ - τς c > 
ἐτελέσϑη τὸ μυστήριον τοῦ ϑεοῦ, ὡς εὕῃγ- 
γέλισε τοὺς ἑχυτοῦ δούλους τοὺς προφήτας. 


ᾧ 230. ‘Lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth,’ 


&c.—Here we have a confirmation of the supposition, that the mighty 
angel controlling the sea and the earth, or the mysteries represented by 
them, is the Deity himself, either in the character of the Son, or that of the 
Holy Spirit, or Comforter. “Swear (vow) not at all,” is an injunction 
applicable to every created being. He only can swear to what shall be, 
or what shall not be, who is himself the efficient cause of all things ; and 
this oath of the angel is not merely an attestation as to a fact; it is the 
expression of a determination that such shall be the fact. The angel does 
not swear by the earth, or by the sea, but by the living God, who made 
these creatures of his power, both in a natural and in a spiritual sense. So, 


TIME NO LONGER. 157 


when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no 
greater, he sware by himself, Heb. vi. 13. 

‘That there should be [shall be] time no longer..—This declaration 
appears the more extraordinary, since immediately after it, in the three suc- 
ceeding chapters, specific periods of duration are seven times mentioned, 
under the different forms of days, months, and years or times. Our first 
thought is, that the Greek compound particle οὐκέτι should be rendered as 
two separate particles, οὐκ and ἔτι, not yet, instead of no more, signifying that 
the time of development should not be till after the expiration of the several 
periods about to be mentioned ; but in this supposition we are not borne out 
either by the use assigned by grammarians to this compound particle alone 
or to the two particles ; or by the construction necessarily given them in 
other portions of Scripture ; or by the rendering of this passage in other 
versions, which all, as far as we have examined, agree in assigning the mean- 
ing no longer to the term employed. 

“Ἔτι alone” (says Buttman) “ signifies yet, further; and with the 
negatives οὐκέτι, μηκέτι, no more.” (Everett’s trans. Boston, 1822, p. 265.) 
So Rev. xxi. 4, ϑανάτος οὐκ ἔσται cannot be otherwise rendered than there 
shall be no more death; and πόνος οὐκ ἔσται ἔτι, there shall be no more 
pain. So Luke xv. 19, οὐκέτι εἰμὶ ἄξιος, 1 am no more worthy ; and Phi- 
lemon 16, οὐκέτι ὡς δοὔλον, not now, or no longer asa servant. The six 
versions of Bagster’s Hexapla accord with this rendering, there shall be 
time no longer, or there should be no longer time. To which we may add 
the Latin of Leusden, tempus non amplius esset, and of Beza, tempus non 
fore amplius: the Spanish, que no habrad ya mas tiempo ; and the Italian, 
che il tempo non sarebbe pitt, both from the Vulgate: the German, (Luther,) 
das hinfort keine zeit mehr seyn soll: and the French, qwil n’y aurait plus 
de tems. ‘This uniformity of rendering leaves us no room to suppose any 
other meaning to the particles in question, whether written in connection or 
separately, than that of no more, no longer. (See also Rob. Lex. 525, 
Suiceri Lex. et al.) 

What then is the apocalyptic sense of the declaration, that time shall 
no more be, or no more shall be? the verb being in the future tense, and 
precisely of the same form as that rendered, Rev. xxi. 4, by the sign shall. 

We presume the expression is no more to be taken in a literal sense 
than others of this mystic relation. The word χρόνος strictly denotes, it is 
said, the idea of time, in its simple abstract form, which we perceive and 
measure by the succession of objects and events. (Tittmann y. Rob. Lex. 
835.) It would be difficult to imagine a state of things, even in eternity, 
in which there is literally no succession of objects and events—in which 
there are no revolutions of the heavenly bodies, or in which these revolu- 
tions are. not successive, or if successive, incapable of marking duration or 


158 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


portions of time. But if this were the fact, there is nothing in this portion 
of the vision calling for the introduction of the subject. Whether we take 
the book spiritually, or literally, there is nothing in this part of the revela- 
tion, apparently, having any connection with the question, whether the idea 
of eternity admits of that of time or not. There is, however, an important 
point coming under consideration, connected with the subject of chronology, 
and that is, what we are to understand of the periods of time, forty-two 
months, one thousand two hundred and threescore days, &c., mentioned in 
the next and succeeding chapters. ‘To meet this case the preparatory ex- 
planation is now given, in the form of a solemn declaration; as if to set 
any question on the matter entirely at rest. There shall be no more time. 
Time in a literal sense, as far as the objects of this vision are concerned, is 
no longer to be contemplated. The several periods alluded to as measures 
of time, are spiritually measures of vision—indices of parallelisms, showing, 
perhaps, the correspondence of one series of figures with another. When 
we meet with these, therefore, we are to set the idea of duration, in its 
literal sense, entirely aside ; as in the measurement of the space covered by 
the blood of the wine-press, (Rev. xiv. 20,) we set aside the idea of length 
or breadth, in a literal sense, of the sixteen hundred furlongs ; and as we 
also set aside the association of any literal ideas with the number (two 
hundred millions) of the horsemen mentioned in the last chapter. 

ᾧ 231. ‘But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel,’ &c.—If 
this term days be taken in a literal sense, there is apparently a great incon- 
sistency in the oath: first, that time shall be no more, and then that 
certain things are to take place in a time to come, or in a subsequent period 
specified. The reasonable conclsion seems to be, that the expression, “ in 
the days,” &c., is put for the whole of the development of truth or revela- 
tion made through the instrumentality of this angel; the days of the 
voice of the seventh angel being a figure of speech for the portion of revela- 
tion allotted to that angel. ‘Time, as regards the matter of this vision, is 
not to be taken into consideration ; but the revelation of the seventh trumpet 
will be the conclusion of the mystery of God. The expression in the 
original ὅταν μέλλῃ σαλπίζειν would be more properly rendered, when he 
is to sound, equivalent to when he ts sounding, or when his trumpet is being 
sounded ; corresponding with the previous expression, in the days of the 
voice, &c., which comprehends the whole compass of the voice. We are to 
look, therefore, to the whole matter announced under this seventh trumpet, 
as the finishing of the mystery of God. 

The conjunction καὶ immediately before the word ἐτελέσϑη, if rendered 
by and, throws a difficulty in the way of the interpretation. Our common ver- 
sion does not notice it at all, neither does that of Wiclif, 1380, or of Rheims, 
1582; but the Tyndale, Cranmer, and Geneva versions, render it by the 


4 


TIME NO LONGER. 159 


word even: “ but in the dayes of the voyce of the seventh angell, when he 
shall begyn to blowe, even the mistery of God shall be fynysshed.” The Latin 
of Leusden renders it by et, which, like the Greek καὶ, may signify etiam, also ; 
the version of Luther by the German particle so, equivalent to even, which may 
be considered in the light of an intensive ; and as the declaration corresponds 
very much in character with that of Jesus, John iv. 23, the καὶ may have the 
same sense as it is supposed to have there, viz., that of yea, verily, &c., Rob. 
Lex. 333, and 334. “ But the hour cometh, and now is: yea, verily, now 
is.”’ So, in this passage of the Apocalypse, the angel solemnly avers that time 
is not to be considered in the vision; nevertheless the revelation under the 
seventh trumpet’s sound shall verily complete, or finish, the unfolding of the 
mystery of God. If, besides, we give to but at the commencement of the 
seventh verse the force of a sign of contradistinction, the declaration will 
then be equivalent to this,—that time shall be no longer ; but, that is, so 
far from there being a continuance of time, (in this vision,) as soon as the 
seventh angel begins to sound, even then the mystery of God is to be con- 
sidered as finished. Time is not to be supposed to elapse afterwards ; con- 
sequently the periods of days, times, and months, mentioned under the 
sounding of that seventh trumpet, are not to be considered literally terms of 
duration. Here we have a sufficient reason for the solemnity of the oath, 
as nothing but this construction of the declaration can put an end to calcu- 
lations respecting the periods afterwards mentioned ; while this construction 
itself is all-important to a proper understanding of the whole book. 

We find the term mystery of GOD employed nowhere else in the Scrip- 
tures except Col. 11. 2; and there, according to the common version, it is 
also put for the mystery of Christ—the apostle praying for them of Laodi- 
cea, “that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and 
unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment 
of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid 
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge ;” or, as the original might be 
rendered, the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, (τοῦ Θεοῦ, 
καὶ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ,) in which, that is, in which mystery—év the 
Greek pronoun being in this case masculine or neuter—in which mystery 
are all the hidden treasures (οἱ ϑησαυροὶ ἀπόκρυφοι) of wisdom and know- 
ledge. Such we suppose to be the mystery of God, the finishing of which is 
the subject of the seventh trumpet’s voice. No doubt the same as the mys- 
tery of faith, 1 Tim. 111. 9; the mystery of godliness, 1 Tim. iii. 16 ; the wis- 
dom of God in a mystery, 1 Cor. ii. 7 ; the mystery of Christ, Eph. iii. 4 ; the 
mystery of the Gospel, Eph. vi. 19, and elsewhere : the same mystery, per- 
haps, viewed under so many different aspects. In conformity with this con- 
struction, we presume the subject of the seventh trumpet’s voice to be a final 
development of the doctrinal elements of the divine plan of redemption—the 


160 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


hidden or mystic treasures of wisdom and knowledge ; as in contradistinction 
to all other wisdom and knowledge not immediately pertaining to this mys- 
terious subject. 

§ 232. ‘ As he hath declared to his servants the prophets ;’—or, verba- 
tim, as he evangelized his servants the prophets. 'The prophets were made 
the repositories of this mystery. Itis not expressly stated that they declared 
it to others, but it may be fairly inferred that this mystery constituted the 
subject or burden of their predictions. This fact is important in guiding us to 
a right understanding of the vision; for if the mystery of God, unfolded by 
the voice of the seventh trumpet, be the same as that committed to the pro- 
phets, and contained in their symbolical writings, then this vision must cor- 
respond with the prophecies ; and a true construction of the one must admit 
and conform to a Jike construction of the other. Unless our interpretation, 
of this portion of the New Testament especially, be sustained by something 
of a similar import in the books of the Old Testament, we can have no 
confidence in it. And this is to be predicated not merely of the writings of 
one prophet, but of those of all who in Scripture language are denominated 
prophets ;—as Jesus, in his walk with the two disciples after his resurrection, 
beginning at Moses and all the prophets, expounded unto them in all the 
Scriptures the things concerning himself. The mystery of this vision is 
not a new one: it is the old mystery committed to the prophets—given them 
in charge ; perhaps in figures, of which some of them had more understand- 
ing than others ;—all (angels or messengers) desiring to look into these things, 
(1 Pet. i. 12,) as Jesus himself says many prophets and kings desired to see 
and hear things which the Jews were permitted to see and hear while he 
was upon earth. Still more, no doubt, did they desire to know things 
with the knowledge of which the disciples were favoured after the descent 
of the Holy Spirit. In the same figures in which this mystery was received 
by the prophets, it was probably handed down by them. With these pro- 
phetic figures, therefore, we must compare those of the Apocalypse, that our 
interpretation may be in conformity with both. We do not mean by this a 
mere correspondence of dates and events, in the ordinary sense of those 
terms ; but a correspondence of truths or doctrinal principles, showing that 
the gospel mystery preached by the apostles, and exhibited in this vision, is 
the same as that predicted by the prophets, and illustrated by the symbols of 
the Old Testament dispensation. 

Vs. 8, 9, 10. And the voice which I Kat ἢ φωνή, ἣν ἤκουσα ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ" 
heard from heaven spake unto me again, “πάλιν λαλοῦσα pst ἐμοῦ καὶ λέγουσα" ὕπ- 


i and) take the little book top hcad ; 19 "ὦ ΩΣ 
hich id Zou re neat of the anual aye λάβε τὸ βιβλαρίδιον τὸ ἠνεῳγμένον ἐν 


which standeth upon the sea and upon τῇ χειρὶ τοῦ ἀγγέλου τοῦ ἑστῶτος ἐπὶ τῆς 
the earth. AndIwent unto the angel, ϑαλάσσης καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. Καὶ ἀπῆλϑον 
and said unto him, Give me the little πρὸς τὸν ἄγγελον, λέγων αὐτῷ δοῦναί μοι 
book. And he said unto me, Take (it,) τὸ βιβλαρίδιον. καὶ λέγεν μοι" λάβε καὶ 


THE LITTLE BOOK. 161 


and eat it up; and it shall make thy: belly κατάφαγε αὐτό" καὶ πικρανεῖ σου τὴν κοι- 
Der, but στον he ΩΣ litle be oa λίαν, GAR ἐν τῷ στόματέ σου ἔσται γλυκὺ 
shoney. And I took the little book out «| ᾿, \» \ pli rege 
of the ne hand, and ate it up; and it “*“ it ne ἢ aay + et B ἐδλαρτῦιον oe ὴ 
was in my mouth sweet as honey: and 4*90s τοῦ ἀγγέλου, πον ον ΤΠ 
as soon as! had eaten it my belly was καὶ yy ἐν τῷ στόματί μου ὡς μέλι γλυκὺ" 
bitter. καὶ ὅτε ἔφαγον αὐτό, ἐπικράνϑη ἢ κοιλία 


μου. 

§ 233. ‘And the voice which I heard from heaven,’ &c.—Apparently 
the voice mentioned in the fourth verse of this chapter, as directing the 
apostle to seal the things spoken by the seven thunders, and not to write 
them. The same voice, probably, as that calling the apostle up into heaven, 
Rev. iv. 1. The voice from the heavenly economy checking the expression 
of judicial intimidation, while it favours the promulgation of gospel truth. 

‘Go and take the little book.’—The apostle is directed to procure the 
little book, no doubt for the purpose of qualifying himself for the duty he is 
afterwards to perform. The direction to go and take, &c., is given with the 
prescience that the book, when taken, is to be eaten or participated in. 

‘ And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up,’ &c.—The figure is not so 
strange as it appears to be when first noticed. The Psalmist says of the 
law, commandments, testimony, precepts of God, ‘‘ How sweet are thy 
words unto my taste! (yea, sweeter) than honey to my mouth. Through 
thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way,” Ps. 
exix. 103, 104. Here is a supposed eating of the book; for if not eaten 
its sweetness could not be known. And the reason for this sweetness is at 
the same time made known, viz., that it gives understanding ; such an un- 
derstanding of the truth as to excite a hatred of every thing false. So we 
may presume the cause of the sweetness of the little book, in the mouth of 
the apostle, to be in the understanding which it affords—the understanding 
of spiritual things. Where the book is understood it is sweet, where it is 
not understood it is bitter. ‘ And it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall 
be in thy mouth sweet as honey.” ‘ And it was in my mouth sweet as 
honey : and as soon as I had eaten it my belly was bitter.” This we may 
presume is not a vain repetition. The prediction on the part of him who 
gave the book, and the statement of the correctness of this prediction on 
the part of the recipient, like the testimony of two witnesses, establishes the 
fact ; and this no doubt is done to show the peculiar importance of this fact, 
as something to be borne in mind throughout the narration. 

The mouth, as the organ of the mind, and as a member of the head— 
the nobler part—we suppose to be a figure of the spiritual understanding ; 
the faculty of taking the language of revelation in its spiritual sense. The 
belly, on the contrary, as the organ merely of the physical appetites, and as 
constituting the ignobler portion of the body, we suppose to be put for the 


162 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


literal understanding, or of the inferior faculty of the mind, capable only of 
receiving the word of revelation in its ordinary or literal sense. 

The little book, when eaten, produced two different sensations ; the 
cause of this difference being not in the book, but in the organs by which it 
was received. The same scroll was sweet to the mouth, but bitter to the 
belly. So to the literal understanding the revelation of the New ‘Testament 
appears to be a refinement upon the Jaw, pointing out a more perfect and 
exact method by which man is required to work out a righteousness of his 
own. ΤῸ such, the new dispensation is even more bitter than the old. 
They see in it no provision of divine mercy. They admire its searching 
moral precepts, extending to the heart or mind, as well as to the outward con- 
duct, which is all they understand by its sprrituality ; but they groan under 
its requisitions, as under a burden which conscience, in proportion to their 
knowledge of themselves, teaches them they are unable to bear. The letter 
killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. 'The natural understanding sees in the 
letter of the Gospel only the sentence of condemnation. ‘To the spiritual 
understanding, on the contrary, there is throughout the New Testament an 
exhibition of the plan of divine mercy. ‘The rigid exactions of the law 
indeed are perceived, but they are recognized as conductors, leading the 
humbled, convinced sinner, to feel his need of a Redeemer. The more the 
spiritual mind perceives its inability to fulfil the law, the greater is its reli- 
ance upon the provision of divine mercy. ‘Thus, to be literal, or to be car- 
nally-minded, is death ; but to be spiritually-minded 15 life and peace: and 
thus the same word of revelation which to one recipient is as honey and the 
honey-comb, to another appears as the bitter of gall, and as the poison of 
asps. 

When, by a spiritual understanding of the whole tenor of Scripture, we 
perceive our justification and salvation to be wrought out, through the im- 
puted merits and suffermgs of our Redeemer—when we see that, as Christ 
has suffered for us, we are not to suffer for ourselyves—then the contents of 
the little book appear sweet, yea, as honey to the mouth; for we then enjoy 
an antepast of the blessedness of him whose iniquities are forgiven—of him 
to whom sin is not imputed. But when, by a literal construction of the lan- 
guage of revelation, we conceive ourselves called upon to propitiate divine 
justice by atoning for ourselves, then the same gospel loses all its sweetness ; 
like the afflicted Hezekiah, for peace we have great bitterness, (Is. xxxviii. 
17.) 

To the hungry soul (Prov. xxvii. 7) every bitter thing is sweet ; so 
those who feel their need of justification while ignorant of the gospel mode 
of providing for it, (as drowning men catch at straws,) eagerly rest their 
hopes upon some requisition of the law, which they think themselves able 


THE LITTLE BOOK. 163 


to fulfil. Their hope, however fallacious, is sweet to them, for they know 
nothing better; and in this ignorance of God’s righteousness, while going 
about to establish their own righteousness, they put bitter for sweet, and 
sweet for bitter, (Is. v. 20.) 


V. 11. And he said unto me, Thou χζαὶ λέγει μοι" δεῖ σε πάλιν προρητεῦσαε 
must prophesy again before many peoples, 


o ‘ ἐπὶ λαοῖς καὶ ἔϑνεσι καὶ γλώσσαις καὶ βασι- 
and nations, and tongues, and kings. 


λεῦσι πολλοῖς. 


ᾧ 234. ‘Thou must prophesy again,’—or, it behoveth thee to prophesy. 
This we may suppose to be assigned as a reason why the apostle was re- 
quired to eat the little book, or scroll, viz., that by receiving this revelation 
in both senses, he might be qualified so to transmit it to others in the same 
manner. A case somewhat similar to this is described by one of the pro- 
phets, (Ezek. ii. 9, and iii. 1—4,) «* And when I looked, behold, a hand (was) 
sent unto me ; and lo, a roll of a book (was) therein. * * * * Moreover he 
said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest ; eat this roll, and go speak 
unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat 
that roll. And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill 
thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was 
in my mouth as honey for sweetness. And he said unto me, Son of man, 
go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.” 
So the apostle is made in this vision to eat of the little book or scroll, and 
to receive it in both senses, and to experience the difference alluded to in the 
two ways of receiving it, in order that he may speak with the words of Him 
from whom the revelation is received—transmitting it as he received it, and ' 
giving his own experience of the difference as stated, that others may com- 
pare this difference with their experience, and make the discrimination 
necessary to render the communication sweet—or to know the cause of its 
bitterness, if such should be its taste. 

‘ Before many peoples,’ &c.—The interpretation of Scripture, as of the 
divine will, is prophecy. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, 
Rey. xix. 10. All who bear testimony of the truth, as it is in Jesus, pro- 
phesy. The testimony itself prophesies. So John might be here addressed 
as the representative of all who succeed him in laying this portion of the 
word of God before the world. Indeed we may say of this apostle that, by 
his gospel, his epistles, and this book, he does prophesy, and has done so 
before many peoples and nations, &c.; but this may be equally said of other 
apostles, and we think the text implies something more. 

The word ἐπὶ, rendered here before, might be more properly translated 
upon, in the sense of about or concerning; as to speak or write wpona 
subject, is to speak or write concerning it. So ἐπὶ with a dative is used, it 
is said, instead of ἐπὶ with the genitive, after verbs of speaking, signifying 


164 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


of, about, &c., as in this passage, προφητεῦσαι ἐπὶ λαοῖς καὶ ἔϑνεσι, x.7.1., “ to 
utter predictions respecting,’ &c. (Rob. Lex. 243.)* The word πάλιν, 
again, involves the idea of repetition, as does also its Latin equivalent 
iterum, from the verb itero, iterare, to do a thing the second time, to begin 
again, to begin afresh. (Ainsworth.) 

It behoveth thee to prophesy over again, or anew—di nuovo, as we find 
it expressed in an Italian version of the Bible of 1716—to begin again, to 
prophesy a second time, concerning many people and nations, (Gentiles,) 
and tongues, and kings or kingdoms. The ground of the prophecy, we 
suppose to be the same as that already gone over, but the manner in which 
it is to be put forth is different—the same truths illustrated by different 
figures. 

The apostle could not be said to have prophesied previously before 
many people, &c., but he had been prophesying concerning them, or con- 
cerning that which is represented by them ; as Rev. v. 9, and vii. 9, where 
some are represented as rejoicing; and Rev. vi. 15, and ix. 6, where others 
are exhibited as suffering. He is now, therefore, to repeat, or to go over 
afresh, exhibitions of a similar character, and pertaining to the same sub- 
jects. For this end he is to be qualified by receiving the little book ; by 
having it as it were in him—being fully imbued with its contents, both in 
their spiritual and literal sense. Thus qualified, he is prepared to impart what 
he receives to others in the same twofold sense. This is not expressed, but 
it is implied, else what has the exhibition of this chapter to do either with 
the previous or subsequent matter of the book ? 


RETROSPECT. 


ᾧ 235. The scene presented by this chapter appears to be of the char- 
acter of an interlude, not however to divert or distract attention, but to pre- 
pare the mind for a right understanding of the subsequent exhibition. 

The mission of the mighty angel has a threefold object: to deliver the 
little book—to announce the cessation of time—and to make known the 
double sense of the revelation contained in the little book. 

Connecting the account given of this extraordinary book with the declar- 
ation of the angel concerning the mystery to be finished in the sounding of 
the seventh trumpet, it appears reasonable to suppose that this book con- 


.* Eni with the accusative has the same signification after verbs of speaking, (Rob. 
Lex. 245.) So προφήτευσον ἐπὶ τὰ ουτᾶ ταῦτα, (Ezek. xxxvii. 4, Sept.) should be 
rendered prophesy concerning these bones, instead of on these bones ; or such is the 
idea to be associated with the term on. See also Ezek. xxxiv. 2, where about may 
be substituted for against. 


RETROSPECT. 165 


tains the mystery alluded to; as if it were in consequence of eating the 
book, that the apostle was enabled to contemplate and to record the myste- 
ries of the seventh trumpet. Not that these mysteries are in the nature of 
addenda to the gospel, or that they have not been otherwise exhibited, 
but that this little book and the voice of the seventh trumpet contain a 
summary of the gospel revelation ; the revelation of the mystery of God, 
under the head of this seventh trumpet, being the last mode of illustration 
by which this mystery of the gospel is*made known. For when it is said, 
that in the days of the voice of this trumpet the mystery of God shall be 
finished, it is very plain that the mystery is put for the exhibition of the 
mystery. ‘The mystery itself, or purpose of the divine mind, has been com- 
plete from all eternity ; the making of it known only is the thing to be 
finished: as if it had been said, in the days of the voice of the seventh 
trumpet the development of the mystery of God shall be completed. 

Preparatory to understanding this development, we are then to be taught 
that the terms of days, months, times, &c., occurring frequently in the voice 
of this trumpet, are not terms of time ; that no chronological period literally 
is intended by them; and further, that whatever may be the descriptions 
and language of this vision, the whole of which may be represented by the 
little book, they are susceptible of being taken in two senses—the spiritual 
and literal—the first of which is as sweet as the other is bitter. 

We do not suppose these peculiarities of the Apocalypse to commence 
in this place ; we suppose them to belong to the former part of the narra- 
tion as much as to the subsequent; but this is the stage of revelation in 
which it has become proper more especially to make these explanations. 
As it might be said that thus far there was scarcely a possibility of taking the 
matter revealed in a literal or temporal sense, but in the subsequent portion of 
the book there is much which might be so taken; so, in the former part, 
the notion of time is hardly hinted at; but in the part to come, chronological 
terms are so much employed, that it is now absolutely necessary to guard 
against their misconstruction. 

It may be said that under the proposed construction of the term time 
no longer, we must set aside also the periods of time mentioned in the book 
of Daniel, and thus lose the support of so much prophecy in identifying the 
epoch of the coming of the Messiah. But, besides that in the book of 
Daniel there is no such angelic declaration as we have here, there is also 
this important difference between the two: Daniel assigns an era, a from 
and after (Dan. ix. 25, 26) whence to calculate his periods of time; thus 
furnishing specific data by which we may ascertain whether the time of the 
advent in question corresponds with the prediction. But in the Apocalypse 
there is no from and after given: we do not know when the holy city begins 
to be trodden under foot, or when the woman begins her flight into the wilder- 


166 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


ness, or when her sojourn there commences, or when the two witnesses begin 
to prophesy, or when the blasphemous beast first rises from the sea. 'To ob- 
tain the desired date in either of these cases we are obliged to go out of the 
vision, and presume a warrant for finding the other part of the prophecy 
elsewhere. Instead of applying the solemn declaration to the matter in 
hand, commentators seem to have considered it as overstepping the limits of 
the Apocalypse, and as anticipating some subsequent moment when all the 
events predicted shall have transpired—defining a state of things when, ina 
literal sense, there shall be no more time. 

There is something peculiarly imposing in the thought of the sudden 
and entire cessation of time; and we seem to be carried away with the 
solemnity of the idea ; as if it were necessarily a point of Christian faith that 
time and eternity are inconsistent with each other, or as if time without end 
must be, in effect, no time at all. 

We know, however, almost with certainty, that if our earth and the 
whole solar system with which we are connected were entirely blotted out 
of existence, there must be other worlds and other solar systems, all having . 
their respective revolutions requiring time and marking time. If instead of 
this we suppose the end of time spoken of to apply to the destruction of this 
material globe, we cannot but ask why that subject is introduced in this 
place. How could it be said that time shall be no longer, when immedi- 
ately after the apostle is told that he has yet to prophesy before or concern- 
ing many nations, &c.? and the whole remainder of the book is an exhibition 
of a multitude of events yet to transpire, if any thing like a literal succes- 
sion of events be contemplated. On the other hand, under the construction 
we have adopted, that in this vision time literally is not to be taken into 
consideration, we are relieved from all these difficulties, and are enabled at 
once to seek an interpretation of what is subsequently related, without con- 
fining ourselves to the supposition of political or ecclesiastical events trans- 
piring at given epochs, and limited to certain durations. Such a release 
from material things and temporal objects, affords us reason enough for the 
introduction of the scene afforded by this chapter, and particularly for its 
introduction in this place. 


THE OUTER COURT. 167 


CHAPTER XP: 


SEVENTH SEAL.—-SIXTH TRUMPET. 
SECOND WO. 


THE OUTER COURT—THE HOLY CITY—THE TWO WITNESSES—THE GREAT 
CITY—-THE EARTHQUAKE. 


Vs. 1,2. And there was given mea Καὶ ἐδόϑη μοι κάλαμος ὅμοιος ῥάβδῳ, 
reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, λέγων ἔγειραι καὶ μέτρησον τὸν ναὺν τοῦ 


saying, Rise, and measure the temple of Ey ges aS Α ὙΠ eg 

God, and the altar, and them ΠΣ ϑεοῦ καὶ τὸ ϑυσιαστήριον καὶ τοὺς προς- 
9 ~ > 2 ~ \ 1 dat ‘ >» 

ship ‘therein ; but [ὅν and] the court which *U”0UrTaS ey φυτῷ" ποὺ τὴν αὐλῃν τήν ἕξω- 

is without the temple, leave out, and mea- de TOU γαοῦ ἔκβαλε ἕξω καὶ μὴ αὐτὴν με- 


sure it not; for itis given unto the Gen- τρήσῃς, ὅτι ἐδόϑη τοῖς ἔϑγεσι, καὶ τὴν πό- 


tiles [nations]: and the holy city shall } ἡ 
they tread under foot forty (and) two rs ee i nll hg a ein 


κοντα Ovo. 
months. 


§ 236. “ΑΝ there was given to me a reed like unto a rod.’-—A mea- 
suring rod, no doubt, such an one as was commonly employed in measuring 
distances, heights, &c. 

‘And the angel stood, saying. —Kai ὁ ἄγγελος εἰστήκει λέγων. This 
reading is not the same in all editions of the Greek, although it apparently 
accords with the tenor of the narrative. ‘The scene is unchanged, and the 
division of chapters in this place was uncalled for. ‘The angel, after having 
given the little book, (the bitter and the sweet of which had been just 
experienced by the recipient,) and after having apprised the apostle of the 
prophetic function yet to be fulfilled by him, stands to give him further 
instructions ; teaching him in effect how to recommence his avocation of 
prophesying—an avocation like that of the prophets of old, performed by 
actions as well as by words. Whether we admit the reading as above or not, 
the natural inference seems to be that the saying or bidding accompanying 
the gift of the reed, was that of the angel just before speaking. 

‘ Rise, and measure the temple of God.’—It does not appear that the 
apostle did measure, or that he attempted to do so; nor is any measure 
afterwards given of the temple, although at the close of the Apocalypse, 
the holy city is said to be measured, not by the apostle but by an angel ; 
and not with an ordinary reed, but with a golden reed—a standard measure 
of truth. It seems probable, therefore, that this order to measure is intended 

20 


168 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


to place in a prominent light the immeasurable attributes of the spiritual 
temple ; as if it had been said, Measure now if thou canst! The reed like 
a rod—an ordinary standard—representing human powers of admeasure- 
ment ; as it is said, Job xi. 7-9, “ Canst thou by searching find out God? 
canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? (It is) as high as heaven, 
what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The 
measure thereof (is) longer than the earth, and broader than the 568.᾿ So, 
Eph. ii. 18, the great object of the disciple’s aspiration is represented to be 
the ability of comprehending the length, and breadth, and depth, and height, 
of the love of Christ ; while, at the same time, this love is said to be passing 
knowledge—beyond the compass of a finite mind. 

Something of this kind is found Zech. ii. 1-5: a man is there said to be 
seen with a measuring-rod, going forth to measure Jerusalem ; to see the 
breadth and the length thereof; but he is stopped from doing this by a mes- 
senger, telling him that Jerusalem shall be as towns without walls, for the 
multitude of men and cattle, and that the Lord himself would be a wall of 
fire round about her. 'There may be some correspondence between the 
immeasurable love of God, and this unlimited compass of the spiritual city 
of the prophet, or of the spiritual temple of the apostle’s vision. The 
dimensions of the temple, it is true, are very particularly given by another 
prophet, Ezek. xl. and xli.; but these forms, as they are there called, appear 
to be spoken of in conjunction with ordinances, leaving us to suppose that 
there may be the same difference between the temple of Ezekiel and that 
of John, as there is between the old economy and the new ;—the first being 
a figure of the legal dispensation with its prescriptions and limitations, 
and the last the arrangement in which the Great Object of worship giveth 
not the Spirit by measure. 

§ 237. ‘ And the altar, and them that worship therein.—The temple 
we have elsewhere (ὃ 98) supposed to be. that arrangement by which, and 
in which, the disciple is enabled to worship God in spirit and in truth, 
(John iv. 24 ;) that is, serving God and not himself ;—such a service requir- 
ing a position obtainable only in Christ by adoption and imputation ; leay- 
ing the worshipper no motive of action other than that of gratitude towards 
his heavenly Benefactor, and zeal for his glory. 

In this respect the temple of Jerusalem was a symbol of Christ, as that 
in which only men ought to worship, (John iv. 90 :) a structure growing 
out of the love of God towards man, and on this account as immeasurable 
as that love itself. The altar we have also already considered (¢ 161) as 
a figure of the word or purpose of God manifested in Christ ; upon which, 
and by which, his sacrifice of propitiation has been set apart. By which 
purpose, as upon an altar, every sacrifice of thanksgiving must be sanctified 
or set apart, to be rendered acceptable. In the same sense, the worshippers 


THE OUTER COURT. 169 


in the temple, “them that worship therein,” we suppose to be opposites of 
the Gentiles or nations—opposites of all not spiritually Jews ; these wor- 
shippers in the temple corresponding with the one hundred and forty-four 
thousand sealed ones—principles or elements of doctrine belonging exclu- 
sively to the system of salvation by sovereign grace. 

The expression “them that worship or serve therein” may refer more 
particularly to the priests and Levites, who were continually in the temple 
day and night, and whose peculiar functions were those of worship and 
temple service. These were sanctified and set apart by their office in the 
temple ; as the believer is sanctified or set apart in Christ, and is thus 
spiritually in him constituted a priest, even as he is a priest. Correspond- 
ing with this, the principles or elements of doctrine upon which God is thus 
worshipped are represented by these servants in the temple. These elements, 
as well as those peculiar to the altar, are pointed out as of the same immea- 
surable character as the temple itself; spiritual priests or Levites being also 
principles divested of all selfishness of motive : opposites of the sons of Eli, 
who served the altar for the sake of the portion of sacrifices allotted to them ; 
for which portion they sufficiently exhibited their extreme avidity, (1 Sam. 
ii. 15.) , 

§ 238. ‘But the court which is without the temple leave out, and 
measure it not.—As the direction to measure the temple was intended to 
give prominence to its immeasurable character, so the order not*to measure 
the outer court may be intended to show that this is the symbol of some- 
thing not of the same unlimited character ; the temple in a spiritual sense 
being something enduring for eternity, while in the literal sense it is only 
of temporary importance. So the temple, in its external or literal sense, (its 
outer court,) being only a symbol intended to last but for a time, does not 
call for the exhibition of those unlimited powers peculiar to the mystery 
represented by the temple proper. ‘The external or literal sense is not of 
sufficient importance to be measured ; it does not belong to the spiritual 
system of divine worship which is to be preserved from perversion. 

‘For it is given unto the Gentiles. —The literal or external sense of 
revelation is the subject of perversion ; the spiritual sense may be hidden, 
but when developed it cannot be perverted. Something else may be mis- 
taken for it, but the correct spiritual sense itself remains the same ; it is 
incapable of sustaining or of giving countenance to a false system of salva- 
tion. So, the arrangement of principles peculiar to the worship of God, 
represented by the outer court or temple in its literal sense, is that only 
which is subject to the influence of the elements of self-righteousness, figura- 
tively spoken of as the Gentiles or nations—the uncircumcised—the oppo- 
sites of the spiritual Jews. 

‘ And the holy city they shall tread under foot forty and two months.’— 


170 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


It is not expressed, but it seems to be implied, that the possession of the 
outer court of the temple by the Gentiles is a figure equivalent to that of 
their treading the holy city under foot ; the first figure involving the last : 
the temple being in the city, and possession of the city being requisite for 
a possession or control of the court of the temple. The holy city we sup- 
pose to be Jerusalem; but not the new Jerusalem, or new vision of peace, 
such as it is seen by the apostle when coming down from heaven, (Rev. 
xxi. 2.) It is the vision of peace, as discerned in a literal construction of 
the language of revelation, corresponding with the Jerusalem that now is, 
spoken of by Paul, (Gal. iv. 25.) Jerusalem in bondage to the Romans, 
was literally the holy city trodden under foot by the Gentiles. So the 
vision of peace revealed in the Scriptures, under a literal construction of 
that revelation, is in bondage or brought into subjection to self-righteous 
and legal principles. The mysteries of redemption are thus in the posses- 
sion of these erroneous principles, as a captured city is in possession of the 
conquerors. So we may say of the sacred Scriptures, figuratively speaking, 
while in the hands of interpreters insisting upon the literal sense, they are 
in a state of captivity, deprived of the liberty or power of promoting the 
glory of God, by a just development of the truth ; as the children of Israel 
were prevented by the Egyptian despot from going forth from their place of 
bondage to worship or serve their God, as they had been directed. 

The verb πατέω strictly signifies only treading, (Rob. Lex. 561 ;) tread- 
ing the city being equivalent to holding possession of it, or dwelling in it ; 
and this seems to be all that the sense here requires. As the Gentiles were 
to have possession of the outer court of the temple, so they were to have 
possession of the city. The difficulty is, that the enemy has possession ; 
the captured party is under constraint, deprived of the liberty of performing 
its proper functions. So the mysteries of the true worship of God and of 
the true means of salvation, as revealed in the Scriptures, while under the 
control of legal, self-righteous, and literal rules of construction, are also 
under constraint, incapable of exhibiting the truth according to its spiritual 
and proper sense. | 

§ 239. Although the possession of the court of the temple, and that of 
the holy city, are in some degree equivalent figures, we do not suppose them 
to signify precisely the same thing. The temple, with its precincts and 
appurtenances, apparently represents the elements of the economy of grace 
pertaining more especially to the worship of God; while the czty, with all 
its peculiar properties, represents that portion of the same arrangement of 
grace, applying more particularly to the eternal salvation of the believer. 

“ One thing have I desired of the Lord,” says David, ‘that will I seek 
after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, 
to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.”—That is, 


THE HOLY CITY. 171 


to inquire into the mystery represented by the temple proper ; the spiritual 
arrangement of principles by which the worshipper is enabled to come unto 
God in Christ.—* For in the time of trouble,” the Psalmist adds, ‘“ he 
shall hide me in his pavilion ; in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide 
me ; he shall set me upon a rock.”—Here are three figures of the same posi- 
tion of safety. To be in the pavilion of God, is to be in Christ ; to be in the 
secret of the tabernacle of God, is to be in Christ ; and to be set upon a 
rock, is to rest upon Christ as upon a foundation. In this position it is 
that the disciple is enabled to draw near to God, and to offer in his taber- 
nacle sacrifices of joy and gratitude, (Ps. xxvii. 4-6.) 

It is commonly admitted by all who bear the name of Christ, that he is 
the only way of access to God ; that we must come-unto God in his name ; 
that he is the only mediator ; but the ordinary apprehension of this privilege 
is very superficial, and little better than literal. Such as it is, we may com- 
pare it to the outer court of the temple. [{ is subject to great perversion. 
It is in the possession of the elements of literal construction, as the outer 
court was given to the Gentiles. The intercession or mediation of Christ, 
in the ordinary sense, is supposed to be an oral intercession—a pleading as 
by word of mouth ; while, in a spiritual sense, it must consist in a virtual 
intervention of his merits—of his imputed righteousness. In the first 
sense, it is evident that doctrinal views may be admitted inconsistent both 
with the divinity of Christ and with the truth of salvation through his 
righteousness alone ; in the last sense, these erroneous principles can find 
no place, for the virtual intercession or mediation of the merits of Christ 
involve the truths of his divine nature, and of salvation through his imputed 
merits alone. Such, we suppose, to be the difference between the temple 
and the outer court of the temple. 

A city or walled town isa place of safety and comfort—a dwelling 
furnished with the means of shelter, food, and defence. Such is the econo- 
my of grace with reference to its immediate object—the salvation of the 
sinner—* A city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” 
A self-righteous plan of salvation, on the contrary, is a city without a 
foundation, of which man only is the builder and maker. Here, it is said, 
(Heb. xiii. 14,) we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come ; we 
have no means of salvation in any merits of our own. ΑΒ it was said of 
the wandering Hebrews in the desert, “they found no city to dwell in.” 
In the wilderness of Sinai, as under the threatening of the law, their 
position was that of the disciple out of Christ, and unprotected by the im- 
putation of his merits. In Christ only, we find a shelter from the wrath to 
come—a defence from the power of the legal accuser, and the means of 
obtaining and of sustaining eternal life ; out of him our condition is spiritually 
analogous to that of the people of God during their sojourn in the desert. 


172 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


This position in Christ, we suppose to be the same as that afforded by the 
holy city in its proper spiritual sense, that is, the economy of grace. This 
economy, however, has been misunderstood in proportion as the language 
of Revelation in respect to it has been literally construed. ‘The new Jeru- 
salem, it is true, has been supposed to be in some way a representation of 
the mystery of redemption ; but the holy city has been in possession of the 
Gentiles. The vision of peace has been perverted by self-righteous elements 
of doctrine; even so much 50, that, in the apprehension of many, the object 
of salvation (the community of disciples) has been substituted for the means 
of salvation, the plan of sovereign grace. 

The same erroneous principles have thus perverted the language of 
Scripture, in respect to the views peculiar to the worship of God, and to 
the salvation of the sinner. The city and the outer court of the temple 
have been alike trodden by the Gentiles. 

§ 240. ‘Forty and two months.’—This is the time during which the 
Gentiles were to have possession of the city ; and it seems to be implied 
that the gift of the outer court to them was to be of a corresponding dura- 
tion; the term forty-two months applying to both. This period has been 
supposed to be equivalent to one of twelve hundred and sixty years, calculat- 
ing in round numbers thirty days to the month ; and various efforts have been 
made to assign this term of time, in a literal, chronological sense, to a certain 
portion of ecclesiastical history ; but for the reasons already given (ᾧ 230) 
we believe time in this literal sense is not to be taken into consideration. With 
those engaged in contemplating the mysteries of this vision there is tume no 
longer. It isremarkable, however, that the several mystic terms of time, in this 
and in the following chapters, correspond so nearly with each other, taking 
the expression time, and times, and half a time, to be synonymous with that 
of a year, two Years, and half a year; a construction now very generally 
admitted.* These various periods all resulting, in round numbers, in a term 
of twelve hundred and sixty days. 

As already suggested we can only account for this peculiarity, by sup- 
posing these various, terms of an equal period to be intended to point out 
a certain parallelism in the predictions severally connected with them. In 
applying this mystic scale, we conceive it as reasonable to convert the 
twelve hundred and sixty days into forty-two months, as to turn the forty- 
two months into days; and we feel the same liberty to turn the months, 
or days, into three and a half years, as we should m changing the years 
into days. As far as the parallelism of apocalyptic predictions is con- 
cerned this distinction may not be important, but it may be of service in 
throwing light upon other portions of Scripture; by enabling us to compare 
the figures of this vision with some of the historical relations of the Old 


* See Faber and others. 


THE TWO WITNESSES. 173 


Testament.* At present we confine ourselves to the conclusion that this 
term of forty-two months is intended only to indieate the coincidence of the 
treading of the Gentiles, with the prophesying of the two witnesses in sack- 
cloth for twelve hundred and sixty days ; and that the two terms are designed 
to point out this Gentile predominance and prophesying in sackcloth, as co- 
incident with the sojourn of the woman in the wilderness, (Rev. xii. 6 and 
14,) and with the power given to the beast, (Rev. xiii. 5.) 

In a literal sense, the Holy City was trodden by the Gentiles (the 
Romans) in the time of the apostles; and although the possession of it 
afterwards changed hands, there has been no time for the last eighteen 
hundred years that it has not been subject to Gentile power. In a spiritual 
sense it would be equally difficult to say when it was since the days of the 
crucifixion, that the mysterious truths represented by the outer court, and 
by the city, have not been perverted in their exhibition by the influence of 
incorrect doctrinal principles. Itis easy to point out twelve hundred and sixty 
years during which the city of Jerusalem was possessed by Gentiles ; but it 
is not so easy to point out a single hundred years of the Christian era, when 
it was not in the same predicament. In a literal sense, too, the temple was 
destroyed in the time of the Emperor Titus, not one stone being left upon 
another. Not only the outer court, but the temple itself, was in this sense 
given to the Gentiles; and there can hardly be said to have been a period 
admitting of discrimination between the temple and the outer court since. 
We seem to be shut up, therefore, to the conclusion above adopted, that 
the employment of these terms of time is altogether of a mystical char- 
acter, designed to direct the attention to a species of synthesis, or combina- 
tion, or collation of the several representations accompanied with these 
marks of identity, as so many different features of one picture. 


Vs. 3,4. And I will give (power) unto Kai δώσω τοῖς δυσὶ μάρτυσί μου, καὶ 
my two witnesses, and they shall pro- προφητεύσουσιν ἡμέρας χιλίας διακοσίας 
phesy a thousand two hundred (and) .." Binuty ila ἜΣ 
ΠΣ oy SE EE ERIE CEL AME de l/l A σάκκους, ΠΟΙ 

5 ys, ᾿ . > ε δύ ay ~ \ ε δύ λ ΤΥ ς 
Sige re the ὑπο, O1IVe-Urecs,. ΜΠῚ LNG Ὁ Οὐ nee eee ee τ Ὁ tee an 
. . " 2 af, 5 ~ ~ ~ c ~ 
two candlesticks standing before the God ἐνώπιον τοῦ κυρίου τῆς γῆς ἑστῶτες. 
of the earth. 


§ 241. ‘I will give unto my two witnesses.—The word power is not 
in the original. It would probably be a better rendering to say, I will give 


* There is evidently a strong analogy between the history of the children of 
Israel, from their exodus to their possession of the promised land, and the experience 
of the Christian disciple in matters of doctrine, or his progress in faith from his first 
perception of the bondage of the law to his full enjoyment of gospel truth. Our 
limits, however, will not admit of enlarging upon this illustration at present, except 
to remark that there may be a like analogy between these three and a half year- 
terms of the Apocalypse and the three and a half years’ drought in the time of the 
prophet Elijah. 


174 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


mn charge to my two witnesses. This is the part to be given them—the 
duty assigned them to perform. 'To give power, simply implies a liberty 
of exercising the power or not; but to give in charge, while it implies the 
gift of power, also leaves no election to the agent, whether to discharge the 
function assigned or not. Whatever these two witnesses represent, it is 
something necessarily performing that which God designed should be per- 
formed by it. 

‘My two witnesses ;’—or, as it might be rendered, the two witnesses of me. 
The same mighty angel is still speaking ; the angel whose face was as the sun, 
a personification of the Son of God. His witnesses, or the witnesses of him, 
must be such as bear witness to his character and offices, as announced in the 
gospel. We suppose these to be two elements of divine revelation virtually 
bearing testimony to the mystery of godliness, as manifested in Jesus Christ. 

‘ And they shall prophesy ;’—that is, interpret the will and purposes of 
God, (ᾧ 69;) not so much in the sense of predicting events, as in that of 
unfolding the designs of God in the work of redemption. The two wit- 
nesses are instruments by which these designs are made known—the Old 
and New Covenants, or Testaments, (διαϑῆκαι,) not only as they are 
revealed in the Scriptures, but also as they have been in the divine mind 
from the beginning ; for what is said of them in the subsequent verse seems 
to imply that they have been and are perpetually before God. The ex- 
hibition made of them in the Scriptures may be said to be their prophesy- 
ing or preaching. 

‘Twelve hundred and sixty days clothed in sackcloth.’—That is, ap- 
parently, they are to prophesy in sackcloth for this term; besides which, 
they may have prophesied before this period, or may do so afterwards, in a 
different garb. This prophesying in sackcloth is to continue twelve 
hundred and sixty days, a period when reduced to months, calculating 
thirty days to the month, corresponding with that during which the city was 
to be trodden by the Gentiles—showing the coincidence of the two pre- 
dictions ;—as if it were said, So long as the city is trodden by the Gentiles, 
so long the prophesying of these witnesses must he in sackcloth. In the 
nature of the case the one peculiarity involving the other. 

Assuming these two witnesses to be the two covenants, or the legal and 
the gospel dispensations, as revealed in the Scriptures, they may be said to 
bear testimony of Christ at all times, and in all eternity, existing in the 
divine mind as they have done from the beginning, and witnessing in their spirit- 
ual sense throughout eternity ; but they may be said to prophesy in a garb of 
mourning and humiliation, especially when the language in which they are re- 
vealed is so understood as to be that of the law, rather than that of the gospel. 

A raiment of sackcloth was, particularly amongst the Hebrews, a sign of 
mourning for the dead ; and spiritually it may represent a mourning on account 


THE TWO WITNESSES. 175 


of the position of death or condemnation incident to the imputation of sin, as 
a consequence of a state of subjection to the law. 

Jacob put sackcloth upon his loins, whengnourning for the supposed 
death of Joseph, Gen. xxxvii. 34. The people were directed to gird them- 
selves with sackcloth for the death of Abner, 2 Sam. 111. 31; and the 
prophet calls upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem to “ Lament, like a virgin girded 
with sackcloth for the husband of her youth,” Joel i. 8. From this primary 
use of the material it became a token of mourning generally, and a sign of 
humilitation and penitence. 

Children, as we have before remarked, are figures of righteousnesses or 
merits. ‘The sinner, brought to a conviction of his entire destitution of 
merit, mourns as one mourneth for a lost son ; so, in the marriage relation, 
the husband is the figure of the Redeemer ; and those convinced of sin, and 
without the knowledge of a Saviour, have reason indeed to lament, as a 
virgin girded in sackcloth for the husband of her youth. In like manner, all 
who contemplate man only as dead in trespasses and sins, may be com- 
pared to mourners for the dead. ὁ 

§ 242. A literal and legal misconstruction of the language of revelation, 
both in respect to the old and new dispensations, exhibits the sinner in this 
state of death. It goes no further—the letter killeth—Christ is spoken of 
as a Saviour, but he is represented only as a Judge. ‘The gospel is confess- 
edly the glad tidings of salvation, but it is virtually exhibited only as a re- 
finement of the law. Christ is declared to be the way of salvation; but 
man is in effect supposed to be dependent for eternal life upon some right- 
eousness, or holiness, or virtue of his own. He is thus, after all that divine 
mercy has done for him, supposed ‘to be left in the state of the dead; and 
the testimony of revelation in respect to him appears to be no other than 
the language of mourning. ‘This must be so, so long as, in the exhibition 
of the economy of redemption, Christ is not discerned as the Lord our right- 
eousness, and so long as the only ground of the believer’s hope is not per- 
ceived to be that of sovereign grace. So long as the holy city, the vision 
of peace, (Jerusalem,) the exhibition of the divine plan of redemption, is 
in the possession, and subject to the perversion of elements of self-right- 
eousness, so long the language both of the Old and New Testaments will 
appear to be the language of mourning, and so long both the old and new 
dispensations, as revealed in the Scriptures, will appear as witnesses indeed 
of Christ, but witnesses prophesying in sackcloth. The fault is not in the 
witnesses, or in the two dispensations, or in the Scripture account of them, 
but it is in that misconstruction of this account which throws over the tes- 
timony of these two covenants the garb of mourning ; this misconstruction 
arising from the influence of self-righteous principles figuratively styled 
Gentiles, that is, opposites of Jews inwardly, 


176 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


The result will not differ much if we give to these two witnesses the 
appellation of the law and the gospel.* These both are witnesses of Christ 
—the law, used lawfully, showing the necessity of a remedy for sin; and 
the gospel, rightly understood, showing the provision of that remedy to be 
precisely such as to meet the case. The law unlawfully used, on the con- 
trary, and the gospel, contemplated merely as a commentary upon the law, 
while they witness of Christ, can do so only in a garb of sackcloth. . 

We do not pretend to define a time or place where the misconstruction 
alluded to has prevailed; whether in the disciple’s own breast, or in the 
world at large, or in any portion of it. Where the carcase is, it is said, 
there the eagles shall be gathered together. Wherever the error is to be 
found, there these witnesses are prophesying in sackcloth ; and this so long 
as the exhibition of the economy of redemption to the same individual or 
mind is perverted by the influence of the Gentile elements of self-justifica- 
tion; the one peculiarity involving the other. 

A clothing of sackcloth is the opposite of white rament—the white linen, 
fine and clean, declared to be the righteousness of the saints ; and which we 
take to be the imputed righteousness of Christ. ‘The two witnesses, during 
the season of humiliation, do not appear clad in this livery of the household 
of faith. And, as in physics black is said to be nothing more than the defi- 
ciency of colour, the rays of light not being reflected. so with the witnesses, 
so long as they do not exhibit the robe of divine righteousness—the gar- 
ment bright as the light—the want of this array causes them to appear as 
in sackcloth ; as the Sun of righteousness, so long as his true character is not 


* We do not mean by these terms to confine our idea of the law to what is said 
of it in the Old Testament alone, nor our idea of the gospel to what is said of that 
in the New Testament alone; we consider them each, as revealed in both the Old 
and New Testaments ;—the gospel being shadowed forth in the Levitical dispensa- 
tion, as well as in the typical history of the patriarchs, and constituting the burden 
of the Psalms and of the prophets ; and the legal dispensation being referred and ap- 
pealed to, and argued upon, in setting forth the glad tidings of the New Testament. 

The law and the prophets are spoken of, Rom. iii. 21, as witnessing to the right- 
eousness of God, evidently considering them as one witness of Christ. So, Is. viii. 16, 
the law and the testimony are appealed to as one witness ; and John v. 39, the Scrip- 
tures, those of the Old Testament of course—no other Scriptures being then in exist- 
ence—are referred to by Christ as witnessing of him. 

On the other hand, the preaching of the gospel is spoken of as “a witness unto 
all nations,” Matt. xxiv. 14; and the testimony of Jesus, Rev. i. 2, and xix. 10, is also 
spoken of as a witness; while it is said also to be the spirit, or as we may say, the 
essence of prophecy ;—to testify and to witness being expressed by the same word 
in the Greek; and in fact the only difference between the terms in our language 
being this, that one is a Latinism and the other is Saxon, We have thus no occa- 
sion for going out of the Scriptures to find two special witnesses of Jesus. Two wit- 
nesses always prophesying ; but prophesying in sackcloth only for a limited term in 
the sense supposed. 


THE TWO WITNESSES. 177 


perceived by the spiritual understanding, appears in a literal aspect black as 
sackcloth of hair, (¢ 164.) 

§ 243. The children of the bride-chamber do not mourn while the 
bridegroom is with them; but the days come, says our Saviour, when the 
bridegroom will be taken from them, and then shall they fast or mourn, 
Matt. ix. 15; fasting and mourning being terms scripturally interchangeable, 
or nearly so. These days of fasting probably correspond with the days of 
prophesying in sackcloth. Wherever and whenever the disciple is unable 
to trust in his imputed identity with his Saviour, as the wife is accounted 
one with her husband, there the bridegroom is taken away, and there is the 
season for mourning and fasting; there too, “ the city sits solitary,”—the 
economy of redemption is no longer recognized as the bride adorned for her 
husband. The ways of Zion do mourn—her beauty is departed, (Lam. 1. 
4 and 6)—the gold has become dim, and the fine gold changed. 

We have only to suppose the scriptural revelation of the two covenants 
—the legal and gospel dispensations—to be read under the influence of such 
misconstruction as to cause them to appear to prophesy bitter things instead 
of sweet, to appear as the messengers of death rather than of life, and we 
shall contemplate them as two witnesses of Jesus clothed in sackcloth. Or 
if we suppose the law and the prophets of the Old Testament as one wit- 
ness, and the gospel of the New Testament as the other witness, taken in 
a literal sense, (2 Cor. iii. 6, 7,) to be so construed as to carry with them 
a legal import only, we shall then see cause for the mourning of the chil- 
dren of the bride-chamber ; while we also see the prophesying in sackcloth 
of these two instruments of interpreting the divine counsels, to be a conse- 
quence of the possession of the city by the Gentzles—a cause of lamenta- 
tion alluded to apparently, Is. i. 21, ‘‘ How is the faithful city become an 
harlot! It was full of judgment ; righteousness lodged in it, but now mur- 
derers,’’—(principles tending to death or condemnation.) ‘Thy silver is 
become dross, thy wine mixed with water,’—(adulterated ; the price of re- 
demption being represented by that which is in reality worthless, and the 
atonement by that which is deprived of its exhilarating quality of joy and 
gladness.) “Thy princes are rebellious,’—(opposed to the sovereignty 
of God.) ‘Companions of thieves’”—(robbing God of the honour and 
glory due Him for the work of redemption.) ‘ Every one loveth gifts, and 
followeth after rewards,”—(mercenary principles substituted for those of grat- 
itude for God’s free gift:) “they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the 
cause of the widow come before them.” There is no provision in this per- 
verted system for the sinner in his entirely helpless state—as by nature, 
without any merit of his own, exposed to the condemnation of the law with- 
out a defence. A parallel allusion may be found, (Ps. exxxvii. 4,) “ How 
shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” How shall the redemp- 


178 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


tion of Christ be celebrated amongst those who advocate a system of self- 
justification ; or how can gospel principles of doctrine be set forth in a legal 
and self-righteous system of salvation? It is very evident that these mis- 
taken views—this prophesying in sackcloth, and treading of the city, have 
not been confined literally to a period of one thousand two hundred and 
sixty years in the Christian church, still less to any like period prior to the 
Christian era ; we have again therefore, in this particular, to fall back upon 
the declaration of the mighty angel, there shall be time no longer. 

§ 244. ‘These are the two olive-trees, and the two candlesticks stand- 
ing before the God of the earth.—Not merely two olive-trees, but the two 
olive-trees ; referring perhaps to the vision of the prophet, Zech. iv. 2, 7, 
<< And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and 
behold a candlestick, all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his 
seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon 
the top thereof: and two olive-trees by it, one upon the night side of the 
bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.’ This exhibition is declared 
in the sixth verse to be “the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, say- 
ing, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of 
Hosts.” ‘The declaration is preparatory to a prediction of bring’ng forth 
the head-stone (or perhaps the key-stone, speaking of the plan of salvation 
as an arch) “ with shoutings, Grace, grace unto 11. The two olive-trees or 
branches are afterwards, v. 14, declared to be the two anointed ones, that 
stand by the Lord of the whole earth, corresponding very nearly with what 
is said in the Apocalypse of the two witnesses—“ These are the two olive- 
trees, &c., standing before the God of the earth,” or according to the Greek, 
the Lord of the earth. ‘The oil of olives being employed in anointing or 
setting apart any one to a distinguished office, the tree itself producing the 
oil, is put for an anointed person or thing set apart to some peculiar office. 
These two anointed ones were standing before the Lord, we may say, in the 
time of Zechariah, and this we suppose to have been the case with the two 
witnesses ; but they were not then or there perhaps in sackcloth. 

These anointed ones are termed in the Septuagint the two sons of fat- 
ness. The scriptural attribute of the olive is its fatness, which quality in 
a good sense is a figure of the righteousness or merits of Christ; the disci- 
ple, in partaking of this righteousness by imputation, being said to partake 
of the fatness of the good olive-tree, (Rom. xi. 17-24.) When the dove 
returned to Noah with an olive-leaf, he knew that the waters were abated ; 
and perhaps from that time to the present an olive-branch has been pro- 
verbially considered an emblem of peace and reconciliation. These two 
olive-trees or olive-branches are witnesses of the reconciliation of man to 
God. They bear testimony to the mode or process of this reconciliation ; 
and this we think may be affirmed of the two economies, or dispensations, 


THE TWO WITNESSES. 179 


They are harbingers of peace with God, inasmuch as they exhibit the rich 
provision by which it is secured, Or, if we prefer it, the law and the pro- 
phets serve as one olive-branch in the Old Testament, while the gospel is 
seen as the other in the new; that is, when both of these are rightly un- 
derstood ; otherwise, so long as the witnesses prophesy in sackcloth, their 
true character as olive-trees is not perceived. 

‘ And the two candlesticks.’-—There are no two candlesticks mentioned 
elsewhere in the Scriptures. The golden candlesticks of the temple were 
tenin number, five on each side, (two ranges,) 1 Kings vii. 49, and there was 
but one such candlestick in the vision of Zechariah; although the office of 
the two olive-trees seen by the prophet seems to have been to supply the 
candlestick and its seven branches with the material for giving light by 
means of two golden pipes, which may be equivalent to the two candle- 
sticks of the Apocalypse. According to some editions of the Greek, how- 
ever, we may read, “ and two candlesticks there before the God of the earth,” 
&c. The witnesses are the two olive-trees, and certain two candlesticks, 
They perform the part of candlesticks in exhibiting the light of the glory of 
that rich provision of righteousness, which is figuratively the fatness or ful- 
ness of the olive-tree—the true means of sanctification, anointing, or setting 
apart: the true means by which the disciple is brought out of his position 
of darkness by nature into the position of God’s marvellous light, 1 Pet. ii. 9; 
both the old and the new dispensations being instrumental in exhibiting and 
carrying into effect this wonderful operation of Sovereign Grace. They are 
not candles, but candlesticks ; they are not the light, but the means by which 
the light is exhibited, or imparted—not an intellectual light, but, as we sup- 
pose, the moral perfection of the Deity—spiritual light or divine righteousness 
imparted by imputation to the subjects of divine favour. As it is said, Is, 
Ix. 19, 20, “The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God 
thy glory.” “The Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of 
thy mourning shall be ended.” The two witnesses are the instruments of 
exhibiting this light of divine righteousness, 

‘Standing before the Lord of the earth.’—Were it not for this expres- 
sion we might confine our ideas of these witnesses, olive-trees, or candle- 
sticks, to the written revelations of divine merey—the Old and New Testa- 
ments ; but this standing seems to imply something perpetual, eternal, in the 
sight of the Lord, as the words ἐνώπιον τοῦ κυρίου might be rendered. 
Whether the light from the candlesticks be perceived by men or not; or 
whether the fatness or fruit of the olive-trees be recognized or not by those 
for whose benefit it is designed, the candlesticks and the olive-trees are ever 
before God, This consideration induces us to prefer supposing the two 
Witnesses to represent the two covenants or dispensations, as they exist and 
have always existed in the mind of Him who is without variableness or 


180 * ΠῊΒ SEVENTH SEAL —THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


shadow of change. As the Creator and Preserver of all things, God is de- 
clared by the apostle (Acts xiv. 17) never to have left himself without wit- 
ness ; so too as the Gracious Sovereign he has never lost sight of his pur- 
poses of mercy; his covenants, old and new, have been with him from the 
beginning, and are, and have always been, and always will be, the witnesses 
of his loving-kindness and tender merey—always standing before God, but 
not always revealed to man; and when revealed, not always discerned in 
their true characters. . 


V.5. And if any man will hurt them, Καὶ εἴ τις αὐτοὺς ϑέλει ἀδικῆσαι, πῦρ 
fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and EXTLOQEVETUL ἐκ TOU στόματος αὐτῶν καὶ κα- 
devoureth their enemies: and ifany man |, Bien cote Sots ere on 
will hurt them, he must in this manner be Η 3 : a sh $ μ᾿ ρος ἘΠ᾿ $ 
\illed. τοὺς ϑέλει ἀδικῆσαι, οὕτω δεῖ αὐτὸν ἀποκ- 


τανϑῆναι. 

ᾧ 245. ‘If any one,’ &c.—The word man is not in the original. The 
participle τις may be applied to man or angel, but we suppose it to be put 
here for principle. If any principle hurt, (¢ 174,) or tend to cause these 
two witnesses to appear to be unjust, or wanting in righteousness, fire pro- 
ceedeth out of their mouth. The action of revealed truth, comprehended in 
their prophesying, will devour or overcome their enemies ; corresponding 
with what we have before supposed to be represented by the element of fire, 
($ 30.) This agent of destruction is also very plainly indicated to be a reve- 
lation, by its proceeding from the mouth of the two witnesses; and these 
witnesses being the legal and gospel dispensations, bearing testimony as with 
one mouth to the goodness and glory of Jehovah, their enemies are doctrinal 
principles, operating against their testimony—an opposition entirely ineffec- 
tual, the matter of this testimony itself destroying these opposing principles 
by exhibiting their fallacy. 

‘ And if any one will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.’— 
This clause seems to be a repetition of the preceding. The sense appar- 
ently is this: If any one desire to prove them wnyust, fire proceedeth out of 
their mouth, &c.; and therefore if any one do this, in this way he must be 
killed, or destroyed ; that is, by the fire out of their mouth. Whatever the 
enemy be, the destruction to be encountered is of this kind ; the result of the 
action of the word of God through the instrumentality of the revelation 
made by these two witnesses. A destruction similar to that predicted of 
the mystery of iniquity—the man of sim—whom the Lord shall consume 
with the spirit or breath of his mouth, 2 Thess. ii. 8, and to that of the 
wicked, Is. xi. 4. The breath, or fire, or spirit, being the same in all these 
cases ; the difference being only in the instrumentality. Taking the two 
witnesses to be the two dispensations, the fire from their mouths is the 
revealed word of God acting through their instrumentality upon opposing 
errors, or erroneous doctrines. 


THE TWO WITNESSES. 181 


It is not necessary to suppose this killing or devouring to be instanta- 
neous. It may be something gradually and continually in operation—as 
the breath of the Lord is said, Is. xxx. 33, to be “like a stream of brim- 
stone ;” brimstone or sulphur, as the fuel of subterranean fire, being a figure 
of perpetuity. The action of divine revelation in the destruction of false 
doctrines is thus represented as something perpetually in operation, over- 
whelming and devouring until every opposing principle has yielded to its 
power. “ Behold the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with his 
anger, and the burden thereof is heavy : his lips are full of indignation, and 
his tongue as a devouring fire : and his breath, as an overflowing stream,” Is. 
xxx. 27, 28. 


V.6, These have Mba to ri heaven, Οὗτοι ἔχουσι τὴν ἐξουσίαν κλεῖσαι τὸν 
desk diode ena Cee τῆν ΚΑ  κ κος 
turn them to blood, and to smite the earth 790PNTSMS, GUTuN” | Kar Esovatuy EZovow 
with all plagues, as often as they will. a) ὑδάτων, PRGEP UR QUT EG tata ΘΑ 

πατάξαι τὴν γῆν ἐν πάσῃ πληγῆ, δσάκις 
ἐὰν ϑελήσωσι. 

ᾧ 246. ‘ These have power,’ &c.—That is, such is their commission ; the 
gift of power being equivalent to an injunction to perform that for the accom- 
plishment of which the power or ability is given. Although these two wit- 
nesses are instruments of revealing the mystery of salvation, they are 
charged with doing this in such a manner as that it should be only partially 
understood for a certain season. And this probably for the same reason 
that this mystery itself has been first announced through the medium of the 
types and symbols of the Old Testament revelation ; and for the same rea- 
son that our Saviour explained himself in parables to the multitude gener- 
ally, and even to his own disciplés only so far as they were able to receive it. 

“ΤῸ shut heaven.’—To shut or lock up ; the word in the original im- 
plying the use of a key. Heaven we suppose to be a display of the econo- 
my of redemption by symbolical representation, which, when spiritually 
understood, may be said to be opened or unlocked ; when not so understood 
—when only the symbols and figurative language are apparent—it is locked 
or shut. 

The old and new covenants, as revealed in the Scriptures, being the in- 
struments of revealing the mysteries of redemption, have the power of shut- 
ting heaven, by so clothing their revelation in symbolical and figurative lan- 
guage as to require a key for interpreting, developing, unlocking, the true 
meaning. This power is virtually theirs ; it is given or committed to them, 
in the nature of the case. So, to the apostles of our Lord, the keys of the 
kingdom of heaven were given, that, instrumentally, they might open its 
mysteries to some, and conceal them from others, Matt. xviii. 18; speaking 
some truths plainly, and clothing others in language not so easily understood 


182 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


—acting indeed entirely under divine guidance, influence, and control, al- 
though apparently possessed of a discretionary power. 

‘That it rain not’—or, word for word, that the rain moisten not, (Rob. 
Lex. 113) depriving the heavenly showers of their beneficent quality 
The atonement of Christ we suppose to be represented by the element of 
water, in the gentle action of rain or of showers, as well as in fountains and 
rivers. The old and new dispensations, as revealed in the Scriptures, ex-— 
hibit this atonement; but it depends instrumentally upon the exhibition, or 
mode of exhibition, whether this provision of divine mercy appear to be 
one of propitiation or not. ‘To those who understand the language of revela- 
tion in its literal sense only, the heavens may be said to be as brass, (Deut. 
xxvii. 13.) To them it affords no refreshing element. In all the types and 
symbols of the Old Testament, they perceive only certain curious partic- 
ulars of the history of a singular people or nation; and in the New Tes- 
tament, they see in the person of Jesus only a teacher of morality: in what 
he taught only so many moral precepts, and in his life and sufferings only 
an example of patience and forbearance worthy of imitation. To them 
heaven is shut; the rain descends not; orif it descend it moistens not. ‘To 
their apprehension the atonement of Christ affords no vivifying influence. 

‘In the days of their prophecy ;’—that is, in the days of their prophe- 
sying in sackcloth. So long as they prophesy im sackcloth, it rains not, or 
the rain affords no moisture. The purport of the clause we take to be this: 
that while the interpretation of the purpose of redeeming mercy is shroud- 
ed by a legal and literal construction of revelation, there will not be that 
exhibition of the atonement of Christ which corresponds with the gentle 
and refreshing influence of rain or showers. In conformity however with 
our previous remarks, we do not suppose these days of their prophecy to 
refer literally to a period of time. 

In the sense in which we have before spoken of the fasting of the chil- 
dren of the bride-chamber, ($ 243,) we may easily suppose two disciples 
in the immediate vicinity of each other, even in the same family; one of 
whom may be said to enjoy the presence of the bridegroom. He leans 
with full confidence upon the redeeming power of his Saviour. With him 
the days of fasting and mourning are ended; but the other has not yet 
reached this happy position of faith: the bridegroom is taken from him ; 
he mourns over the conviction of his sins, and of his destitution of merit ; 
but he discerns not the provision intended for his consolation. Correspond- 
ing with this, we suppose the two witnesses may be prophesying to some in 
sackcloth, while with others this season of mourning has passed away. To 
the first class the heavens appear shut, and even the rain affords no moist- 
ure; while to individuals of the latter class, the spiritual phenomena they 
contemplate are like the approaching summer—the singing of birds and the 


THE TWO WITNESSES. 183 


voice of the turtle is heard in their land. All this may be readily imagined 
without reference to any chronological period, in a literal sense. 

§ 247. ‘And have power over waters to turn them to blood.’—Our 
views of this bloody transmutation of the element of purification, have been 
already anticipated in treating of the second and third trumpets, ($ 190.) 
The waters (plural) we suppose to be waters of the earth, opposites of the 
rain from heaven. They represent all means of propitiation of man’s device. 
The prophesying of the witnesses, although in sackcloth, has the effect of 
demonstrating that all these proposed human means of atonement must 
necessarily be means of blood. They must cost the eternal life of the sin- 
ner; as man cannot atone for himself without paying the penalty of his 
transgressions by eternal suffering. The old and new dispensations, as 
revealed in the Scriptures, even when clothed in figurative language, and 
understood in a literal sense, have the power of showing the fallacy of all 
human attempts at self-justification. 

‘ And to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will. The 
earth we have supposed to be a system of salvation, or the position of such 
a system (ᾧ 162) founded upon a literal construction of revelation, and the 
opposite of the display of the economy of grace represented by heaven, 
(Ὁ 167.) The term rendered plague may be as correctly translated strokes, 
equivalent we may presume to any appliances of a standard of truth, by 
which the errors of a false doctrinal system may be detected. These plagues 
remind us, however, of the accounts given in Exodus of the plagues of 
Egypt, which suggest also the probability of an analogy between the 
earthly system, and that represented by the Egyptian state of bondage. 
The plagues of Egypt were designed to bring about the deliverance of the 
children of Israel; so the plagues to be administered by the two witnesses 
may be designed to bring to a termination the subjecting of elements of 
truth to the literal or legal system represented by the earth. The two dis- 
pensations, as revealed, have the power to test the earthly system, and to 
expose its errors as often as their elements of truth are applied to it, as a 
standard or criterion of judgment ; which uniform capability is figuratively 
spoken of as the power of smiting as often as they will. 

The earthly system may be said to furnish a dwelling, (“our earthly 
house of this tabernacle,”) the opposite of the position in Christ, denomi- 
nated (2 Cor. v. 1) a building of God—a house not made with hands, eternal 
in the heavens. In allusion to which it is said, Ps. xci. 9, 10, “ Because 
thou hast made the Lord (which is) my refuge, (even) the Most High, thy 
habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh 
thy dwelling.” Those on the contrary who are out of Christ must be con- 
tinually exposed to the powers of legal γύρον <i plagues or strokes of 


just cond emnation. 
Q1 


184 _ THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE SIXTH TRUMPET 


Vs. 7,8. And when they shallhavefin- καὶ ὅταν τελέσωσι τὴν μαρτυρίαν αὑτῶν, 


ished their testimony, the beast beets τὸ ϑηρίον τὸ ἀναβαῖνον ἐκ τῆς ἀβύσσου 
cendeth out of the bottomless pit shall ποιήσει per αὐτῶν πόλεμον καὶ νικήσει 
make war against them, and shall over- —,; ‘, iP πε π 
comethem, and kill them. And their dead’) (@PoUsimenenontere! auToUs- Seo 
bodies (shall lie) in the street of the great μα αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τῆς πλατείας πόλεως τῆς με- 
city, which spiritually is called Sodomand γάλης, ἥτις καλεῖται πνευματικῶς Σόδομα 
Bey pt, where also our Lord was ecruci- ye} Aiyumtos, ὅπου καὶ ὁ κύριος αὐτῶν ἐσ- 


aa ταυρώϑη. 


§ 248. ‘ And when they shall have finished their testimony.’—Here we 
are again to dismiss the idea of time altogether, and to consider this finishing 
of the testimony of the witnesses as the end, or utmost to be accomplished 
by them in their garb of sackcloth. Even in this garb they had power to 
overcome all enemies, till the finishing of their testimony ; when this was 
completed their power in sackcloth ceased. 

‘The beast that ascendeth,’ &c.—The beast ascending from the abyss, 
not from the pit of the abyss mentioned Rev. ix. 2; nor was there any 
beast (ϑηρίον) said to come from that pit, unless we suppose the king of the 
locusts, Apollyon, to be so designated; we are obliged therefore to look 
further for a knowledge of this beast; and we find, Rey, xvii. 8, the beast, 
upon which the mother of harlots was seen to ride, to be spoken of as one 
to rise out of the abyss, ἀναβαίνειν ἐκ τῆς ἀβύσσου ; which beast, from the 
description given of it, must be that seen Rev. xiii. 1, rising out of the sea, 
ἐκ τῆς ϑαλάσσης. A supposition confirmed by reference to Luke viii. 91, 
where we find this term abyss, ἄβυσσος, rendered in our common version, 
the deep, as it is also Rom. x. 7; and as we sometimes speak of the sea, 
or ocean, as the abyss. The terms ϑάλασσα and ἄβυσσος. are thus appa- 
rently in the Apocalypse interchangeable terms, in respect at least to the 
two passages quoted ; we hence conclude that the beast making war upon 
and overcoming the two witnesses, is the ten-horned and seven-headed 
monster described in the 13th chapter of the Apocalypse. 

‘ And shall overcome them, and kill them.’—The witnesses in sackcloth 
are overcome and killed ; but the two olive-trees,and the two candlesticks 
we may presume continue to stand before the God of the earth. It is only 
their prophesying or interpreting under what we suppose to be the literal 
construction of revelation that is finished. ‘The beast does not make war 
upon the witnesses because they have finished their testimony ; but his 
making war upon and overcoming and killing them, is the ordained instru- 
mentality by which the finishing of their testimony in sackcloth is concluded. 
The words shall lie are not in the original ; the carcases are supposed to be 
already in the street. The witnesses are killed, their bodies only remain ; 
and as the body without the spirit is dead, so here the literal sense remains 
ineffective from the absence of its spiritual meaning. 


THE TWO WITNESSES. 185 


‘ And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city.—Death 
is but a separation of the spirit from the body—it is not annihilation. The 
beast could only bring about this temporary separation ;—an entire separa- 
tion, however, of the spiritual sense from the literal for the time being. The 
dead bodies of the witnesses (the revelation of the two dispensations in its 
literal sense) still remain amongst their opposers. The street we suppose to 
be the broad street, the main street, (πλατεῖα,) and as-such put for the area 
of the whole city. The two dispensations or covenants, entirely divested 
of their spiritual sense, remain in the midst of the doctiinal system, figura- 
tively spoken of as the great city. The system subsequently represented 
by Babylon the great. So, those who reject entirely any evangelical or 
spiritual construction of Scripture language, still retain the Scriptures both 
of the Old and of the New Testaments, in the literal sense only, as a por- 
tion of their theories. 

ᾧ 249. * Which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our 
Lord was crucified.’ Our Lord was crucified at Jerusalem—the literal city 
of that name—in bondage in the times of the apostles to the Romans. Here, 
therefore, we have three distinct designations of this great city—Sodom, 
Egypt, and Jerusalem (in bondage,)—-so called in a spiritual sense. The 
two first names being those of countries and not of cities, we may suppose 
the last Jerusalem to be put for the whole land of Judea. The identity, 
however, does not consist in any resemblance between the three countries 
in a natural or literal sense, but in some analogy capable of being drawn 
between each of them respectively and the figurative city, or doctrinal 
system or covenant, Ζιαϑήκη, represented by them. 

The cities of Sodom were cities of the plain; they had no rock or 
mountain on which to rest. ‘They were exposed to inundation, and when 
submerged they sank as buildings without foundations. Besides this, the 
peculiar sin of Sodom, as set forth by the apostle Jude, was literally that 
which serves as a type or figure of a dependence upon other means of eternal 
happiness than those to be found in the union with Christ, illustrated by the 
marriage relation. In both these respects, therefore, the land of Sodom is 
an illustration of a false system of salvation—a system of self-dependence, 
of self-righteousness—a reliance upon other merits than those of Christ, 
figuratively spoken of by Jude as ἃ “ going after strange flesh ;” and by another 
apostle, (2 Peter ii. 10,) as a “ walking after the flesh in the lust of un- 
cleanness,’’—“ despising government, not afraid to speak evil of dignities,” 
opposed to the principles of divine sovereignty—‘“ presumptuous,” confiding 
in one’s own merits, like those who justify themselves, (Luke xvi. 15 ;) self- 
willed, acting from a motive of self-gratification and of self-interest. 

The cities of Egypt were also cities of the plain, and the country a 
land proverbially subject to inundation, and as proverbially, perhaps, trust- 


186 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET, 


ing in its own resources; resources too often looked to as a refuge and 
defence by the deluded Israelites. ‘The flesh-pots of Egypt, its vegetable 
productions, and its fish, as opposites of the manna from above, are figures 
of human merits, as opposites of the righteousness of Christ, or true bread 
from heaven. ‘The fine linen of Egypt, Prov. vii. 16, is probably an oppo- 
site of that fine linen which, according to Rev. xix. 8, is the righteousness 
of the saints,—‘ No,” said the rebellious Irsaelites, as they are reproached 
by the prophet, Jer. xli. 14, “but we will go into the land of Egypt, 
where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have 
hunger of bread, and there will we dwell ;”’ and this, notwithstanding the 
repeated admonition, Is. xxx. 1, 2, and xxxi. 1, “‘ Wo to the rebellious 
children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover 
with a covering, but not of my Spirit; that they may add sin to sin: that 
walk to go down into Egypt * * * to strengthen themselves in the strength of 
Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt.” ‘“‘ Wo to them that go down 
to Egypt for help: and stay on horses, and trust in chariots.” In: addition 
to this, Egypt was noted for its idolatrous worship, and especially in Scrip-. 
ture history, as a land of bondage—a land of task-masters, of hard and 
servile labour. In all these particulars the country may be taken as the 
type of a doctrinal system, combining the characteristics of self-righteous- 
ness, self-glorification, and legality. The various shifts and devices of the 
human mind, in aiming to promote the glory of man, to the prejudice of 
the glory of God, bearing an analogy with the number and variety of 
Egyptian objects of worship, and the vain but laborious efforts of the mis- 
taken disciple in going about to establish a: righteousness of his own, by 
works of the law, bearing a like analogy to the difficult task imposed upon 
the enslaved Israelites of making bricks without straw. 

§ 250. The city where our Lord was crucified is not mentioned: by 
name; apparently lest it should be confounded with the heavenly city of 
the same name; but it is characterized by the remarkable event for which, 
and by which, it must ever be distinguished—its: opposition to the Redeemer, 
its rejection of the Saviour, its rebellion against its king: “ We will not have 
this man to rule over us,’ may be considered the motto inscribed upon its: 
banner. ‘ We will have no king but Cesar,” was the hypocritical’ lan- 
guage of the chief priests and rulers, when in reality they were opposed to 
the Son of God, because they did not see in him that earthly conqueror 
they expected to deliver their country from the power of Cesar, and. to 
confer upon themselves additional power and authority in their own land, 
They rejected him, because it was their own glory and. their own exe 
altion that they sought, and not the honour of their Messiah. The Pharisees, 
and Sadducees, and lawyers, and scribes, rejected him as a spiritual Saviour, 
because they were insensible of any need of salvation, the one class not be- 


π᾿ 


THE TWO WITNESSES. 187 


lieving in a judgment to come, and the other believing themselves suffi- 
ciently righteous to meet it when it did come. Politically, they opposed 
the sovereignty of Jesus, because they sought their own honour and 
emolument. Spiritually, they were actuated by the same motive, because 
they were unwilling to ascribe the glory of their eternal salvation to any 
other merit than their own. ‘The city where our Lord was crucified may 
be thus contemplated as a type, or symbol, of a doctrinal system opposed 
to the element of divine sovereignty ; in effect throwing off all obligation 
of gratitude to the Redeemer, and aiming at the promotion of man’s glory 
instead of the glory of God. 

It is easy to perceive that one erroneous doctrinal system may accord 
in all the particulars represented by these three several cities—cities of 
refuge, but all of them refuges of lies. The various and multiplied features 
of the three combined constituting that system of confusion subsequently re- 
presented in this vision, as BABYLON the mother of harlots. 


Vs. 9, 10. And they [out] of the people, 
and kindreds, and tongues, and nations, 
shall see their dead bodies three days and 
a half, and shail not suffer their dead bo- 

‘dies to be put in graves. And they that 
dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over 
them, and make merry, and shall send gifts 
one to another; because these two pro- 
phets tormented them that dwelt on the 
earth. 


Καὶ βλέπουσιν ἐκ τῶν λαῶν καὶ φυλῶν 
καὶ γλωσσῶν καὶ ἐθνῶν τὸ πτῶμα αὐτῶν 
ἡμέρας τρεῖς καὶ ἥμισυ, καὶ τὰ πτώματα 
αὐτῶν οὐκ ἀφήσουσι τεϑῆναι εἰς μνῆμα. 
Kai ot κατοικοῦντες ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς χαίρουσιν 
ἐπὶ αὐτοῖς καὶ εὐφραίνονται, καὶ δῶρα πέμ- 
ψουσιν ἀλλήλοις, ὅτι οὗτοι οἵ δύο προφῆ- 
ται ἐβασάνισαν τοὺς κατοικοῦντας ἐπὶ τῆς 


γῆς. 


§ 251. ‘And they of the people,’ &c.—Here our attention is called to 
two classes of spectators, or bystanders, “they of the people,’ &c, and 
“they that dwell upon the earth.” Not merely people of the city, but 
nations, and kindreds, (tribes,) and tongues, with the dwellers upon the 
earth generally, are brought to behold two bodies in one street of a single 
city. ‘This extraordinary license of vision is sufficient to show that nothing 
like a literal sense is contemplated. The city we suppose to be a false 
doctrinal system, styled great, in allusion to its vainglorious pretensions, as 
we have remarked of the great river Euphrates, (¢ 219.) The dead 
hodies of the two witnesses, two economies, in their literal sense, (¢ 248,) 
remain subjects of contemplation in a system utterly opposed to their spirit- 
ual sense; so the accounts given in the Old and New Testaments of the 
Jews, and of Christ and his disciples, as mere matters of history, and ex- 
hibitions of a moral code, not militating with a self-righteous plan of salva- 
tion, are tacitly countenanced, although their opposers would prefer, perhaps, 
burying them or keeping them entirely out of sight. They out of the peo- 
ple are seemingly lookers-on, in a state of suspense, wondering what these 
things should mean; not opposed to evangelical views, but as yet not pos- 


188 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


sessing them, although, as indicated by their song of praise, Rev. vil. 9, 10, 
eventually favoured with the happy attainment. Meantime they retain 
their interest in the literal sense, leaning upon it, or over it, as expecting 
something more from it than has yet been developed. They represent, 
perhaps, the multitudes of subordinate principles eventually to be converted 
to the manifestation and promulgation of the elements of the economy of 
grace. They will not suffer the literal sense to be taken out of sight, the 
dead bodies to be put in graves. Figuratively speaking, it is not for them 
to desire this ; they may be said to be in the condition of a patient waiting 
for Christ, preserving the letter of revelation, keeping it in view till a spirit- 
ual interpretation can be brought to bear upon it. 

‘ Three days and a half.’—-We must again refer here to the declaration of 
the mighty angel, time shall be no longer. ‘These days are not to be taken 
in a literal sense ; but are probably intended to lead us to a comparison of this 
exhibition with others of a similar character. The outer court was to be 
in possession of the Gentiles forty-two months, equal to three years and a 
half. The witnesses were to prophesy in sackcloth, and to have power to 
shut heaven twelve hundred and sixty days, also etal to three years and 
a half; as at the instance of the prophet it rained not for three years and 
a half, (James v. 17.) The woman was to dwell in the wilderness twelve 
hundred and sixty days, or a time, times, and half a time, (three years and 
a half,) and the ten-horned beast was to possess power forty-two months, 
or three years and a half. So also these three days and a half may be put 
for years, ‘each day for a year,’ as we find prescribed in another case, 
(Numbers xiv. 34,) showing us that the several peculiarities of these pre- 
dictions have a coincident character, designed perhaps to represent elements 
of truth coexistent with each other, or all of them exhibiting, by different 
figures, different characteristics of the same truth. 

If we further suppose each day or year to represent one thousand years, 
(2 Peter ili. 8,) the three and a half days, or years, will be equal to three 
thousand five hundred years, corresponding with the period covered by the 
revelation of the Old Testament, from the creation to the close of the pro- 
phecy of Zechariah, or return of the Jews from their Babylonish captivity ; 
the termination apparently of the typical history of the Old Testament ; 
the termination of the shadowing forth of the old and new covenants in their 
Old Testament garb. Corresponding with this, we might consider the pro- 
phesying of the two witnesses in sackcloth a paradllel with the whole reve- 
lation of the Scriptures of the Old Testament. 

ᾧ 252. ‘And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice,’ &c.,—or 
earouse, as the Greek might be rendered, reminding us of the drunken orgies 
of a victorious army after battle ; and placing these dwellers upon the earth 
in the light of the troops, or forces, of the beast from the bottomless pit. 


) 


THE TWO WITNESSES. 189 


We consider them elements of the abyss, or bottomless system—a self- 
righteous system, the opposite of the heavenly system,—without a Saviour, 
or without Christ as a Saviour, and consequently without a rock, or bottom, 
or foundation, upon which to build a hope of salvation. The advocates of 
such a system very naturally rejoice over the abolition of the spiritual sense 
from the language of revelation; they sneer, or affect to sneer, at the 
analogies, typical illustrations, and analytical interpretations of the figurative 
language of Scripture; and this with very good reason, because the argu- 
ments drawn from these illustrations, or the reasonings enforced by them, fly 
in the face of their self-righteous, and self-justifying, and vainglorious 
theories. With the same good reason they ridicule all attempts at under- 
standing the hidden meaning, even of the most figurative portions of Scrip- 
ture, for if all attempts of this kind can be checked in the first instance, a 
successful effort is never to be feared. 

‘ And make merry, and shall send gifts one to another.’-—This is carrying 
out the idea of the carousal just remarked upon. The elements of the false 
system are represented as exulting over the entire exclusion of the spiritual 
sense of the two covenants as revealed, or something equivalent. Not only 
merry, they send gifts one to another—they become reconciled to each 
other, when before at enmity ; as when the Son of God was put to death, 
the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends ;—the Gentile and the 
Jew were here of one accord. The sending of gifts may be considered 
a complimentary expression of deference and respect. Here the interchange 
of this expression is mutual amongst these enemies of the witnesses. So it 
is with the opposers of evangelical views of Christian doctrine ; however at 
variance amongst themselves, each affects to compliment the superior in- 
tellect of the other, when it becomes expedient to unite in suppressing a 
certain mode of illustration unfavourable to the doctrinal views of both. 
This we do not apply to any particular denomination or sect of religion, in 
the ordinary sense, but we make use of this well-known feature of sectarian- 
ism to illustrate the action of anti-evangelical principles, represented by this 
interchange of civilities amongst the dwellers upon the earth. 

‘ Because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt upon the earth,’ 
—that is, while they were alive ; when, although prophesying (or interpret- 
ing) in sackcloth, the spiritual sense gave a certain degree of life to the 
literal interpretation. Accompanied with the spiritual sense, thesexhibitions 
of these two covenants, or testaments, tortured or tried the principles 
of the earthly or self-righteous system; the word rendered tormented 
being taken, as in other cases, from a term applied to the assay of metals, 
(§ 210.) This reason of rejoicing we have perhaps already sufficiently 


190 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


enlarged upon. ‘These dwellers upon the earth,*—principles dependent 
upon the earthly system—had been tested and tried by the prophesying of 
the two witnesses even in sackcloth. So we suppose the exhibition of the 
old and new dispensations even partially in a spiritual sense, or, in that sense 
under the disadvantage of a legal construction, to be of a nature to put to 
the test the elements or principles of a self-righteous theory. Entirely di- 
vested of this sense they have no longer this action, although susceptible of 
reassuming it as soon as their language is accompanied with its proper inter- 
pretation. 


Wes 11, 12. And after three days and a Καὶ μετὰ τὰς τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ ἥμισυ 
half the Spirit of life from God entered πνεῦμα ζωῆς ἐκ τοῦ ϑεοῦ εἰοῆλϑεν ἐν αὖ- 
into them, and they stood upon their feet; ὁ ~ \ 2h ‘giao ira ina Riess 
and great fear fell’ upon them which saw 7°» “i PaRoOy sib Tous ὙΠΕΡ ΣΟ Ouray 
them. And they heard a great voice from #4 φόβος "ἰδ RE ar Dee ϑεω- 
heaven, saying unto them, Come up hith- ροῦντας autovs. Kat ἤκουσαν φωνὴν μεγά- 
er. And they ascended up to heaven in yy ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ λέγουσαν αὐτοῖς " ἀνώ- 
a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. βητε ὧδε: καὶ ἀνέβησαν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐν 

τῇ νεφέλῃ, καὶ ἐθεώρησαν αὐτοὺς οὗ ἐχϑροὶ 
αὐτῶν. i 


ᾧ 253. “ And after three days and a half,’ &c.—When the outer court 
is no longer in possession of the Gentiles ; when the city is no longer trodden 
by them ; when there is no longer any prophesying in sackcloth, then, as we 
apprehend, simultaneously the two witnesses are resuscitated. The spirit 


gives life to the body—the spiritual sense again accompanies the literal— 


the three figures are nearly equivalents, or perhaps the return of the spirit 
of life from God into the bodies of the witnesses, may be viewed as the 
instrument of liberating the outer court and the city ; as well as of terminat- 
ing the prophesying in sackcloth. As if we should say, the restoration of 


* They that dwell on the earth, of κατοικοῦντες ἐπὲ τῆς γῆς. These are the inhab- 
iters of the earth, against whom the three woes are uttered, Rev. viii. 13; they are 
also those said to be destined for trial, Rev. iii. 10; those upon whom the souls under 
the altar call for vengeance, Rey. vi. 10; those unto whom the devil (the accuser) is 
said to come down with great wrath, Rev. xii. 12; those represented as the worshippers 
of the beast, and under the influence of the false prophet, Rev. xiii. 8, 12, 14; those 
said to be drunk with the wine of the harlot, Rev. xvii. 2; and those wondering when 
they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is, Rev. xvii. 8; and they are 
those (Rev. xi. 10) rejoicing over the death of the witnesses; at the same time they 
are those concerning (ἐπὶ) whom the everlasting gospel is preached by the angel 
flying through the mid-heaven, Rev. xiv.6. The same term in the Greek being 
employed in all these passages, the collation of which confirms us in the opinion that 
the apocalyptic earth is the figure of a doctrinal system of human merits, and that 
these dwellers upon the earth are figures of principles or doctrinal elements depend- 
ent upon this system. 


THE TWO WITNESSES. 191 


_the spiritual understanding to the letter of revelation is the instrument of 
liberating that revelation from the misconstruction represented by the tread- 
ing of the outer court, &c.; liberating also the exhibition of the economy 
of redemption from the characteristic of bondage incident to a legal con- 
struction. 

‘ And great fear fell upon them that saw them.’—Fear, including the 
idea of amazement or astonishment, (Rob. Lex. 807 ;) as on the occasion 
of the restoration of speech to Zacharias, it is said great fear fell on all that 
dwelt round about them ; so Daniel was astonied for one hour, (Daniel iv. 
19,) after hearing the recital of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. An expression 
probably not to be taken strictly, but intended to give intensity to the im- 
pression created by the extraordinary character of the revelation made. So 
the great fear, here spoken of, is intended to place the extraordinary nature 
of the change in contemplation in a prominent point of view ; calling atten- 
tion to the importance of the difference between the bodies without the 
spirit of life, and the bodies with that spirit: accordingly we do not find the 
witnesses after their resuscitation again prophesying in sackcloth ; on the 
contrary, their ascension appears to be almost simultaneous with their restora- 
tion to life. 

‘ And they heard a great voice from heaven, saying,’ &c.—This great 
voice we suppose to be something in the nature of the revelation made of 
the true character of the witnesses, causing them to appear in a new light, 
and placing their testimony beyond dispute. 

‘ Come up hither.’—That is, exhibit your truly spiritual character, some- 
thing equivalent to the change in the state of mind, or views, experienced 
by the apostle when called up into heaven, (ὃ 117.) The change however 
in the circumstances of these witnesses, consists in the manifestation of the 
proper spiritual sense of their testimony. 

“ And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld 
them.’—That is, they were manifested amidst the clouds of types and sym- 
bols of revelation, (ᾧ 18,) to be witnesses of Christ in a spiritual sense, and 
so manifested as to terminate all opposition to them, or to their testimony. 
“They stood upon their feet,”—they were manifested to possess the spirit 
of life: ‘‘ They ascended up into heaven,”’—they were manifested to be ele- 
ments of the heavenly scheme ; or of the heavenly exhibition of the scheme of 
sovereign grace. ‘They did not continue to prophesy on earth—there was 
no need of it—they had prophesied, they had finished their testimony. It 
is now shown that this testimony is of a spiritual character, and to be taken 
in a spiritual sense. With this key, we go back to the testimony already 
given, and by a spiritual construction ascertain its true meaning, which is 
all that is required. The witnesses now testify in heaven,—their testimony 
is the same as that before given on earth, except that it is now disencum- 


192 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


bered of its earthly garb. ‘Their enemies beheld them,”—the effect of 
this sight upon the minds of the enemies is not stated ; the inference is, that 
this exhibition was enough to render the testimony of the witnesses indis- 
putable. The manifestation that truth is truth, being equally a manifesta- 
tion that error is error. The great voice, the invitation to come up, and 
the ascension, we may consider three several evidences in favour of the 


testimony of these witnesses. : 


V. 13. And the same hour was there 
a great earthquake, and the tenth part of 
the city fell, and in the earthquake were 
slain of men seven thousand: and the 
remnant were affrighted, and gave glory 
to the God of heaven. 


Ki Nags RS τ ~ «ὦ ao! ‘ 
al ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ὥρᾳ ἐγένετο σεισμὸς 
’ A , ~ 
μέγας, καὶ τὸ δέκατον τῆς πόλεως EEE, 
2 , ~ ~ ? ’ 
καὶ ἀπεκτάνϑησαν ἐν τῷ σεισμῷ ὁνοματὰ 
3 ΄ , = ΄ ΣΎ - ν Ὁ 
ἀνθρώπων χιλιάδες ἑπτά, καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ ἔμ- 
ΕῚ r ‘\ a δόξ ~ ~ 
φοβοι ἐγένοντο καὶ ἔδωκαν δόξαν τῷ Fee 


- 2 - 
τοῦ οὐρανοῦ. ν᾿ 


ᾧ 254. “ And the same hour,’ &c.,—or, according to the Greek, in that 
very hour; that is, precisely at the moment. So John iv. 53, “ The 
father knew therefore that it was in that very hour (ἐν éxeiry τῇ ὥρᾳ, pre- 
cisely at the moment) when Jesus said, Thy son, liveth, the fever left 
him.” 

‘There was a great earthquake,’ commotion, or shaking, (ᾧ 164.) A 
commotion resulting no doubt from the testimony in favour of the witnesses, 
afforded by the exhibition of their ascension ; as if it were said that the 
manifestation of the spiritual sense and meaning of the two covenants as 
revealed in the Scriptures gives a shock, as it were of an earthquake, to the 
earthly system of literal interpretation ; and this simultaneously, or nearly 
so, as the action of cause and effect: one thing growing out of the other, 
or one change of views involving another. | 

‘ And the tenth part of the city fell..—The word part is not in the ori- 
ginal, and is better omitted, as it tends unnecessarily to materialize our 
association of ideas. The ascension of the witnesses occasions a shock, felt 
apparently by the whole city, but only a tenth or tthe of it is overturned or 
destroyed. The tenth or tithe under the Levitical dispensation was the 
portion of the produce of the land appropriated especially to the temple 
The city must be that spoken of in the eighth verse—the great 
city—the anti-evangelical scheme of salvation, the opposite of the scheme 
represented by the heavenly Jerusalem, Of course the tithe of the city we 
suppose to be that portion of this false system, the principles of which per- 
tain especially to the worship of God. It is not said that this great city 
had a temple. The temple of God in Babylon is nowhere spoken of in the 
Scriptures. But we may imagine a country where the system of tithing is 
carried to its fullest extent, under the pretext of providing for the worship 
of God, when in fact the avails of the system are applied exclusively to the 
service and glorification of man; where, although there is a tenth thus set 


service. 


THE EARTHQUAKE. 193 


apart, there is strictly no temple of God. Such a country would be a type 
or symbol of the self-righteous system represented by the city. The system 
has amidst its elements certain principles of divine worship—principles pur- 
porting a zeal for the honour and glory of God; although, in effect, on 
these principles the disciple is as far out of the position requisite for the 
worship of the true God, as was the deluded Babylonian when sacrificing 
in the temple of Belus. So we find apparently most zeal displayed for the 
temple service at Jerusalem, when the house of God was made a house of 
merchandise. 

The exhibition of the spiritual sense of revelation, accompanied with 
indisputable evidence of its correctness, must be followed, in the nature of 
the case, by a demolition of the false views of divine service, forming the 
temple portion of the anti-evangelical system, or great city. The demoli- 
tion of this portion of the city we suppose to be represented by the falling 
of its tenth—its hypocritical tenth—just that part of the system most the 
subject of divine abhorrence, and therefore the first to be overthrown ; 
mercenary, self-righteous, and vainglorious principles of worship or service, 
being farthest from those in which the Deity delights. As it is said, Is. Ixvi. 
3, “He that killed an ox is as if he slew a man ; he that sacrificeth a lamb 
as if he cut off a dog’s neck ;” and Is. i. 11-13, “ΤῸ what purpose is 
the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord?” ... “ Bring 
no more vain oblations: incense is an abomination unto me; the new- 
moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with ; (it is). 
iniquity, even the solemn meeting.” : 

ᾧ 255. ‘ And in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand,’— 
or verbatim, according to the Greek, and were killed* in the shaking 
names of men thousands seven. 'This introduction of the word names is 
sometimes supposed to be merely a periphrasis for the persons, &c. ; and is 
said to be also common in the Hebrew, (Rob. Lex. 505.) Here, however, 
we apprehend it has a peculiar signification. A man’s name is that upon 
which he values himself—his reputation, his glory—as the builders of the 
tower of Babel went about to procure for themselves a name ; so we sup- 
pose these names to represent certain vainglorious principles: perhaps those 
peculiar to the temple system, or rather the tithing system of the great city. 
As in the time of the prophet Elijah (1 Kings xix. 18) God had reserved 
to himself seven thousand men which had not bowed the knee to the image 
of Baal, so these seven thousand names of men killed represent something 
of an opposite character ; as of those which had devoted themselves in the 
great city to Baal service. We do not suppose seven thousand here in- 


* We adopt the word /illed instead of slain, because the Greek term expressing 
it is not that elsewhere employed to express slaying or slaughtering, as of a victim to 
be sacrificed. 


194 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


tended to indicate an exact number ; decimals representing an indefinite mul- 
titude in proportion to the subject under consideration, as thousands, hun- 
dreds, tens, &c. ; and the number seven representing the totality of a select 
class. As, in one case, seven thousand were selected to be saved ; so, in 
the other, the like number are selected to be destroyed ; that is, all the false 
principles peculiar to the false and pretended system of worship of the great 
city. 

‘The remainder were affrighted,’ &c.—It was a common effect of the 
miracles performed by Jesus Christ, that the spectators marvelled, or were 
astonished, and glorified God. So on occasion of raising the widow’s son, 
“there came,” it is said, “great fear on all; and they glorified God ;” 
but it does not appear that they were converted to the faith in Christ by 
this emotion. When the lame man was healed at the gate of the temple, 
through the instrumentality of Peter and John, as they openly declared, by 
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, all the people glorified God for that 
which was done. When Jesus gave sight to him that was born blind, the 
Pharisees, no longer able to dispute the fact, urged that the praise of the 
cure should be given to God, (John ix. 24.) To glorify, or ascribe praise 
to God, is thus set forth in Scripture as something distinct from belief m 
Christ. The Pharisees could not be brought to glorify God am Christ. 
So we suppose these affrighted remaining ones (οἱ Loot) to represent prin- 
ciples capable of an ascription of glory to God, or professedly adoring Him, 
but affecting to do this irrespective of his manifestation of himself i 
Christ. 

When, on account of their iniquities and idolatries, the inhabitants of 
Jerusalem were given into the power of the enemy, 2 Kings xxiv. 16, and 
the king of Babylon carried away all the men of might, (seven thousand,) 
the remainder no doubt were affrighted, but they were not converted; on 
the contrary, those left (οἱ λοιποί.) merged themselves so much further into 
idolatry, that they could scarcely be recognized as the same people at the 
time of the restoration. They acknowledged a Supreme Being, but they 
amalgamated with this acknowledgment a superstitious veneration for all 
the objects of worship of the heathen around them. So we may suppose 
those remaining in the apocalyptic great city, after the killmg of the seven 
thousand, to represent principles ostensibly ascribing glory to God, but 
withholding, by a certain amalgamation of truth with error, the glory due to 
God, as in Christ reconciling the world to himself.* 


* These remaining ones of the city probably correspond with those of Rey. ix. 
20, rendered the rest of men; perhaps the same too as those slain with the sword, 
Rev. xix. 21, and those termed “the rest of the dead,” Rev. xx. 5; opposites of the 
remaining ones of the woman’s seed, Rev. xii, 17, The Greek appellation, οἱ λοιποί, 
being the same in all these passages. 


RETROSPECT. 195 


V. 14. The second wo is past; (and) “Ἢ οὐαὶ ἣ δευτέρα ἀπῆλϑεν - ἰδού, ἡ οὐαὶ 
behold, the third wo cometh quickly. ἣ τρίτη ἔρχεται ταχύ. 


ᾧ 256. “ΤΊ second wo is past.’ This verse would be a proper ending 
of the chapter, as it appears intended to prepare the mind of the reader for 
something of extraordinary importance yet to come, while it affords an op- 
portunity of reviewing the past, in order that we may form some definite 
idea of the nature of these woes, and in what they consist. 


RETROSPECT. 


As we have remarked at the close of section 226, the account given of 
the Euphratean horsemen compasses the whole action of the Second Wo— 
the prophesying of the witnesses, &c., being not an additional part of the 
wo, but a different figure or series of figures of the same wo. 

All three of these woes we must recollect are pronounced against the 
dwellers upon the earth ; a figure the opposite of that represented by the 
saints, (holy ones,) and by the souls under the altar ; and a figure apparently 
of certain elements amidst which the sealed ones are exceptions. These 
inhabitants of the earth we suppose to be principles of the earthly system, 
(vid. § 252, note,) subjected by the woes to peculiar trials or tests, calcu- 
lated to exhibit their fallacy and inconsisteney with God’s plan of salvation. 

- The war of the scorpio-locusts was a contest, according to our views, 
not between infidels and Christians, nor between wicked men and pious 
men ; but between the principles of the abyss, or bottomless pit system, and! 
the fallacious principles of what we term the earthly system; these latter 
being designated as the men not having the seal of God in their foreheads, 
Rev. ix. 4. These principles are tortwred—put to the rack—showing their 
subjection to the power of the elements of the abyss. This ordeal of the 
first wo exhibits the insufficiency of the earthly system to cope with one of: 
its own necessary effects or results. An idea illustrated by the emanation’ 
of a cloud of insects naturally destructive to vegetation, but otherwise harm-- 
less, rising from an immense shaft, as of a well without a bottom sunk in the’ 
earth—to these insects a sting being given which under the direction of the* 
Destroyer contrary to their nature turns their hostile action against the hu- 
man species. ‘The tormentors come from the earth, or earthly system. The’ 
sting (the sting of death, sin) is subsequently given ; and the subjects upon’ 
which they act are dwellers on the earth, or dependents upon the earthly 
system. 

This abyss system supposes man to stand upon his own merits; it 
does not even contemplate the necessity of a propitiation. Its principles 
at first, like smoke, act only in keeping out of sight the light, (divine right- 


196 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


eousness ;) subsequently they exhibit their natural character, that of destroy- 
ing all human claims to righteousness; and as this character is further devel- 
oped they show their tendency to carry into effect the action of the law; 
the necessity of establishing a righteousness under the law evolving legal 
principles, by which all pretensions to such righteousness must be tried. 
These legal principles appear at first in a modified, harmless shape, or com- 
paratively so—the law being brought down to a human standard. The sub- 
ject is not affected because its claims do not appear to meet his case; or if 
they do, the consequences of what he esteems his imperfections are not 
esteemed important. The principle of unmitigated justice being carried out, 
the law asserts its rights. He that offends in one point is guilty of all ; 
(James ii. 10.) The locust now possesses the scorpion’s sting—the sinner 
is convinced not only of a destitution of righteousness, but also of absolute — 
transgression—not only negatively unworthy of reward, but positively de- 
serving of punishment. Conscious of guilt, he now desires annihilation, if 
it were possible—men seek death, but cannot find it. Still the necessity of 
an atonement is not yet developed. 

Thus far self-justification only is exhibited as hopeless. The next futile 
attempt is that of providing an atonement by earthly or human means of 
propitiation. Here the Second Wo proceeds to try the fallacy of such pre- 
tensions, under the figure of the action of a great earthly river—an object 
of human vainglorious reliance, but in effect a more severe instrument of 
torture, or trial, than the preceding. 

The action of the elements, doctrinal messengers (angels) of the Eu- 
phratean system of atonement, as soon as let loose, or developed, results in 
the exhibition of an overwhelming multitude of principles, proving to be not 
only instruments of torture, but absolutely of death, or destruction to the 
elements of the earthly sytem. As we may suppose the case of a disciple, 
who being driven from the hope of justifying himself, falls back upon the 
hope of atoning for himself, as the only remaining means of eternal life. 
If this hope also be taken away there is left for him no prospect but that of 
death—eternal death. So these emanations from the great river Euphrates, 
kill by the fire, by the smoke, and by the sulphur, from their mouths ; that 
is, by the revelation, or development, of their true character; as any sufi- 
cient atonement for himself, to be wrought out by the sinner, must result in 
the exaction of his eternal punishment—his utter destruction. And as we 
sometimes say of a murderer about to be executed, that he must atone by 
undergoing this capital punishment for the crime he has committed,—his 
atonement (even to human law) does not save his life, but absolutely costs 
the whole of it. So the claims of divine justice can be satisfied with no- 
thing less than the eternal death of the sinner ; a truth apparently typified by 
the rule of the legal dispensation, adopted and acted upon almost by the 


RETROSPECT. 197 


common consent of mankind, “ Whosoever sheddeth man’s blood, by man 
shall his blood be shed.’ And this even when the blood has been inno- 
cently shed, as in the case of the man-slayer, for whom there was no safety 
but in a city of refuge. 

§ 257. While the locusts from the abyss and the horsemen from the 
Euphrates are thus showing the condemned and hopeless condition of the 
sinner—destitute of merit, and absolutely obnoxious to the wrath of God, 
the two witnesses of Jesus are testifying of him—testifying however as in 
sackcloth, under the disadvantage of a legal construction—and finally, un- 
der this disadvantage, are overcome by the principle of self, (as we assume 
it for the present to be,) emanating from the bottomless system—at the same 
time the external or ordinary sense of the portion of divine revelation per- 
taining to the worship of God, (the court,) as well as of the portion per- 
taing to the means of salvation, (the city,) is under the control of Gentile 
misconstruction—shackled and fettered by a self-righteous and legal spirit 
of interpretation. The prophesying of the two witnesses however, although 
under the disadvantage named, co-operates in carrying into effect the second 
wo ; showing, at least, the inability of man to atone for himself; as we may 
imagine revealed truth to be so set forth, by human preaching, as to exhibit 
only the sinner’s desperate condition, without distinctly pointing out to him 
his only refuge—the true way of salvation. 

Simultaneously also, days months and years being all apocalyptically 
equivalent figures, these two witnesses may appear in two different lights, 
when contemplated in different positions. Out of the Sodomitish Egyptian 
city of the crucifixion, these witnesses or elements prophesy the truth, but 
they do it in sackcloth, or under a misconstruction. In the city, or in this 
system, they are in effect a mere dead letter—their testimony does not even 
go to convince the sinner of his need of redemption. He is not tormented 
or tried by the contemplation even of the elements of divine justice. So 
one who receives the Scriptures in their literal sense only, and in a very 
accommodating sense too, having convinced himself that they contain nothing 
solemnly important, rejoices over their dead bodies,* as no longer capable 
of occasioning an uneasiness of conscience. ‘This anti-evangelical city may 
be thus supposed to represent a refinement of the earthly system, in which 
the two witnesses (the old and new dispensations) are mere dead bodies ; 
while out of this system, in a position where there is a greater prevalence of 


* The spectators, termed they of the people Rev. xi. 9,'2x τῶν λαῶν, κιτ.λ. apparently 
opposites of those rejoicing over the dead bodies, are not supposed to represent the 
aggregate of all people, nations, &c.; but, as the preposition ἐκ implies, they constitute 
a body chosen or taken out from among the nations, kindreds, &c.: as Acts xv. 14, 
“Simeon hath declared how GOD at the first did visit the Gentiles, (nations,) to take 
out of them a people for his name,”—/cafetv ἔξ ἐθνῶν λαόν, κιτ.λ. | 


198 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


truth, although of truth amalgamated with error, they are living witnesses, 
but in sackcloth. In both cases, however, the same change brings a remedy 
for both evils. The restoration of the spiritual sense to the elements of 
revelation in the city, is followed immediately by the manifestation of their 
entire spirituality ; and subsequently to this manifestation they can no longer 
prophesy in sackcloth, either in or out of the city ; while the same mani- 
festation shows the inconsistency of the city system with the true worship 
of God. Here, however, the development of the second wo stops—the 
temple of God, or true medium of worship, is not yet exhibited, nor is the 
Holy City, the true means of salvation, yet represented. Fora sight of these 
we must prepare ourselves under the exhibition of the third wo—not that 
this exhibition is a wo to man, but that it is a wo to the false principles of 
worship, and to the principles of the false means of salvation, represented 
as dwellers upon the earth. The exhibition of truth bring a wo to the ele- 
ments of falsehood, as the delusion and exposure of that which is false is 
the triumph or exhibition of the victory of truth—and especially, we may 
add, of revealed truth. 


THE SEVENTH TRUMPET CHORUS. 199 


CHAPTER XI.—(Continued.) 


SEVENTH, OB LHIRD)W.0 ΡΝ ΒΕ: 
CHORUS OF ELDERS AND HEAVENLY VOICES. 


V. 15. And the seventh angel sounded; Kai ὃ ἕβδομος ἄγγελος ἐσάλπισε, καὶ 
and there were great voices in heaven, ἐγένοντο φωναὶ μεγάλαι ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, λέ- 


saying, The kingdoms of this world are κα τεῦ « fil BT ΡΟΣ, i’ 
: OVTE Eyéveto αἀσιλεία TOU xO 

become (the kingdoms) of our Lord, and 70 ἘΜΆ. Sata BA β πάγων we ee ἐπ α΄ 

of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever *UQ¢0U ἡμῶν καὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ GTO, τον 

and ever. βασιλεύσει εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. 


ᾧ 258. ‘And the seventh angel sounded.’—This is commonly called 
the last wo trumpet, but we are not to expect an exhibition of the wo im- 
mediately upon the sounding of the trumpet. It is something to appear in 
the course of that sounding, or it may be that the development or revelation 
of the trumpet, taken altogether as a whole, constitutes the wo. “ Behold 
the third wo,” it was said in the last verse, “cometh quickly ;” but this 
quickly we suppose is not to be applied in a literal sense to time. The wo 
is to come suddenly, and the revelation has now reached that stage when it is 
just about being made. In the relation to be given, however, there may 
be some preliminary matter to be attended to first. 

‘ And there were great voices in heaven.’ —The apostle still retains his 
heavenly position, and is consequently a witness to the exultation prevail- 
ing there, in anticipation of the manifestation of truth now about being 
made. ‘These voices in heaven perform the part of a chorus, their acclama- 
tions indicating the character of the scenes to follow. This verse, together 
with the remainder of the chapter, as far as the 18th verse, giving the 
description of a prelude to the change of scene, commencing at the 19th 
verse. During the exhibition of the scorpion-locusts of the Euphratean 
horsemen, and of the witnesses, the apostle’s attention had been directed to 
the contemplation of earthly objects ; he is now to be the spectator for a 
season, as we find from the next chapter, of heavenly things ; as if privileged 
with an insight to a certain degree into the counsels of the Most High ; and 
for this exhibition the prelude under consideration is to prepare him. 

‘The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and 

22 


200 THE SEVENTH SEAL._THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


of his Christ, ’(or of his anointed ;) ‘and he shall reign for ever and ever.’— 
This we may consider the announcement of the subject to be revealed by 
the voice of this trumpet ; the unfolding of the mystery of God as declared 
to the prophets is now to be completed, (Rev. x. 7;) it is to be manifested 
that the kingdoms of the world are subordinate to that of Christ. The 
various systems of salvation of human invention are all to be exhibited as 
in subjection to that one system, or economy, of which Christ is the chief, or 
rather of which God in Christ is the chief; the announcement being equiva- 
lent to the description of the coming of the end, 1 Cor. xv. 24-28; which 
as a matter in futuro applies, as we have before observed, to the manifesta- 
tion of the fact, and not to the existence itself of the fact. The exulting 
language of these voices reminds us that the exhibition spoken of as a wo to 
the inhabitants of the earth is equally represented as a cause of rejoicing to 
the dwellers in heaven. 

ᾧ 259. A kingdom is that system, economy, or state of things, in which 
there is a sovereignty, or rule, of one chief over a class subject to that 
sovereignty ; this state of subjection implying in the subject a state of de- 
pendence upon the chief; and in the chief, a right or power of ownership, 
in respect to the subject. Such were the monarchies of ancient times ; and 
such are some of them still in eastern countries. 

The kingdom of God is that state of things n which God is the sove- 
reign and man the subject; in which man’s dependence upon God is 
entire, and God’s ownership of man complete. A being independent of the 
sovereign is no longer a subject ;—if man be in any way independent - of 
God, he cannot be a subject of God. If man, therefore, were independent 
of God for his eternal salvation, he could not be a subject of the kingdom 
of God. Man, having any rights over which God has no control, could not 
be entitled the creature or property of God ;—man having any right of his 
own to eternal life could not, so far, be the property of God. 'The essential 
principle then of the kingdom of God is, that man is entirely dependent upon 
God for all things, either for time or for eternity ;—that man has no night or 
claim of his own, nor can have such in any way, either to this life or to that 
which is to come. God has a right to do with his creatures, or with his 
property, as he pleases; his right of ownership is as perfect in respect to 
rational beings as in respect to irrational ;—as perfect with regard to matters 
of the soul, or mind, as with regard to those of body, or of material sub- 
stances. Nor could this be otherwise; for if man were independent of 
God in any way, in that way he would be under no obligation to serve him. 
If man had a right to eternal life, or could establish that right by any merit 
or claim of his own, he would have no call for gratitude even for that 
greatest possible good. If he were saved by his own merits, or by any 


—— λοι αν στο. 


αν τυ Ue 


SONG OF THE CHORUS. 201 


work of his own, and not entirely by the free unmerited favour of God him 
self, he would not be bound in gratitude to serve God, even for his salvation : 
hence the necessity of salvation through grace—sovereign grace—to place 
man in the position of a subject of God. 

The kingdom of Christ is of the same character; and Christ being God 
manifest in the flesh, the two kingdoms are in effect the same. Apparently 
in order to accommodate the mystery of redemption to the understanding of 
man, the whole praise and glory of our salvation is represented as being due 
to Christ the Son of God, in the first instance ;—subsequently the veil of 
this sonship is lifted, and we find the real Benefactor, Redeemer, and 
Saviour, to be God himself, who has in the person of his Son wrought out 
for us this salvation. It is then, as the apostle says in the passage just now 
quoted, that the end cometh: when the Son gives up the kingdom unto the 
Father; when the obligation of the redeemed to his Redeemer is trans- 
ferred from the representative of God to God himself,—from the express 
image of the Father to the Father immediately ; that is, the manifesta- 
tion is thus changed. ‘There is no change in the fact; God was in Christ, 
and God is and has been all in all, throughout eternity. With this also the 
kingdom of heaven must correspond ; heaven being, as we have supposed, 
a figurative appellation of the divine plan of government, as revealed to us in 
the gospel, showing forth the wondrous works of sovereign grace. "This king- 
dom, like the two others, involves the principle of God’s sovereignty and 
ownership, on the one hand ; and on the other, that of man’s subjection and 
entire dependence. 

Opposite to this heavenly kingdom, or system, are the kingdoms of the 
world; worldly systems, involving principles of man’s supposed independence 
of God; setting forth the human subject as dependent upon some merit or 
action, or conduct of his own, for his eternal well-being; as if man were 
indebted to himself for his own redemption,—indebted to himself, or to 
some earthly object, even for his escape from the wrath to come, and for his 
enjoyment of eternal bliss! Systems of this character are apparently what 
are called kingdoms of the world ; these are to undergo a certain transmu 
tation; their principles are to be changed, or their elements are to be 
manifested to be subservient to the kingdom of God. 

Some copies of the Greek have this term kingdom in the singular, as 
that from which we copy. This renders the change more particularly ap- 
plicable to the earthly kingdom as a whole ; that in which the inhabiters of 
the earth find their safety. This kingdom is made to give up its preten- 
sions, being superseded by the kingdom of God ;—the difference, however, 
cannot be material, the general feature of the worldly system in one case 
being represented by a single earthly kingdom ; in the other, various systems, 
with the same general feature, being spoken of as the several kingdoms of 


202 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


the earth. The main subject of gratulation is the change wrought in these 
systems. When the truth is fully manifested, erroneous principles will be 
taken away, and true principles substituted in their place; and this in such 
a manner as that one Lord and his Christ, God and the Lamb, or God 
alone—one and the same being—is manifested to occupy the position of 
complete sovereignty. 


Vs. 16,17. And the four and twenty Kal of εἰκοσιτέσσαρες," πρεοβύτεροι, οἱ 
elders, which sat before God on their Ἐν ΣΝ καϑήμενοι ἘΠῚ cove ϑρό- 


seats [thrones], fell upon their faces and i act Se cles ipg in, Wena Aiba! 
worshipped God, saying, We give thee 5 ᾿ b τὰ προζώπα 


\ , ~ ~ ' 3 
thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, ¥%% προφεκύνησαν τῷ hs FQ); λέγοντες "Ce 
Ὁ ' τ 
and wast, and art to come; because thou φιστοῦμέν σοι, κύριε 0 ϑεὸς ὁ παντοκράτωρ, 
hast taken to thee thy great power, and ὃ ὧν καὶ ὃ ἦν, ὅτι εἴληφας τὴν δύναμέν σου 


hast reigned. τὴν μεγάλην καὶ ἐβασίλευσας. 


ᾧ 260. ‘And the four and twenty elders,’ &c.—The elements sup- 
posed to be represented by these elders have been already noticed ; this 
beg the fourth description given of their falling down and worshipping: 
viz., previous to the opening of the seventh seal, and immediately after the 
sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand; immediately after the 
taking of the sealed book by the Lamb; and immediately before the open- 
ing of the seals, and on the occasion of the first exhibition of Divine 
Majesty. On all these occasions this action of prostration seems to be in- 
tended to direct the attention to something about to be manifested. This is 
the more to be inferred as there is no account after the sounding of this last 
trumpet of any further prostration. ‘There is nothing said of it at the close 
of the Apocalypse; as if the revelation having been now gone through, 
this kind of notice was no more necessary. ‘This thank-offering of the 
elders, with the reason given for it, appears intended to direct us to seek 
that reason in what is afterwards to be revealed. 

‘We give thee thanks, because thou hast taken unto thee thy great 
power, and hast reigned. —We are to see, in what is to be revealed, how 
it is that God has taken to himself his great power, and has reigned. 

It is not to be supposed that the Supreme Being had ever actually laid 
aside his power, and afterwards resumed it ;—this could not be: but for a 
certain time he had not permitted it to appear on earth that the power of 
salvation was in himself alone. ‘This we may suppose to have been the 
case during the prophesying of the witnesses in sackcloth, and while their 
dead bodies remained in the street of the great city ; while the Holy City 
was trodden by the Gentiles, and the outer court of the temple was in their 
possession. While these things, or whenever these things exist, the 
“oreat power’? of God does not appear, and his reign is not manifest. 
Now, however, the truth is, or is about to be, exhibited; the language of 


SONG OF THE CHORUS. 203 


these twenty-four elders corresponding with that of the Psalmist, “ Gird thy 
sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty 
ride prosperously ; because of truth and meekness and righteousness, (Ps. 
xlv. 3,4.) The twenty-four elders must be presumed to be cognizant of 
the fact of God’s always having possessed the power and rule, but they 
rejoice that the time has come when this fact is to be manifested. 


V. 18. And the nations were angry, 


‘ Kat τὰ ἔϑνη ὠργίσϑησαν, καὶ ἦλϑεν ἡ 
and thy wrath is come, and the time of 


> , ,c \ ~ ~ ~ 
OQYH σου καὶ ὁ καιρὸς τῶν γεχρῶν, κρυϑῆ- 


the dead, that they should be judged, and 
that thou shouldest give reward unto thy 
servants the prophets, and to the saints, 
and them that fear thy name, small and 


αὐ ‘ ἢ pe ΄ 
vor καὶ δοῦναι τὸν μισϑὸν τοῖς δούλοις σου, 
~ ΄ ~ c ~ 
τοῖς προφήταις καὶ τοῖς ἁγίοις καὶ τοῖς 
᾿ ‘ , ~ ~ 
φοβουμένοις τὸ ὄνομά σου, τοῖς μιχροῖς καὶ 


great; and shouldest destroy them which 


τοῖς μεγάλοις, καὶ διαφϑεῖραι τοὺς δια- 
destroy the earth. 


φϑείροντας τὴν γῆν. 


ᾧ 261. ‘ And the nations were angry,’ &c.—This verse should be read 
immediately in connection with the preceding, as it is part of the language 
of the twenty-four elders, and pertains also in anticipation to the subject of 
the present (seventh) trumpet. The term rendered nations, τὰ ἔϑνη; is the 
same as that rendered elsewhere Gentiles, and sometimes the heathen. The 
terms rendered angry and wrath, being both from the same Greek root,* 
would have been better translated raged and rage ; as, the nations raged and 
thy rage is come: as if it had been said, The nations have been angry, but 
now thine anger is come; or, the heathen raged, and now thy rage is come ; 
‘the feebleness of this earthly wrath being contrasted with the terrible 
might of divine wrath, corresponding with Ps. ii. 1. 2, 5, ‘Why do the 
heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth 
set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lorn, and 
against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast 
away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ; the 
Lorp shall have them in derision. ‘Then shall he speak unto them in his 
wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.” This passage is applied, Acts 
iv. 25, in a primary sense, to the opposition made to Jesus Christ and his 
apostles, by both Jewish and Roman rulers in Jerusalem ; but it is evident 
that it must have a more extended and spiritual sense, of which this first 
So also Ps. xlvi. 6, ‘‘ The heathen 
raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.” 

The outer court of the temple was given unto the Gentiles, and they 
were to tread the holy city under foot forty-two months. 


opposition may be considered a type. 


We cannot sup- 


* The Greek verb ὀργίζω, rendered angry, comes from a root signifying great 
excitement; ὀργὴν impetus, whence the Bacchanalian term orgies. This anger may 
not be merely the anger of disappointment; it may be the rage of those in power as 
well as of those who lose their power. The nations madly raged while in power, and. 
jn this state were met by the wrath of God. 


904 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


pose them to have been angry at this. They were angry with the prophe- 
sying of the witnesses, because of the torment or torture of this prophecy, 
but again they rejoiced when the spirit was separated from the body of the 
two prophets ; and accordingly we may presume, that when the witnesses 
again stood upon their feet their prophesying caused the same kind of tor- 
ture as it did before, and probably in a much greater degree, especially from 
its effects in the falling of the tenth of the city, and the slaying of the seven 
thousand names of men. This then we may presume to be the period when 
the nations or Gentiles were angry, being the same moment as that in which 
the wrath of God is manifested. Figuratively speaking, the divine wrath 
against false principles is exhibited simultaneously with the exercise of the 
wrath or opposition of these false principles agaist those that are true ; 
the Gentiles, they that dwell upon the earth—the men of the city, and the 
nations—all representing in this chapter the elements of legal and self- 
righteous systems arrayed against the principles of salvation by grace. A 
crisis is now alluded to, when the opposition on the one part is met by the 
wrath of the Most High on the other—a wrath, however, as we have before 
suggested, not against the errorist, but against the error. The dwellers upon 
the earth or the men of the earth, in a literal sense, are sinners ; but it was 
for them that Christ died : “ While we were yet stnmners Christ died for us,” 
Rom. v. 5. The object of divine wrath, therefore, we may presume is not 
here the sinner, or man asa sinful being, but those principles which prevent 
the sinner from availing himself of the mercy of God—at least we suppose 
such to be the case, in this apocalyptic exhibition. The collision here is 
between a system or systems of pretended human merits, and the exactions 
of divine justice ; as, if exemplified in man himself, the contest would be 
between the individual, who trusted in his own righteousness, and the requi- 
sition of thelaw. This unequal contest is now, we may suppose, represented 
as about to terminate: as it is said, Ps. xlvi. 10, “ Be still, and know that 
1 am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the 
earth.” : 

ᾧ 262. «And the time of the dead, that they should be judged.’—We 
find a judgment corresponding with this spoken of Rev, xx. 12, when the 
dead, small and great, are seen to stand before God : this suggests to us that 
the matters spoken of in this declaration are equally to be found in the 
figures of the subsequent exhibition ; this prefatory overture of the twen- 
ty-four elders enumerating the several heads of the coming representation : 
the anger of the nations, the wrath of God, the time of the dead, the time 
of rewarding the servants, &c., and the time of destroying those that destroy 
the earth. 

We shall have occasion to advert hereafter to what we suppose is to be 
understood by the dead here: meantime we only suggest that it is something 


os 


SONG OF THE CHORUS. 205 


corresponding with dead works—something divested of the spirit of life— 
principles bringing forth no fruit acceptable to God—mercenary and selfish 
principles, upon which God cannot be served in the strict sense of the term. 
These are to be judged, and the folly of their pretensions manifested ; as it 
is said, Heb. vi. 1, ‘ Therefore leaving the [elementary] principles of the 
doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto pertacten:s not laying again the founda- 
tion of repentance from dead works ;” and ix. 14, “ How much more shall 
the blood of Christ * * * * purge your conscience from dead works to 
serve the living God.” It being necessary to purge away these mercenary 
elements, before God can be served in spirit and in truth. 

‘ And that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and 
to the saints [holy ones], and to those fearing thy name.’—Here are three 
several classes of servants, representing we suppose three classes of ele- 
ments of truth. The subjects of salvation, in a literal sense, receive the 
reward of the inheritance, (Col. ili. 24,) and this inheritance is that of the 
merits of their Redeemer. They receive the reward of his merit, not of 
their own. Literally, even the prophets and best of men, when they have 
done all, can only say, We are unprofitable servants, we have done only that 
which it was our duty to do. But in the apocalyptic sense, we suppose 
these servants to be elements of truth—principles of the economy of salva- 
tion, which really and directly serve God and promote his glory. The 
reward to be given to these principles is the manifestation of their truth— 
the crown of gold ; and the manifestation of their belonging to the economy 
of grace—the white robe ; and the manifestation of their victory over the 
elements of the law—the palms in their hands. 

ᾧ 263. ‘ And shouldest destroy [or cause to corrupt] those that destroy 
{or corrupt] the earth. —This we may presume to refer to the destruction 
of the harlot Babylon, of the beast, of the false prophet, and of death 
and hell, as about to be set forth in the subsequent chapters—corrupt prin- 
ciples corrupting the earthly system, and in effect destroying it—for we may 
presume that it is in consequence of this destruction that a new earth, as 
well as a new heaven, is said to be seen, Rev. xxi. 1; the difference be- 
tween the old earth and the new earth, corresponding perhaps with the dif- 
ference between the old Jerusalem and the new Jerusalem. False systems of 
self-righteousness, however plausible, being the means of rendering the earthly 
system ἃ mass of corruption—as a dead body ina state of putrefaction exhibits 
in the strongest manner its entire want of the spirit of life. These systems, like 
corrupt trees, being incapable of bringing forth good fruit, must be them- 
selves destroyed ; which destruction is accomplished by exhibiting them in 
their proper characters—ex posing them to the action of the revealed word 
of God—bringing them so into contact with that word that, like chaff, they 
are consumed as by the fire of a furnace, Matt. vii. 17-19; Luke vi. 43, 


906 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


44. So the power of falsehood is destroyed when it is manifested to be 
falsehood ; as it is said, 2 Peter ii. 12, “They shall utterly perish in their 
own corruption,” ἐν τῇ φϑορᾷ αὑτῶν καταφϑαρήσονται, shall be utterly cor- 
rupted in their own corruption. 

With the close of this verse the chapter should Ria the action of the 
chorus, consisting of the voices in heaven and of the ἽΠΠΟΣ voices of 
the elders, constituting an intermediate scene, the description of which com- 
mences with the fifteenth verse and terminates here. 


THE TEMPLE OPENED, 207 


CHAPTER XI1.—(Continued.) 


SEVENTH TRUMPET.—THIRD WO. 


THE TEMPLE OPENED IN HEAVEN. 


V. 19. And the temple of God was καὶ ipoiyn ὃ ναὸς τοῦ ϑεοῦ ἐν τῷ οὐ- 
ὃ ened ἡ beara ap ipete was seen φανῷ, καὶ ὦφϑη ἡ κιβωτὸς τῆς διαϑήκης 
Ἔ temp e the ark o is testament: an αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ vou αὐτοῦ: καὶ ἐγένοντο ἀσ- 


there were lightnings, and voices, and 
thunderings, and an earthquake, and great τραπαὶ καὶ φωναὶ καὶ βρονταὶ καὶ σεισμὸς 


hail. καὶ χάλαζα μεγάλη. 

ᾧ 264. “Απά the temple of God was opened in heaven.’—“ One thing 
have I desired of the Lord,” says David, “that will I seek after; that I 
may dwell in the house of the Lorp all the days of my life, to behold the 
beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple,” (Ps. xxvii. 4.) Some- 
thing like this privilege appears to be now enjoyed by the Apostle—an op- 
portunity of inquiring into the mysteries of the temple—for although it is 
not expressed, the natural inference must be that the exhibition subsequently 
made, as described in the next chapter, is a result of this opening of the tem- 
ple—a temple in heaven, not on the earth—something entirely of a spiritual 
character ; a system, as we suppose, of principles peculiar to that position 
necessary to enable the worshipper of GOD to worship him in spirit and in 
truth. 

We have just witnessed the demolition of the tithing system of the anti- 
evangelical city; those pretended elements of worship which served as a 
substitute for a temple. Our attention is now directed to the true temple— 
the opposite of this substitute—a temple not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens—there is said to be no temple in the New Jerusalem, (Rev. xxi. 
22,) because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 
That is, there is no other than this; and this we suppose to be the temple 
now seen in heaven. An arrangement of those principles of eternal truth 
by which God himself, as manifested in Christ, appears in the light of his 
own temple. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself; and in 
Christ (God manifest in the flesh) the disciple finds an access unto God, 
by which he is enabled to worship Him acceptably. 

‘And there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament,’—or the 


208 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


ark of his covenant, as the word translated testament here is rendered, Gal. 
iv. 24, (ἡ κιβωτὸς τῆς διαϑήκης αὐτοῦ,) or the ark of the testimony, as it is 
sometimes called in the Old Testament.* The ark was not the testament 
itself. but that which contained the testament, or covenant. The ark is 
seen, but the testament within the ark isnot yet exhibited. That this exhi- 
bition is about to take place, seems however to be implied. ‘The opening of 
the temple, then, and display of the ark, are equivalent to certain prepara- 
tions requisite for the representations or developments about to be made. 

The ark of Noah we suppose to be a symbol of Christ as a means of 
preservation for all taking refuge in it. The ark of the testament we sup- 
pose also to be a type of Christ, as that in which all the elements or mys- 
teries of the economy of salvation are contained; or as Him in whom are 
hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, (Col. ii. 3.) To see the ark 
was to see that which contained these treasures ; but the treasures them- 
selves yet remain to be exhibited. 


§ 265. ‘ And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an 


* The term 4va7z7 occurs thirty-three times in the New Testament, being twelve 
times rendered in our common version by the word testament, and twenty-one times 
by that of covenant. In the ninth chapter of Hebrews, the same term is rendered 
twice covenant, and five times testament. In these remarks we employ the term testa- 
ment, covenant, dispensation, economy, arrangement or disposition, indiscriminately 
for this Greek term diatheke ; but in using the word covenant we would not have the 
idea associated with it of a compact between two equal parties, mutually binding 
themselves to some engagement, which they might either of them decline entering 
into if so disposed. There can be no such compact between God and man. There 
is no equality of parties here ; neither is there room here for voluntary action on the 
part of man. Man has not the right, or power, or liberty, to refuse to do or to agree 
to do any thing required of him by his God; he can engage to do nothing which 
it was not previously his duty to do. Here, therefore, only one of the parties is at 
liberty, and has the power and the right to promise or not to promise; to give or to 
withhold. It is the part of God to agree to give if he please, and to prescribe the way 
in which he will give; but it is not for man to stipulate, or to enter into a contract with 
the Deity. 

Such being the peculiarity of relationship between the Creator and the creature, 
we must either understand by the English word covenant, when used as here con- 
templated, an agreement of one party gnly; or we must render the Greek term 
diatheke by testament, dispensation, economy, arrangement, &c.; in Latin, dispositio, 
according to T'rommius—that is, the disposition which a testator makes of his pro- 
perty by will, for the benefit of his heirs. The testator having a perfect right to give 
his estate by will to whom he pleases, and to give it conditionally, or freely, as he 
may see fit; as also to annul his testament at any time and to substitute another in 
its place; whereas a covenant in the nature of a contract cannot be annulled without 
the consent of both parties. We accordingly substitute for the term covenant, on 
some occasions, the word economy, although this term expresses rather the state of 
things consequent to the disposition of the testament than the testament itself. The 
term Διαϑήκη occurs but in this one place in the Apocalypse, although the thing 
itself is necessarily a principal subject of the book. 


THE TEMPLE OPENED. 209 


earthquake, and great hail.’-—These are legal indications, and the ark of the 
testament is known to have contained the two tables of the law. So the 
first sight of it may be said very naturally to call up the recollection of all 
the denunciations of Mount Sinai. According to 1 Kings viii. 9, this 
ark, too, was to contain nothing else than the two tables of the law; but 
this we may look upon as a prescription of the old dispensation rigidly car- 
ried out. According to Heb. ix. 3, 4, the ark of the testament contained 
also the pot of manna, and the rod of Aaron that budded, thus representing 
him in whom the provisions of both covenants are fulfilled. If therefore 
the first sight of the ark be attended with these terrific denunciations only, 
it is because these two representations of divine mercy are not yet per- 
ceived ; and the ark is supposed to contain only the testimony of legal re- 
quisition: as if Christ were contemplated in no other light than as a law- 
giver and judge, and as such to be approached only with fearful apprehen- 
sion. 

Apocalyptically, however, we presume this judicial array of lightnings, 
&c., to be directed against elements of doctrine opposed to truth. They 
are intimations of the power of the truth about to be developed: as it is 
said, Ps. Ixxvii. 18, “His lightnings enlighten the world;”’ and Is. 
xxvii. 17, “ The hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies.” The earth- . 
quake, or rather shaking or commotion, (σεισμός,) indicating the approach- 
ing shaking of systems of error, and the voices and thunderings the power- 
ful character of revealed truth, when fully developed. 

This temple of God must be the same as that mentioned in the first 
verse of the chapter, which the apostle was called upon to measure; the 
difference being in the circumstances in which it is seen. On earth, under 
an earthly construction, the temple is apparently shut—a foreign power 
having possession of its court—while in heaven, under a spiritual construction, 
it is opened ; the veil is withdrawn, and its mysteries are capable of being 
revealed or laid open. ‘The ark is seen, and perhaps too the manna or hea- 
venly bread in the ark, or before the ark. This symbol of the righteousness 
of Christ being preserved with that of divine justice, (the books of the law,) 
as the tree of life was originally in Paradise with the tree of the know- 
ledge of good and evil. The rod of Aaron which budded, showing the 
choice of the house of Levi for the priesthood, (Num. xvii. 8,) and point- 
ing out the intercessorial character of our Great High Priest, (who, like 
Aaron amidst the plague, stands between the living and the dead,*) may be 
supposed also to be seen in or near the ark. 

In the literal temple the ark was placed in the inner recess, called the 
holiest of all, into which the High Priest alone entered once a year. Of 


* Between the Living God and those who are dead in trespasses and sin, 


910 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


course, if the temple was so laid open that the ark was seen, the holiest of 
all must have been disclosed ; corresponding with the rending of the veil of 
the temple at the time of the crucifixion of our Saviour. ‘This consumma- 


tion of his work constituting in effect the development of the mysteries of the 


temple—showing the way into the holiest, or indicating the position by 
which the disciple obtains access unto GOD. If the ark of the testament 
be not elsewhere mentioned in the New Testament, it must be because we 
have its equivalent in Christ, as when the antitype makes its appearance 
the type is no longer required. Ι͂ 

The apostle occupies the same position now that he did when first called 
up into heaven; the scenery in the back-ground being the same; but in 
front the exhibition of it is so far changed that a view of the opened temple 
is afforded, which was not before perceived ; while the apostle’s attention, 
instead of being occupied with changes taking place on earth, as it must 
have been while taken up especially with what he saw of the two witnesses, 
is now directed altogether to appearances and transactions within the hea- 
venly sphere of his observation. 


THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON. Q11 


CHAPTER XII. 


THE WOMAN.—THE MAN-CHILD.—THE DRAGON.—THE 
WAR IN HEAVEN. 


Vs. 1,2. And there appeareda great Καὶ σημεῖον μέγα ὥφϑη ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ" 


wonder in heaven; ἃ woman clothed with yyy}, πεοιδεθλημένη τὸν ἡλιονὶ καὶ Ἔ σελ 
the sun, and the moon under her feet, ale satin eee gi Layers 


c ΄ - ~ 7 ~ ἊΝ - 
and upon her head a crown of twelve ba i ri dae ποδῶν πές finn 
stars; and she, being with child, cried, Φαλῆς scare ae eae a i oe δώδεκα, καὶ 
travailing in birth, and pained to be de- ἔν γαστρὲ ἔχουσα κράζει, ὠδίνουσα καὶ βα- 
livered. σανιζομένη τεκεῖν. 


§ 966. ‘Anp there appeared,’ &c.—Notwithstanding the division of 
the chapters here, we consider, as already suggested, the subject of this 
chapter immediately connected with that of the last verse of the preceding. 
The development about to be made is a result of the opening of the temple, 
and of the sight of the ark of the covenant afforded by that opening. In 
other words, the unfolding of the elements of doctrine involved in that sys- 
tem of truth by which alone God can be truly worshipped, results in a 
development of certain principles peculiar to the economy of grace, repre- 
sented by the contents of the ark, and elsewhere spoken of as “treasures of 
wisdom and knowledge hid in Christ.” 

‘ A great wonder,’ or rather, a great sign.— Not merely something ex- 
citing great astonishment, but something conveying a very important meaning. 
The word translated wonder in this place, repeatedly occurs in the New 
Testament ; and with this exception is uniformly rendered by the term sign. 
It was applied amongst the Greeks to the marks of hours and half hours in 
the dial, to guide-posts and mile-stones, as well as to seals and military 
standards ; always carrying a meaning with it. The verb σημειόομαι, from 
the same root, is applied to the action of taking notes or making remarks, 
either as a matter of record, or with the view of extending them afterwards : 
Vid. Suiceri Lex., art. Σημειόω. Commentarium rerum scribo, ex quo pos- 
tea fiat historia. This great sign therefore we take to be something full of 
meaning ; something corresponding perhaps with the prediction, Matt. 
xxiv. 30, “ And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven.” 

‘In heaven. —The spiritual heaven we suppose to be the display of 


912 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


divine government in spiritual things, analogous to the astronomical exhibi- 
tion of divine power afforded by the natural heavens. ‘This display of 
course must come to us through the revealed word of God, properly under- 
stood,—the clouds of types, and symbols, and dark sayings, and the ter- 
restyal exhalations of literal interpretation, giving place to the ethereal 
medium of vision afforded by a spiritual understanding. In the midst of 
this heavenly exhibition, the apostle in spirit is favoured with a sight of the 
important symbolical representation he is now about to describe. 

‘A woman.’—The word here translated woman, is the same as that 
rendered Rev. xix. 7, and xxi. 9, wife ; as we might say in those passages 
the bride, the Lamb’s woman; that is, the woman set apart as belonging 
especially to the Lamb—espoused, but not yet a wife. The same term, 
γυνή, is also applied to Jezebel, Rev. 11. 20, and to the mother of harlots, 
Rey. xvii. 3, 4,6, 7, 9, 18. It may be used, therefore, either in a good or 
bad sense, and we must accordingly judge of its purport by the circum- 
* stances under which it is employed. In Rev. xvii., the woman sitting on 
the scarlet-coloured beast is distinguished by an opprobious epithet, (ἡ 
mogvy,) and is made desolate and destroyed. Here the woman, however 
afflicted or tried, is a peculiar subject of divine favour; as appears both 
from the clothing given her, and the protection afforded to her as well as to 
her offspring. . ᾿ 

ᾧ 267. “ Clothed with the sun.’—The sun may be put here for the rays, 
or glory, or light of the sun. It is said of Jesus Christ, Matt. xvii. 2, His 
face did shine as the sun; and Rev. i. 16, His countenance was as the sun. 
So of the mighty angel, Rev. x. 1, His face was as it were the sun; and of 
the justified, Matt. xiii. 43, Then shall the righteous shine as the sun: cor- 
responding with which the Messiah is spoken of by the prophet, as the Sun 
of righteousness with healing in his wings. ‘This woman is so wrapt about 
and clothed with the glory of the sun, as to appear like the sun itself. Or, 
to render the figure still more expressive, one clothed with the sun, may be 
said to dwell in the sun—to be identified with that orb of light. As the 
disciple clothed with the imputed righteousness of his Redeemer is in effect 
identified with him. ‘This woman we suppose to represent the mystery 
elsewhere spoken of by John, as the Bride, or new Jerusalem ; and by 
Paul, as the Jerusalem from above, which is the mother of us all ;—the 
same figure contemplated under circumstances somewhat different ;—the 
apostle, from his heavenly position, being permitted to look into the divine 
counsels, and enjoying a stretch of vision compassimg even more than ap- 
pears to be subsequently revealed. 

‘ And the moon under her feet.’—The feet we suppose to be put for the 
progress of the person or thing spoken of. To say that the feet are beautiful, is 
to say that there is something beautiful in the progress (coming or going 


THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON. 213 


forth) of this person or thing. ‘The moon, exhibiting a serene lustre from 
the reflected rays of the sun, furnishes a representation of the serenity of 
peace in believing enjoyed by the disciple, while trusting in his Redeemer’s 
merits. ‘This peculiar peace afforded by the economy of salvation, may be 
said to be the ornament of its progress ; that which makes its coming beau- 
tiful, as well as that which is necessary for this progress; as it is by the 
annunciation of peace, which the gospel carries with it, that its promulgation 
is effected. The Christian disciple is admonished, Eph. vi. 15, not only to 
put on the cutrass of righteousness, but also to be shod with the preparation 
‘of the gospel of peace ; to go forth to the legal contest or trial prepared 
with all the joy and peace in believing, Rom. xv. 13—the hope and trust 
afforded by the glad tidings of revealed truth. As it is said, Is. lii. 7, 
*«« How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good 
tidings, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth ;”’ 
and Nahum i. 15, “ Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bring- 
eth good tidings, that publisheth peace.” So, too, in allusion to the same 
economy, Cant. vii. 1, it is said of the prince’s daughter, “‘ How beautiful 
are thy feet with shoes.” 

The word rendered shod in the passage quoted from Ephesians, signifies 
an under binding, (ὑποδέω,) as of the sandal. The woman’s head-dress and 
clothing being described, in keeping with this description, the moon under 
her feet seems to occupy as a figure the place of the sandal; that is, both 
the preparation and the ornament of her feet—that which enables the mes- 
senger to go on his way, and that which makes his feet beautiful, as well as 
that which constitutes the preparation of the soldier for marching in 
battle array. As the paved work of sapphire, resembling the body of heaven 
for clearness, under the feet of the God of Israel, Exodus xxiv. 10, may 
represent a manifestation of the divine glory ; so the moon under the feet 
of the woman may be taken for the manifestation of the peace-bringing, 
peace-exhibiting attribute of the economy of salvation. 

§ 268. ‘ And upon her head a crown of twelve stars.’—This crown is 
of the kind given in token of victory, or of having overcome. The twelve 
stars, if put for the twelve tribes or patriarchs, may represent the old dis- 
pensation,—the sure word of prophecy, shining as in a dark place,—the 
old dispensation contributing its testimony to the glory of the new, or being 
put for the twelve apostles ; these apostles especially, as representatives of 
the gospel, shining as lights in the world. In either case the crown or 
head-dress, the clothing or raiment, and the preparation for the feet, com- 
bine to indicate this female as a figure of the new economy ; not, however, 
as yet fully revealed, or its gracious provisions yet fully developed. 

‘ And she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be 
delivered.’—Children, as we have already intimated, (¢ 71,) are scriptural 


214 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


figures of righteousness or merits ; such as enable the disciple to meet his 
adversary at the bar of divine justice ; or, as we have it rendered Ps. cxxvii. 
5, mm the gate ;—the gate amongst the Hebrews being the place for the 
administration of justice. 'The only true means of thus meeting the adver- 
sary, are to be found in the imputed merits of the Son of God. The dis- 
ciple himself under the law being incapable of providing himself with any 
defence ; whence, in allusion to the change of dispensations, it is said, Ps. 
exiil. 9, “ He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be the joyful 
mother of children.” 

The pain and anguish of travail here spoken of, may be figurative of the 
difficulty existing in the nature of things, in providing a means of redemp- 
tion for sinners, consistently with the divine attributes of justice and purity. 
As Jesus himself expresses it, Luke xii. 50, “1 have a baptism to be bap- 
tized with ; and how am [I straitened till it be accomplished.” But the 
representation here made, may be rather that of manifesting the mystery of 
redemption than of effecting the work. The difficulty, we may say, is to 
show how God may be just, and yet justify the ungodly. 

The name Jerusalem signifying the vision of peace, we suppose the 
scriptural exhibitions of the city, under its various aspects, to be put for the 
exhibitions of the old and new covenants—the vision of the process by which 
God is reconciled to man. ‘This is to be done in such a way as to estab- 
lish the manifestation of the truth, to put it beyond any dispute. The 
elements or principles of the economy are therefore to be tried. As, in the 
nature of the case, the plan of redemption must prove itself sufficient to 
overcome the vindictive claim of the law ; so, in the revelation of this plan, 
it must be shown to possess this sufficiency—it must be shown to bring forth 
or to furnish a righteousness sufficient to justify the sinner. The difficulty 
of doing this may be represented by the pains of parturition. 

The word rendered pained in our common version is the verb elsewhere 
rendered torment ; and which we have noticed as applicable to the kind of 
torture imposed upon one tried upon the rack ; or to the kind of test to 
which a mineral substance may be subjected with the view of ascertaining 
its purity. Here then, if the woman represent the covenant itself, the test 
applied is to ascertain its ability to justify the siner. If the woman be the 
figure of an exhibition of that covenant, the test is applied to ascertain the 
power of the plan thus exhibited ; so we may consider the travail of the 
woman as illustrative of the difficulties in the way of demonstrating, in its 
true light, what we consider the power of the leading traits of the gospel 
plan of redemption. The expression, she being with child, would be more 
correctly rendered, she being pregnant ; for it is yet to be seen whether, as 
in the case of the legal covenant, alluded to apparently Is. xxvi. 18, this 
pain and travail may not be fruitless. ‘The Greek term, according to the 


THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON. 915 


Septuagint, is the same in both passages ; here, however, the mind is to be 
kept in suspense till the event is announced. 

The joy so proverbially consequent to the birth of a child, especially of 
a male child, may be considered an universal type of the joy resulting to the 
whole world of the redeemed, from the bringing forth by the economy of 
redemption of that element of imputed righteousness, which in Christ is the 
power of God unto salvation ; to this allusion seems to be made John xvi. 21. 

Till this truth however is fully developed, the joy may not be ex- 
perienced ; consequently, the state of the believer individually, and of the 
whole community of believers, may, in the meantime, correspond with the ea 
season of sorrow and anxiety incident to the anguish of travail. 


Vs. 3,4. And there appeared another 
wonder [sign] in heaven, and behold, a 
great red dragon, having seven heads 
and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his 
heads. And his tail drew the third part 
of the stars of heaven, and did cast them 
to the earth: and the dragon stood before 
the woman which was ready to be deliv- 
ered, for to devour her child as soon as it 


Καὶ apn ἄλλο σημεῖον ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, 
χαὶ ἰδοὺ δράκων μέγας πυῤῥός, ἔχων χεφα- 
λὰς ἑπτὰ καὶ κέρατα δέκα καὶ ent τὰς κεφα- 
λὰς αὑτοῦ ἑπτὰ διαδήματα" καὶ ἡ οὐρὰ 
αὐτοῦ σύρει τὸ τρίτον τῶν ἀστέρων τοῦ 
οὐρανοῦ, χαὶ ἔβαλεν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὴν γῆν. 
καὶ ὃ δράκων ἕστηκεν ἐνώπιον τῆς γυναι- 


χὸς τῆς μελλούσης τεκεῖν, ἵνα, ὅταν TEx), τὸ 
τέκνον αὐτῆς καταφάγῃ. 


was born. 


ᾧ 269. ‘ Another sign in heaven,’—another symbolical representation in 
the heavenly exhibition of truth, (ᾧ 266.) 

‘A great red dragon’—or as the original might be translated, a great 
jfiery red serpent. 'The term dragon is but another name for a serpent, and 
is so employed in the Old Testament, both in our common version and in 
the Septuagint. It is also applied to Leviathan, Is. xxvii. 1, ‘‘ That crook- 
ed serpent.” The word translated red, 7v00‘c, is formed from the appella- 
tion of fire, πῦρ. The distinction would be unimportant were it not that 
with the term dragon we associate no particularly Scriptural idea ; whereas 
with that of serpent we recall to mind that old se:pent, the devil, as he is 
termed in the ninth verse of this chapter ; the tempter of our first parents, 
(Gen. ii. 3 ;) the trier of our Lord, (Matt. iv. 1 ;) and the accuser of the 
brethren, (Rev. xii. 10.) The fiery red colour of this dragon brings up 
also the remembrance of the fiery serpents, by which the children of Israel 
were chastened in the wilderness. The same being, character, or principle, 
therefore, whose efforts were directed in paradise to the bringing of our first 
parents under the law, by inducing them to taste the fruit of the tree of 
knowledge of good and evil, is expressly declared in this chapter (tenth 
verse) to be the accuser of the brethren—that is, the legal accuser—the 
public prosecutor, in a spiritual sense, under the legal dispensation. We must 
anticipate thus much upon the suosequent portion of the chapter, in order 
to obtain a clew to the character of the seven heads and ten horns of the 
He is termed a great dragon, no doubt on account of his great 

23 


monster. 


216 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


power in urging the condemnation of the sinner; and a fiery-red dragon, on 
account of the peculiarly vindictive character of his office—an office pre- 
cisely the opposite of the Redeemer, Mediator, and Justifier. His design 
or aim must be of course to counteract the justification purposed in the plan 
of redemption. He may be also termed fiery-red in allusion to his trying 
action upon the elements of redemption, with the view of proving their 
insufficiency. 

It may be asked how such a character can be supposed to have found 
his way into heaven. Here we must bear in mind that the apocalyptic 
, heaven is not a locality. It is not the abode of the blessed, in a literal 
sense. It is an exhibition, as we apprehend, of the principles and operation 
of divine government. In this exhibition (heaven) we must look, therefore, 
for all the principles or doctrinal elements belonging to the work of redemp- 
tion ; and accordingly we shall here find displayed the covenant or dispensa- 
tion of mercy on the one side, and that of works, or of the law, on the other. 
The first carried into effect by the element of propitiation ; the last essayed 
to its utmost by the principle of accusation. 

The scene of this passage is somewhat parallel to that of which we 
have an account in the first chapter of Job: “‘ Now there was a day when 
the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord; and Satan 
(the accuser) came also among them;” these sons of God (adopted _prin- 
ciples) being probably equivalents of the sealed ones of the Apocalypse ; 
the whole representing principles of divine government, in the midst of 
which that of accusation is necessarily introduced, and remains until ex- 
pelled by the superior power of the element of propitiation; as we might 
say of a monarchical government, where the law is to be enforced, there 
must be an officer of the crown to act the part of an accuser, in carrying 
out its requisitions. 

§ 270. ‘ Having seven heads.’—The head of a serpent is the seat of his 
sting, or power to destroy, (ὃ 209.) The seed of the woman was to bruise 
the serpent’s head. As it was said by the Creator to the serpent, Gen. ui. 
15, “ Iwill put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed 
and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” 
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law ; for sin is the 
transgression of the law. If the law be taken away, or so fulfilled that it 
can exact nothing more, there will be then no room for transgression of the 
law ; the sting of death will be taken away. The power of the legal ad- 
versary consists in his ability to bring home the charge of sin upon the sin- 
ner. This is his sting; and this sting we suppose to be represented by the 
head in which it is located. The vicarious work of Christ having fulfilled 
the law in behalf of the disciple, the power of the adversary to urge the 
sinner’s condemnation, and consequent punishment, is taken away—the ser- 


νι σα. «νὰ 


THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON. Q17 


pent’s head is bruised. These seven heads of the serpent may be put there- 
fore, according to our view of the use of the number seven, as representing 
totality, for all of his heads of accusation ; or they may be put for seven 
such elements or stings, the tendency of which severally is to bring the sin- 
ner under the power of the law, and so by urging his condemnation to sub- 


_ ject him to the sting of death. Christ, by fulfilling the law, has crushed the 


head or the seven heads of the serpent, destroying all the power of the ac- 
cuser—as it is said, (Ps. xxii. 13,) breaking the heads of the dragons in 
the waters; and Rom. xvi. 20, “The God of peace shall bruise Satan 
under your feet.” 

There may be some correspondence between these seven heads and the 
seven abominations spoken of Prov. vi. 16 :—pride, deceit, cruelty, envy, 
malice, dissension, false accusation, or something nearly equivalent to them ; 
the rendering of our common version giving probably but a feeble expression 
of the original. The sinner in the sight of God is not the subject of false 
accusation. Christ himself was falsely accused, but man in divine judg- 
ment must be a transgressor, justly meriting punishment. Spiritually, how- 
ever, the disciple, as adopted and justified in Christ, may be falsely accused ; 
and where the action of principles is represented, those of salvation by grace 
may be testified against falsely. Pride and self-dependence may be arrayed 
against humility and self-abasement ; deceit against candour—as in the con- 
fession of sin: the principles of envy may be viewed as acting against 
the love of God, and zeal for his glory ; the principles of malice against 
those of brotherly love ; and the elements of dissension against the princi- 
ple of unity in Christ. Thus the seven heads ofthe dragon may be contem- 
plated as sending forth a progeny of anti-evangelical principles, perpetually 
in collision with those of a free salvation, corresponding with the enmity 
predicted between the seed of the woman, and that of the serpent, Gen. 
ii. 15. 

§ 271. ‘ And ten horns.’—A horn, as we have already noticed, is the sym- 
bol of power, (δ 137.) The horns of this great dragon or accuser must repre- 
sent the power or powers with which he is invested, for carrying into effect 
the peculiar functions of a public prosecutor. These ten horns are proba- 
bly opposites in character and operation to the seven horns of the Lamb, 
(Rev. v. 6.) We are not obliged to suppose each horn to represent a sep- 
arate and distinct power. The ten collectively may be designed to direct 
our attention to some power designated also by ten elements representing a 
certain power in the aggregate. If we ask by what power the accuser of 
the brethren, who accuses them day and night before God, is enabled to 


accuse, or upon what principle the force of his accusations rests, we must _ 


perceive that the power is that of the law—the principle, that the law is 
not fulfilled in behalf of the brethren ; and therefore that they may be ac- 


‘ 


‘ ‘ 


218 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


cused and prosecuted for every transgression, and every short-coming. ‘The 
spirit or power of accusation is sustained by the law, and this law we sup- 
pose to be represented by the ten horns ; the decalogue, or ten command- 
"ments, as a summary, being put for the whole law. Each horn as well as 
each commandment indeed has its power ; for, as the apostle says, (James 1]. 
10,) if we offend in one point, we are guilty of all. But even this princi- 
ple depends upon that of the continuance of the legal dispensation as a 
whole. 

The Son of God came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it, Matt. v. 
17. If he did fulfil it, and if his followers are justified in him by tins ful- 
filment, then who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? or how 
can the legal prosecutor of the brethren sustain his accusations? It is God 
that justifieth—who is he that condemneth? (Rom. vil. 33, Is. 1. 8.) 
. Hence the power of the accuser’s horns depends not only upon the existence 
of the law, but also upon the position that the law remains still unfulfilled. 

§ 272. ‘ And seven crowns,’ or rather seven diadems, ‘ upon his heads.’— 
The diadem was a white band, or fillet, worn by kings around their usual head- 
dress—a token of royal authority, or of a participation in that authority— 
apparently of Persian origin, although in the times of the apostles generally 
recognized amongst the Greeks and the Romans as a similar token, (ὃ 55.) 
The term in the Greek occurs but three times in the New Testament ; in 
the Septuagint version of the Old Testament it is found, according to Trom- 
mius, only in the Book of Esther, as the rendering of the Hebrew term 
for a royal crown, "D2; there it is applied to the crown upon the head of 
Vashti, afterwards transferred to that of Esther—designating, we may say, 
the identity of the queen elect with her royal husband and lord. The 
crown said to be given to Mordecai should be rendered by the term robe, 
(stola,) Hebrew 377==, a token of representation rather than of identity. The 
royal crown, or diadem, mentioned Is.] xn. 3, "2%, czdaris, is still something 
differing from the other tvwo—something to be borne in the hand—said to be 
a sash worn about the cap amongst the Persians; a token of sovereign 
favour, according to the prophet, not given to Zion or Jerusalem, but 
which both or either of these is constituted, ‘Thou shalt be,’ &c. The 
first of these diadems is strictly the head ornament, and consequently the 
kind of diadem worn by these seven heads. Not, as it is very evident, that 
they are rightfully entitled to the sign of royal power, but that they assume 
it: as, in the times of the Emperors to assume the diadem was an expres- 
sion equivalent to that of claiming imperial power. 

These seven crowned heads each of them assume in ἃ spiritual 
sense a supreme authority, or they pretend to it collectively, as in the aggre- 
gate constituting the one head of the accuser. We have only further to 
notice at present, that these crowns are not tokens of victory, (ozéparor,) 


—) 


THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON. 219 


neither the dragon nor his heads being supposed to have overcome, or to be 
eventually successful ; although, so long as he is permitted to wield his 
horns, the heads may appear to be clothed with sovereign power. 

§ 273. ‘And his tail drew the third (part) of the stars of heaven, and 
did cast them to the earth.—‘ The prophet that speaketh lies, he is the 
tail,’ Is ix. 15. The stings of the scorpion-locusts were in their tails, 
(Ὁ 215,) and the power of the Euphratean horse was in their mouth and 
in their tails, (ᾧ 223.) Corresponding with the construction we have put 
upon these tails, we consider that of the accuser to represent a false inter- 
pretation of the written Word of God ; the tail of this dragon being a figure 
nearly equivalent to that of the false prophet spoken of in a subsequent 
part of the book. The meaning of the word rendered drew would be 
better expressed by our term dragged, as it is a forcible drawing. ‘The 
third part, or the third, τὸ τρίτον, we have already supposed (ὃ 191) to be 
put for the spiritual sense of the thing described. ‘The stars of heaven we 
consider the lights of revelation—the elements of revelation, as we have 
them in the Scriptures—the light to the feet and the lamp to the path of 
the disciple. In heaven these elements appear in their proper spiritual 
sense ;—on earth they appear in a literal sense, being contemplated through 
the medium of deductions from earthly or literal misconstruction. The 
action of the dragon with his tail corresponds with that of a literal construc- 
tion, applied to the Word of God—dragging it down from a spiritual to a 
literal meaning; as we have supposed heaven to be put for the exhibition 
of divine government, with all the wonders of redeeming love, in its pure 
spiritual sense ; and the earth an exhibition of the same government, and 
plan of redemption, as deduced from a literal construction of Scripture. ‘To 
bring the elements of truth from heaven to earth, is to take them out of 
their spiritual sense, and to cause them to be contemplated only in a literal 
sense. This is done by the accuser for the reason elsewhere given, that 
the letter killeth. The literal interpretation bringing the sinner under the 
full power of the law, and thus subjecting him to all the elements of a legal 
accusation.* 

§ 274. ‘ And the dragon stood before the woman,’ &c.—This position 
of the dragon may be indicative not only of his readiness and eagerness to 
accomplish his purposes, but also of a certain permanency in the nature 
of the persecution ; this action of the accuser, or vindictive element, being, 
as we shall hereafter have occasion to notice, an opposite of that of the 
Lamb standing on Mount Zion, Rev. xiv. 1, There is also a correspond- 
ence between this design of Satan. and the typical effort of Pharaoh to 

* It may be especially in allusion to this perversion of the revealed word of God. 


favouring the views of self-justification, although really tending to condemnation, that 
the devil is said tobe a liar, and the father of a lie, John viii. 44. 


220 THE SEVENTH SEAL._THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


destroy all the male offspring of the enslaved Hebrews; the name 
Pharaoh signifying an avenger, or revenger, Syriacé, Vindicans, (Onom. 
Sac. L.,) in allusion to which apparently he is styled, Ezek. xxix. 3, “The 
great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers.” 

The woman we have supposed to represent the covenant of redemption ; 
and the child to be brought forth, the righteousness provided by this cove- 
nant ; that is, the destined means of counteracting the power of the legal 
accuser, or avenger—the means of delivering the sinner from a yoke even 
worse than that of Egyptian bondage. The vindictive spirit of inflexible 
justice stands ready to absorb, and more than absorb, if practicable, the 
gracious provision of the merits of a Saviour—to swallow it up, as it were, 
showing its insufficiency. ‘The whole picture representing the perpetuity 
necessarily existing in the nature of the case, in the contest between the 
effort of divine mercy on the one side to spare, and that of strict justice to 
require its victim. The woman in heaven crowned, with her child, represents 
the economy of grace with its offspring, destined to be triumphant, which is 
also equivalent to the heavenly Jerusalem, or to the gospel exhibition of 
the same mystery, spiritually understood; while Jerusalem in captivity 
appears to be the figure of an exhibition of the same mystery, under a per- 
verted construction, according to which the merciful purpose proposed 
would appear to be insufficient and fruitless, as seems to be shadowed forth 
in the lamentations of the prophet, (Jer. li. 34,) ‘‘ Nebuchadnezzar the 
King of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me 
an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon.” So we may 
say, the economy of grace spiritually and properly understood, as it exists 
in the divine mind, will manifest itself able to withstand the power of all 
the judicial and legal elements arrayed agamst it, and thus to bid defiance 
to the elements of accusation : literally understood, shackled in its exhibition 
by a self-righteous interpretation, it will appear as it were swallowed up by 
the overwhelming power of legal condemnation; that is, its provision, 
its offspring, its child, so swallowed up, or devoured as soon as it is born, as 
it is figuratively expressed in our text. We hence perceive the necessity 
the dragon is under of employing his tail in dragging down the elements of 
revelation from their spiritual sense to a literal sense, as we shall see also 
hereafter the necessity of the aid afforded by the false prophet to the beast. 


- 


V.5. And she brought fortha man- Kat ἕτεχκεν υἱὸν ἀῤῥενα, ὃς μέλλει ποι- 
child, who was to rule all nations with a μαίνειν πάντα τὰ ἔϑνη ἐν ῥάβδῳ σιδηρᾷ" 
ne . . 1 

rod of iron: and her child was caught up ‘ 


\ c , ι ' 2 - ‘ ‘ 
5 χαὶ HOMUTIN TO TExvVOY αὑτῆς πρὸς τὸν 
unto God, and to his throne. ” i He iy 


4 ‘ ΄ 2 - 
"ϑεὸν καὶ πρὸς τὸν Fgovoy αὐτοῦ. 


ᾧ 275. ‘And she brought forth a man-child,’ υἱὸν ἄῤῥενα.----Α son, that 
is, a male ; this double designation of the gender giving intensity to the ex~ 


THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON. 221 


pression. ‘Cursed be the deceiver,” it is said, Mal. i. 14, “ which hath in 
his flock ἃ male, and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing ;” 
that is, who has in his flock a male, but withholds it as an offering. The 
paschal lamb was to be a male; so also the burnt-offering, Lev. i. 3, 10, 
and the sin-offering, Lev. iv. 23, and xxii. 9. Christ personally is the 
male of the flock—the primary fulfilment of the paschal and Levitical type, 
as well as of that afforded by the firstling of the flock, of the martyred Abel ; 
the righteousness of Christ, the body of his merits, his moral perfection, 
offered in behalf of the sinner, being the same male of the flock in a spirit- 
ual sense as the Apocalyse is spiritually an unveiling of Christ. We 
consider this male child a representation of the element of divine righteous- 
ness, provided by God’s plan of salvation to be imputed to the sinner, that he 
may thereby be justified from all, from which he could not be justified by the 
law of Moses, (Acts xili. 39 ;) the same righteousness or body of merit which 
under one figure constitutes the means of justification, being under another 
figure represented as the only acceptable sacrifice of propitiation—the male 
of the flock. ‘This provision, figuratively speaking, is brought forth in the 
midst of the requisitions of the law, exposed to the peril, if insufficient, of 
being swallowed up by the legal accuser. Corresponding with this, the 
exhibition of the same truth, if the principle be insufficient, is exposed to 
being swallowed up by the exhibition of the requisitions of the law. 

As to the matter of fact, the sufficiency of this sacrifice is too well 
established in the divine mind to be a subject of doubt or apprehension ; it is 
only the manifestation of this mystery which can be said to appear in peril 
at one time, and perfectly secure at another. We may suppose, therefore, 
this picture to represent the manifestation of the fact, rather than the fact 
itself; as if we were to suppose the woman in heaven an equivalent for 
the gospel rightly understood. Thus understood, the true provision for the 
redemption of the sinner (the righteousness of God by imputation) is un- 
folded. ‘The adversaries of this doctrine stand ready to show, or to prove 
its insufficiency, or to devour it, contending that it is not equal to meeting 
the requisitions of the law. 

§ 276. ‘ Who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.’—This rod of 
iron must be the same as that to be given to him that overcometh, Rev. ii. 27, 
and the same as that to be employed by the Word of God, Rev. xix. 15. 
It must be the rod spoken of Ps. ii. 9; and the ruler and nations, or 
Gentiles, must be those referred to in all these passages, as well as in Acts 
iv. 25-27. There cannot be two several rulers over all nations, neither can 
there be two or more parcels of these nations to be ruled over by different 
sovereigns. ‘The man-child must be, therefore, a representation either of 
Christ himself, or of that principle of divine righteousness imputable to the 
disciple, which is personified and manifested in Christ ; which in a spiritual 


229 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


sense rules or predominates, and in the final development of truth is to be 
exhibited as ruling or predominating, in the most despotic manner, over 
every other power or principle having any relation to the work of man’s 
salvation. In the heavenly exhibition with which the apostle is favoured, 
this principle is seen to be brought forth by the economy of grace—that 
plan of reconciliation or vision of peace, elsewhere spoken of as the holy, 
heavenly, or new Jerusalem. 

This principle, thus brought forth, is that which the legal adversary, 
the element of vindictive wrath, would destroy, armed as he is with the 
powers of the law, represented by the ten horns or commandments of the 
decalogue ; these horns being directed in their action by seven legal princi- 
ples, assuming to be sovereign, each as heads of the serpent carrying with 
them the sting of death, and all of them alike opposed to the divine pur- 
pose of salvation by grace. Or, if we prefer contemplating the number seven 
as a figure of totality, these seven heads represent all the adverse principles 
of the character ascribed to the accuser ; all of them constituting the one 
head, with its mortal sting, eventually to be manifested as crushed by the 
fruit of the woman. ‘The accusing spirit is opposed to permitting the ex- 
istence of a righteousness without the law—Rom. 1. 21—an element of 
salvation which nevertheless is'to manifest its pre-eminence over all others. 

The rod of iron in the hand of a ruler we suppose to occupy the place 
of a sceptre in the hand of a sovereign: the token of royalty, or of supreme 
power. The principle of perfect sovereignty is that by which the element 
of divine righteousness has power to control all other principles; as if the 
question were asked, How can the sinner be saved through the imputation 
of God’s righteousness? The answer is, because God is a sovereign. He has 
a right to give, and to give freely to whom he pleases. ‘This principle, 
therefore, may be said to rule all others with an iron sway; at the same 
time the power of this exercise of divine righteousness in saving the sinner 
manifests the sovereignty of God; and thus the rod of iron in the hand of 
the Saviour is in fact the sceptre in the hand of the ruler; as it is said, 
Heb. viii. 1, A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. 

« And her child was caught up unto God,’ &c.—or rather, according to 
our edition of the Greek, was conveyed away to God, and to his throne. 
The word up is gratuitously introduced here; the original implies nothing 
either up or down. The scene is laid in heaven—the woman brings forth 
in heaven—even the dragon is seen there, although afterwards cast down 
to earth. The representation is that of things occurring in the divine 
councils. The element of righteousness imputable to the believer is identi- 
fied with the Deity himself; it is God’s righteousness—the righteousness of 
Jehovah ; and thus seen, it is manifestly protected from the power of the 
legal adversary. All the powers of accusation and condemnation cannat 


THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON, 223 


prevail against it—a peculiarity not to be asserted of the righteousness of 
any created being. 

‘And to his throne..—This imputable righteousness is manifested, in 
this heavenly exhibition, not only to be the righteousness of God, but its 
imputability also is identic with the attribute of divine sovereignty. God is 
a sovereign in the strictest sense of the term—his righteousness is his own, 
and he has therefore a right to give it—to impute it freely to whom he pleases. 
Who then shall ““ imagine a vain thing ἢ. The elements of self-righteous- 
ness and self-justification, of legal accusation, and of the powers of con- 
demnation, may, as we might say, take counsel together against this over- 
coming principle ;—but “he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ; Jehovah 
shall hold them in derision.” He has declared the decree: the principle of 
salvation by grace through the imputed righteousness of Christ is safe in 
the bosom of the Deity and in the midst of the attribute of his sovereignty, 
and to this principle eventually all others must be manifested to succumb, 


Ps, ii. 1-9, 


V. 6. And the woman fled into the wil- Kai ἡ γυνὴ ἔφυγεν εἰς τὴν ἔρημον, ὕπου 
derness, where she hath a place prepared ἔχει ἐκεῖ τόπον ἡτοιμασμέν ον ἀπὸ τοῦ ϑεοῖ, 


of God, that they should feed her {ποτ ἃ « hive ὃ 
thousand two hundred (and) threescore ἵνα ἐκεῖ τρέφωσιν αὐτὴν ἡμέρας χιλίας δια- 
κοσίας ἕξήκοντα. 


days. 

§ 277. ‘ And the woman fled into the wilderness.’-——The power of the 
adversary is not sufficient to destroy the ‘element of justification brought 
forth by the economy of grace; but it is permitted for a time to prevail so 
far as to bring the revelation of this economy into a position of misconstruc- 
tion—obliging the woman to fly out of heaven into the wilderness. An 
operation figuratively parallel to that of dragging the one-third of the stars 
from heaven to earth. 

A woman in the wilderness is equivalent to a desolate woman, having 
neither husband nor legitimate offspring. ‘The woman is thus seen by the 
apostle to be in one position, while the man-child is seen to be in another. 
So there may be those possessed of sufficient spiritual understanding to 
perceive that the child Jesus is identic with the Father, who nevertheless 
do not discern the true character of the economy of grace, or perceive how 
it is that this child, or that which it represents, is the offspring of that 
economy. ‘The apostle sees both—he has seen the woman bringing forth, 
and lie sees the child preserved ; there is no misapprehension in his vision ; 
but he sees the woman in the wilderness as she is destined to appear for a 
certain period to the eyes of others. Wherever the divine counsels, in this 
particular, are spiritually discerned, there the woman appears as having 
brought forth, and her child as being identified with God and his throne. 
Wherever, on the contrary, there is a prevalence of literal interpretation 
and legal misconstruction, there the economy of grace is in a desolate posi- 


994 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. © 


tion, as incapable of bearing any fruit. So the heavens are said to be 
opened when Christ is perceived in his proper mediatorial as well as divine 
character ; while they are said to be shut, and the rain even is said not to. 
moisten, where there is no just perception of the efficacy of his vicarious 
sacrifice. 

‘Where she hath a place,’ &c.—It may seem strange that the woman 
should flee from heaven into the wilderness for safety ;—but the reason is 
given—she had there a place prepared for her of God ; as the direction was 
given to Joseph, Matt. n. 13, “ Arise, and take the young child and his 
mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word ;” the 
reason of which is afterwards given, “that it might be fulfilled which was 
spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my 
Son.” -So the woman fled into-the wilderness, that another prophecy 
might be fulfilled, Is. xxxv. 1 : “‘ The wilderness and the solitary place shall 
be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.” 
And when the term of seclusion is accomplished another prophetic allu- 
sion is explained, Cant. 11. 6, “ Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness 
like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense ?” and vii. 5, 
“ Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness; leaning upon her beloved ?”” 
In accordance with the same divine arrangement, the voice was heard from 
the wilderness, (Matt. iii. 1,) “‘ Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his 
paths straight.” The word of revelation, taken in a literal sense, may be 
said to be a wilderness, or, to the eye of the disciple seen only through the 
medium of a literal and legal misconstruction, it may present the picture of 
a wilderness; but the glad tidings of redemption are still there, although 
but dimly perceived, and there they are preserved, to be brought forth when 
by a development of their true sense the whole scene is changed ; the same 
word of revelation, spiritually understood, becoming a paradise, or present- 
ing the view of a paradise. 

It is true that the mother of harlots, Rev. xvii. 3, is also seen in the 
wilderness, but otherwise the two females have nothing in common with 
each other. The wilderness is a state of seclusion and of humiliation to 
one, while the other in the wilderness is in her glory ; one may be sup- 
posed to mourn her state of desolation, while the other glories in her shame, 
and rejoices in the power afforded by the peculiarities of her position. 

§ 278. ‘That they should feed her there twelve hundred and sixty 
days,’—or, that she should be nourished there. ‘The economy of redemp- 
tion is preserved in the letter of revelation until the arrival of the precise con- 
tingency when it is to be spiritually understood. No account is given in 
the Apocalypse of this woman being brought out of the wilderness ; but that 
she is so eventually, may be safely inferred from the designation of a term 
during which she is thus to sojourn there; this term, however figurative, 


THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON. Q25 


pointing out an end to the process in contemplation: as, to say that such 
a limitation of her sojourn in the wilderness was the purpose of God, is 
equal to declaring the result ; for his designs cannot change, or be defeated. 
The figure employed for illustrating this or any other truth may be dropped 
and another substituted for it ; as we suppose the economy of grace, repre- 
sented by the mother of the man-child here, to be afterwards represented 
by the bride or Lamb’s wife; the two parts of the vision being not suc- 
cessive but collateral; the one representing a mystery as it appears in 
heaven—in the divine counsels—while the other represents the same 
mystery as it will appear when being developed on earth ; in accordance 
with a rule of exegesis we have elsewhere adverted to, that several figures 
may be employed to illustrate the same truth without confusion ; although 
one figure cannot represent several truths without involving perplexity. 

The period of this woman’s sojourn in the wilderness, it will be per- 
ceived, corresponds with that of the treading of the holy city under foot, and 
with the prophesying of the witnesses in sackcloth ; and if reduced to what 
we have supposed to be the common sign of three and a half, it will corres- 
pond also with the term for the continuance of the dead bodies of the wit- 
nesses in the streets of the great city ; showing a parallelism between these 
several illustrations, time in a literal sense not being otherwise a subject of 
consideration. This scale of parallelism serves to remind us that the 
several effects illustrated proceed: from a common interchangeable cause— 
the woman 15 in the wilderness, because the holy city and the outer court 
of the temple are in possession of the Gentiles, which is also the cause of 
the prophesying of the witnesses, and of the state of the dead bodies in the 
great city, and so vice versa. ‘The evil in all these cases arising from the 
same literal application and misconstruction of the word of revelation.* 


* We have already enlarged sufficiently upon the reasons for not considering these 
twelve hundred and sixty days literally a portion of time, and have noted the diffi- 
culty arising from the want of an epoch whence to calculate such a time. By way of 
making this difficulty more evident, however, we may ask, When did the woman bring 
forth her man-child ? when was that child taken to God, and to his throne ? when did 
the dragon try to devour it, and when did he begin to persecute the woman? If we 
seek for an answer to these questions in the political and ecclesiastical history of the 
world, we find nothing to afford us light, unless we go back to the time when the 
child Jesus was literally born, and calculate the twelve hundred and sixty days from 


‘that time; in which case the seclusion of the woman must have terminated more 


than five hundred years ago. If we seek for an answer in the promulgation of the 
gospel, we are obliged also to go back to the first preaching of it by the apostles; 
and if we accept the spiritual interpretation here proposed, and ask, when it was that 
the economy of grace first brought forth the element of imputed righteousness, we 
might as reasonably ask when it was that God first found a ransom for the trans- 
gressor; when it was that he brought his first begotten into the world, saying, Let 
all the angels of God worship him ; or when it was that it was first said to the Son, 


996 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


With the close of this verse the account of the woman is suspended, 
and is not resumed again till we reach the thirteenth verse of the chapter ; 
meantime we may hazard a few further remarks upon the illustrations. 
afforded by this picture. 

The child is not conveyed from earth to heaven, because it is not sup- 
posed to have been on earth. ‘Taken to God and to his throne, its perfect 
safety is manifested. Hence even the great red dragon makes no further 
demonstration against it. The element of imputed righteousness does not 
yet appear to human eyes not privileged like those of the apostle, nor is it 
seen in the earthly system. — Its further exhibition is a matter yet in reserve. 

The economy of grace, represented by this woman, we suppose to be an 
opposite of the legal dispensation ; that old economy could not bring forth 
the righteousness required, as it is intimated, Is. v. 4, ‘‘ What could I do more 
for my vineyard than I have done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it 
should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes.” ‘The element of 
judicial wrath, represented by the sea, could not bring forth this righteous- 
ness; as it is said, Is. xxii. 4, ‘‘ Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea 
hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring 
forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins.” 
Neither could the earthly system produce it, as the same prophet declares, 
(Is. xxxiii. 9, 10, 11,) ‘‘ The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is 
ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and 
Carmel shake off their fruits. Now will I rise, saith the Lord ; now will I 
be exalted ; now will I lift up myself. Ye shall conceive chaff; ye shall bring 
forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you.” Or if the earthly 
system be made eventually to bring forth that good fruit, it is only by the 
immediate action of sovereign grace ; as, in the physical world, the rains 
from heaven descend, and give rise to the springs that water the valleys, 
affording that moisture whence the fruitfulness proceeds: and even under 
this aspect the earth is merely an instrument, or vehicle, through which the 
fructifying element imparts its moisture to the various products emanating 
from it. So it is said, Is. xlv. 8, “ Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and 
let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them 
bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together: I the Lord 


“ Thy throne, Ὁ God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre 
of thy kingdom,” Heb i. 8; or when it was said by this only begotten one, “Lo, I 
come: in the volume of the Book it is written of me,” Ps. xl. 7. When we can assign 
a time in the history of the world for either of these events as an epoch, we may feel 
ourselves warranted in calculating the twelve hundred and sixty days or years from 
it; and when satisfied on this point, we may consider the other periods as synchroniz- 
ing with this. Till then we must be governed by the declaration of the mighty angel, 
that, apocalyptically, time is no longer. 


—— ee CU le, lle ee ee eee CU 


—_— Ὑ ΌΝΝ 


THE WAR IN HEAVEN. Q27 


have created it.” Thus as the desert* may by divine power be made to 
blossom as the rose, so the earthly system by the same transforming power 
may be made to exhibit the rich provision of divine bounty. A change 
perhaps indicated in the latter part of this vision, where a new earth as well 
as a new heaven are said to be seen by the apostle. 


Vs.7,8. And there was war in heaven: Kui ἐγένετο πόλεμος ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ ὃ 
Michael and his angels fought against the y ) 
dragon; and the dragon fought and his 
angels, and prevailed not; neither was ,, ees Areas ete 
their place [the place of them] found any λέμησε mee ἄγγελοι σαυτοῦ ΟΣ Ὁ ΣῊΝ 
more in heaven. σεν, οὐδὲ τόπος εὑρέϑη αὐτῶν ἔτι ἐν TH 

οὐραγῷ. 


‘ \ σ᾿ ? > ~ ~ 

Mizar καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι αὐτοῦ τοῦ πολεμῆ- 
‘ ~ , c 

σαι μετὰ τοῦ δράκοντος, καὶ ὃ δράχων ἐπο- 


ᾧ 279. ‘There was war in heaven.’—Here there is a partial change in 
the scenery, but the scene itself is still laid in heaven. The apostle stops 
in his narrative of the woman to describe something else going on as it were 
simultaneously. 

In a literal sense there could not possibly be a dissension or contest 
in the councils of the Most High. This war we may presume to be in- 
tended to represent the virtual contest necessarily existing between the 
principles of redemption on the one side, and those of condemnation on the 
other. The war itself may be considered equivalent, as a figure, to the 
throes of the woman bringing forth the man-child: and the birth of the 
child and its exaltation to the throne of God may be viewed as simultaneous 
with the expulsion of the dragon from heaven: one event involving the 
other. The war is not to be understood as commencing with the flight of the 
woman, but rather as terminating with it. The action of the dragon in 


* The deserts or wildernesses of Scripture are not always to be supposed to be 
Arabian deserts. Every city in the Kast, it is said, had its wilderness or neighbour- 
ing tract of wild uncultivated land; the soil perhaps not being worthy of culture, 
producing only thorns and briers. From the manner in which these desert tracts are 
spoken of in the sacred writings, it is evident that they are to be contemplated as 
places of great scarcity as to food, water, and shelter ; representing a position appar- 
ently furnishing neither the pretended security and ample provision symbolized by 
an earthly city, the work of men’s hands, nor the real security peculiar to the heav- 
enly Jerusalem. 

To be in the wilderness, in a spiritual sense, is to be in a position destitute of 
means, either real or pretended, of eternal life. To be sensible of being in such a 
wilderness may be equivalent to being poor in spirit; a state of conviction of sin, pre- 
paratory to a sense of entire reliance upon the mercy and unmerited favour of God. 
To pretend to a righteousness and sufficiency of one’s own, is to fancy ourselves ina 
city well fortified and abundantly provided, when we are in reality in the wilderness. 
Reference to this delusion seems to be made, Is. |. 2, “ At my rebuke I make the 
cities a wilderness.” To the poor the gospel is preached: this gospel sets forth the 
wilderness of man’s position by nature, but when spiritually understood it sets forth 
also the shelter and supply provided. The provision once recognized, the wilderness 
is made like Eden, and the desert like the garden of the Lord, Is. li. 3. 


928 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


waiting to devour the child is in effect part of the war; a representation of 
the same contest by a different figure. 

‘Michael and his angels fought,’ &c.—Michael, according to Leusden, 
signifies, Who is like to God? or God striking, or the stroke, the humility, 
or the poverty of God ; Micha signifying, with the other meanings, Who is 
this? that is, in this place—reminding us of the question repeatedly put 
concerning Jesus, Matt. xxi. 10, Luke v. 21, and elsewhere. Combining 
this signification with the last syllable, Al or Ala, an appellation of the 
Deity, especially expressive of strength or power, the whole name carries 
with it the force of the question, Who is this so like unto God? correspond- 
ing with the captious interrogatory of the Scribes and Pharisees, Who can 
forgive sins but God only? Micha is also said to signify “ the waters 
here ;” that is, here are the means of ablution, the fountain of life ; equiva- 
lent to the exclamation of the eunuch, ἰδού, vdag, Lo! here is water.* 

All these meanings direct our attention to him who was the express 
image of the Father; who, although equal with God, humbled himself, 
appearing in fashion as a man, while at the same time, when occasion called 
for it, he exercised the power and prerogative of Deity ; who was stricken 
and smitten—being wounded for our transgressions ; and in whose atoning 
blood there is opened a fountain for the washing away of sin and unclean- 
ness—the water of life. 

Michael and his angels we accordingly take to be a representation of 
the Redeemer and his gospel principles contending with the Accuser and 
his self-righteous and legal principles ; a contest between the intercessor or 
mediator, and the adversary or prosecutor; a struggle in the nature of 
things between antagonistic principles—between the requisitions of the 
law and the provisions of sovereign mercy; but yet not literally a struggle in 
the divine mind, because with God the end must be coeval with the beginning. 
Every cause here being a final cause ;—the world having been created to be 
redeemed, as the woman was created for the man, and not the man for the 
woman; the plan of redemption having been formed before ever the earth 
was, to manifest the glory of God by causing his goodness, we may venture 
to say, to pass before the eyes of an assembled universe, that his per- 
fections may be illustrated, the consistency of all his attributes manifested, 
his character made known and rightly understood, and his great name 
sanctified, Ezek. xxxvi. 23. 

ᾧ 280. «And prevailed not,’ &c.—The dragon prevailed not, for it 


* Michael bx2%9 Quis sicut Deus? aut humilitas sive paupertas Det, vel percus- 
sio Dei, sive percutiens Deus. Micha x37 vel 13° pauper vel humilis, aut per- 
cutiens vel percussus, sive quis hic? id est, in hoc loco: sive aque hic. Ela. x>x vel 
mbx quercus sive fortitudo, aut Syriacé Deus. Leus. Onom. Sac. 89 and 186. 


THE WAR IN HEAVEN. 229 


was not intended that he should prevail ; but the effort of the accuser in 
contending, and the triumph of the intercessor in dvercoming him, are set 
forth as occurring in the divine counsels to illustrate the greatness of the 
work of redemption, and to shadow forth the difficulties in the way of its 
accomplishment. That a benevolent God should love those that love him 
would not be a matter of astonishment; or that a just God should justify 
the just would not be wonderful ; or that a God of perfect purity should 
favour beings perfectly virtuous would not be at all mysterious; but that 
the same Being who has declared himself a jealous God, visiting the iniquity 
of the fathers even upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation 
of them that hate him, Ex. xx. 5;—that this Being should in any way 
extend his love to his enemies; that the same God of infinite justice, 
who has expressly declared that he will by no means clear the guilty, Num. 
xiv. 18, should still in any way justify the ungodly, Rom. iv. 5;—that 
the same God of whom it is said that he is of purer eyes than to behold 
iniquity; that he is angry with the wicked every day; that upon the 
wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest ;— 
that this God should, under any circumstances consistent with the perfection 
of the divine character, extend his sovereign grace to those who are deserving 
only of his eternal wrath!!! here is a matter of astonishment. Here we 
behold a conflict of moral elements ; and it is in this conflict that the inter- 
cessor and the elements of his vicarious and propitiatory work triumph over 
the accuser, with his elements of condemnation. 

‘Neither was their place found *any more in heaven.’—The work of 
redemption once introduced into the heavenly exhibition of divine govern- 
ment, there is no more room for the operation of condemnatory elements. 
In the sight of God, Ghrist has fulfilled the law in behalf of the disciple. 
Where then is there place or room for the elements of accusation? It 
would seem by the expression employed here, any more, that these elements 
once had a place in the divine mind or purpose ; but we suppose this to be 
intended only to accommodate the subject to human apprehension—as if it 
were said, ‘ Had it not been for the plan of redemption they would have had 
their place there.’ But in respect to the manifestation of this mystery, there 
is a time when the elements of accusation have a place in the view presented 
of divine government, and a time when they have no such place. The 
vision now contemplates the period when the development of truth has so 
far progressed in the apostle’s mind, in spirit as he is, that the triumph of 
the Redeemer appears to be complete, and the elements of condemnation 
appear as it were expelled from the purpose of the divine government. 
That government being now seen to be conducted on different principles, 
we find no further mention of Michael in the Apocalypse ; but it is evident 
that the same champion is represented elsewhere under different characters, 


2530 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


such as the rider on the white horse, the Lamb, &c. The appellation is 
employed only in two other passages of Scripture, (Jude 9, and Dan. x. 
13 and 21,) where there may be an allusion to the same contest. 

The difference between a heaven where the dragon and his angels have 
a place and a heaven where they have no place, may correspond with the 
difference between the first heaven and the new heaven ;—the first heaven 
affording a view of the divine counsels in which the accuser and his princi- 
ples are supposed to have room for action ; the new heaven affording that 
display in which, the intercessor having overcome, the element of accusation 
has no place. The first heaven is wanting in the exhibition of imputed 
righteousness and sovereign mercy displayed in the new heaven; the 
same change being elsewhere represented as a consequence of the coming 
of the day of the Lord, 2 Pet. iii. 10 and 13: “ But the day of the Lord 
will come as a thief in the night ; in the which the heavens shall pass away 
with a great noise,” &c. ;—“ Nevertheless we, according to his promise, 
look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 
The event beg thus spoken of, in one portion of Scripture, as a change 
taking place 7m heaven ; and in another, as a change of heaven: different 
figures illustrating the same truth. These changes also being applicable 
only to the manifestation of the purposes of Deity, and not the purposes 
themselves ; for the divine mind must be immutable. 

In the display of the new heaven and new earth, at the close of the 
vision, it is also said, there shall be no more sea; that is, in this state of 
things there shall be no element of wrath ; a peculiarity very nearly equiva- 
lent to that of a heaven without an accuser. 


V.9. And the great dragon wascast Kai ἐβλήϑη ὃ δράκων ὃ μέγας, ὃ ὄφις ὃ 
out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and ἀρχαῖος, ὃ καλούμενος διάβολος καὶ ὃ σατα- 
Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: | >” 
he was cast out into the earth, and his 
angels were cast out with him. 


γᾶς, ὃ πλανῶν τῆν οἰκουμένην ὅλην, ἐβληϑη 
εἰς THY γῆν, καὶ ob ἄγγελοι αὐτοῦ μετ᾽ αὖ- 
τοῦ ἐβλήϑησαν. 

§ 281. “Απά the great dragon was cast out.’-—“In that day,” it is said, 
(Is. xxvii. 1,) “the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall 
punish leviathan the piercing sperpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; 
and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.” We suppose the sea to be 
a figure of the element of judicial wrath, and the dragon or serpent in the 
sea, this slippery tortuous reptile,* to be the ruling principle of that element. 
The ejection of the accuser from the heavenly system accordingly corres- 
ponds withthis punishment of leviathan of the deep, although in the Apoc- 
alypse we have not yet reached his final destruction. ‘The instrument of 


~ , c ‘ ‘ A la 
* Sept. Ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐχείνῃ ἐπάξει ὃ Θεὸς τὴν μάχαιραν τὴν ἀγίαν, καὶ τὴν μεγάλην, 
‘ > \ ” , \ r » ΄ ῳ 
καὶ τὴν ἰοχυγὰν ἐπὶ τὸν δράκοντα ὄφιν φεύγοντα, ἐπὶ τὸν δράχοντα ὄφιν σκολιόν" ἀνελεῖ 


ὁθάκοντα. 


THE WAR iN HEAVEN. 231 


punishment, according to the prophet, is the sword—the sword, no doubt, 
or spirit of the mouth of God; that is, his revealed word—the revelation 
of the truth showing the accuser to be thus punished or cast out from 
heaven : a prediction probably to be accomplished through the instrumen- 
tality of this apocalyptic vision. 

ᾧ 282. ‘That old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth 
the whole world.’—Here we find, as we have anticipated, this great red 
dragon to be identic with the Devil and Satan ; Satan being a Hebrew name 
signifying the accuser, and diabolos (the devil) a Greek translation of the 
same name bearing the same import. The term indeed is sometimes sup- 
posed to be applicable to a calumniator or false accuser ; but such a character 
it is evident could have no power in the presence of an omniscient Judge ; 
whereas, the devil is said, Heb. i. 14, to have had the power of death, 
that is, of condemnation ; Death and Hades being, as we have seen, con- 
comitant powers, (ὃ 158,) or rather results of the same cause. With me, 
says an apostle, it is a small thing to be judged of man’s judgment. If the 
power of Satan extended no further than to slander disciples before their 
fellow-beings, his operations would be hardly worthy of consideration ; but 
that which gives him importance is, that his accusations legally are well 
founded. He charges the sinner with sin, and this is no calumny. The 
falsehood with which he is chargeable does not consist in his accusing man 
falsely, but in his misrepresenting the purposes of God and the position of 
man. It is God that he calumniates, not man ; it is the glory and honour 
of the Sovereign Lord and Redeemer that he would, if it were possible, 
undermine and destroy. 

‘That old serpent.—The appellation carries us back to the account 
given of this deceiver, Gen. il. 1, where we find it said of the serpent that 
he was more subtle* than any beast of the field, and where we find his sub- 
tlety employed in bringing man under the power of the law, persuading him 
that he may thereby become as God. As the disciple is sometimes deceived 
with the delusion that by fulfilling the law for himself, he may become per- 
fect as God is perfect. The action of the accusing spirit, from the creation 
of the world to the present time, has been of the same character ; beguiling 
man into the persuasion that he is to seek his own glory, and to promote his 
own interests by the merit of his own works. This spirit we may say 
creeps into all systems of human suggestion ; as it deceived the Pharisee, 
going about to establish his own righteousness, so it was exhibited in the 


* More subtle, or wiser, Lat. astutus, v.Trom. ‘The term employed in the Sep- 
tuagint version, φρονιμώτατος, is that applied to the unjust steward, and to the chil- 
dren of this world, Luke xvi. 8; expressive of that kind of selfish short-sighted wisdom, 
by which a cunning man aims at the accomplishment of his purposes, without regard. 
to the principles of justice, or to the consequences of his actions in a future state. 


24 


239 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 


Galatians, thinking to make themselves perfect in the flesh ; and so its 
influence is perceived in the idolatrous rites of pagan and heathen worship- 
pers. Nor is this influence confined to past times or to unenlightened coun- 
tries; we may detect the presence of the same spirit in the doctrinal views 
and systems of Christians of all denomimations and of all ages. And no 
marvel, as it is said 2 Cor. xi. 14, for Satan (ὁ σατανᾶς, the accuser) him- 
self is transformed into an angel of light: with great professions of zeal for 
the fulfilment of the law, the real operation of this deceiver is to diminish 
the gratitude due to the Redeemer, by exalting the merits of man, and in 
effect ascribing to the sinner the glory of his own salvation. The self 
righteous man flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found 
to be hateful, Ps. xxxvi. 2. 

‘ Which deceiveth the whole world ;’—or rather, as the original might be 
rendered, which leadeth astray the whole world—o πλανῶν τὴν οἰκουμένην 
diyr—perverting the whole economy of redemption; making a legal dispen- 
sation of it, and thereby rendering it a field of legal accusation ;—the phrase, 
whether taken strictly or not, implying a universality of action, applicable to 
the present age as much as to any preceding age or ages, and to the whole 
of Christendom as well as to the benighted regions of Asia and Africa. 

‘He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with 
him.’—We have had a specimen of these angels or ministering spirits of 
the accuser, in the descriptions given of the elements of the bottomless pit, 
and of the great river Euphrates. They are all with their chief of the same 
accusatory character, having the same destroying purpose in view; and 
proposing to effect this purpose by a maintenance of the same legal views 
and self-righteous principles, all in effect tending to the same end, that of 
the condemnation of the sinner. 

They are cast out of the heavenly system. ‘They are no longer to be 
supposed to have a part in the divine council; they are no longer to be 
seen in the heavenly exhibition of God’s plan of government; and it is 
implied that their ejection is a consequence of the defeat sustained by them 
in the contest with Michael and his angels. In other words, in the divine 
mind the accusing power is entirely overcome by the element of propitiation 
—Christ and his atonement—‘ Jehovah has conquered, his»people are 
free!” It would not be difficult to draw an analogy between the liberation 
of the children of Israel from their state of Egyptian bondage, and the 
triumph of the elements of redemption over those of condemnation, repre- 
sented by this defeat of the dragon ; but perhaps the reference is sufficient. 

So far, however, we have seen this triumph of the Saviour only as it is 
seen in heaven—as it is in fact—as it is and has been according to the pur- 
pose of God, but not yet, as supposed, to be revealed to man, or at least as 
understood by man. The dragon is cast out mto the earth. In the earth, 


THE HEAVENLY CHORUS. 233 


therefore, or in the earthly system, or in the earthly view of the divine sys- 
tem of government, we are still to find in some shape the accusing spirit, 
or his vicegerent, together with his ministering spirits—the elements of 
accusation and condemnation—transformed perhaps on some occasions as 
angels of light. 


HEAVENLY CHORUS. 


Vs. 10, 11, 12. And 1 heard a loud 
voice saying in heaven, Now is come sal- 
vation, and strength, and the kingdom of 
our God, and the power of his Christ: for 
the accuser of our brethren is cast down 
which accused them before our God day 
and night. And they overcame him by 
the blood of the Lamb, and by the word 


K , ‘ +A > ~ > 
αἱ ἤκουσα φωνὴν μεγάλην ἐν τῷ οὖρα- 
~ ' > ' ’ Ἁ 
γῷ λέγουσαν" ἄρτι ἐγένετο ἡ σωτηρία καὶ ἢ 
c ~ ~ ~ 
δύναμις καὶ ἢ βασιλεία τοῦ ϑεοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ 
ae ee a > ον ε Γ΄ , 
ἡ ἐξουσία τοῦ Χριστοῦ αὐτοῦ" ὅτι ἐβλήϑη 
«ς ~ ~ «Ἡ ~ c 
ὃ κατήγωρ τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἡμῶν, ὃ κατηγο- 
- > ~ > ’ ~ ~ ¢ ~ ς ᾿ 
ρῶν αὐτῶν ἐνώπιον τοῦ ϑεοῦ ἡμῶν ἡμέρας 
΄ Ἐ > y ἢ ‘ 
καὶ νυκτός. Καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐνίκησαν αὐτὸν διὰ 


of their testimony; and they loved not 
their lives unto the death. Therefore re- 
jeice, (ye) heavens, and ye that dwell in 
them. Wo to the inhabiters of the earth, 
and of the sea! for the devil is come 
down unto you, having great wrath, be- 
cause he knoweth that he hath but a short 
time. 


‘ ra γὸν Β ᾽ \ ‘ ‘ ΄ - 
τὸ αἷμα τοῦ ἀρνίου καὶ διὰ τὸν λόγον τῆς 
« ~ 2 2 
μαρτυρίας αὑτῶν, καὶ οὐκ ἠγάπησαν τὴν 

εν ” ΄ od 
ψυχὴν αὑτῶν azo. ϑανάτου. Διὰ τοῦτο 
εὐφραίνεσϑε, οἵ οὐρανοὶ καὶ οἱ ἐν αὐτοῖς 
- ahr δὲ ~ ~ Ν - , 
σχηγοῦντες" οὐαὶ τῇ γῇ καὶ τῇ ϑαλάσσῃ, 
a ' c , 1 c ~ »” 
ὅτι κατέβη ὃ διάβολος πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἔχων Fv- 
, a > ‘ 
μὸν μέγαν, εἰδώς, ὅτι OAtyoy καιρὸν ἔχει. 


§ 283. ‘And I heard a loud νοϊςϑ."---Ἴ 15 loud voice, or, according to 
the Greek, great voice or sound, being apparently a chorus of voices of all 
the heavenly elements in unison. Not the voices of those who are them- 
selves the subjects of this salvation, but of those who are the lookers-on, 
the heavenly spectators. 'They have been earnestly engaged in contem- 
plating the process of the work of redemption, and they now rejoice in wit- 
nessing its accomplishment. As when the foundations of the earth were 
laid, ‘‘ the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for 
joy,” Job xxxviil. 7. This however is the language of a heavenly choir ; 
of those privileged with an insight into the purposes of divine mercy ; the 
mystery of these purposes not having been yet developed upon earth or to 
the mind of man. 

‘ Now is come salvation.’-—The expelling of the accuser and his minis- 
tering spirits constitutes in effect this salvation ; and the exhibition of this 
expulsion in the heavenly display of the work of redemption, is the mani- 
festation of this salvation: “ Now is come salvation ;” that is, now it is 
manifested. 

‘And strength.—The strength by which this work of salvation is 
effected is now also manifested: in heaven at least, corresponding with the 
exhibition afterwards to be made on earth; as it is said, Is. lii. 10, “The 
Lorca hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all nations, and all the 
ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God ;’—this holy arm being 


234 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE SEXTH TRUMPET, 


a figurative expression for the strength of Jehovah ; and that strength, as 
exercised in the salvation of the sinner, consisting in the imputed righteous- 
ness of the same divine Being, elsewhere spoken of as the saving strength 
of his right hand, (Ps. xx. 6,) and the right hand of his righteousness, Is. 
xli. 10. In allusion to which it is said, “ Trust ye in the Lord forever : for 
in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength,” Is. xxvi. 4; “ He giveth 
power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength,” 
Is. xl. 29; “Surely shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and 
strength,” Is. xlv. 24. 

‘ And the kingdom of our God.’—That is, now is come the manifesta- 
tion of his kingdom, (in heaven.) For we cannot suppose a moment when 
God did not reign, or when his kingdom had not come. But although 
always existing, it may not always to certain classes of beings have been 
equally manifest. The inference to be drawn here accordingly is, that this 
expulsion of the accuser, this triumph over him, is a proof of the sovereignty 
of God. As if we should say, in reference to the work of redemption, Now 
is come the proof of the divine sovereignty ; now the mysteries of the king- 
dom of God are developed ; the principles upon which this kingdom is 
established and maintained are unfolded.* t 

‘And the power of his Christ,’ or, of Ais anotnted.—Christ himself is 
said to be the power of God, which identifies him with the nght hand, or 
arm, or strength of God. Not that this power of Christ has just come, but 
now is come the manifestation of it ; Christ personified as Michael, (ᾧ 279,) 
having just exhibited his power in overcoming the elements of legal accusa- 
tion, or power of condemnation. 


» 


_ * The term kingdom of God is of frequent occarrence in the gospels of Matthew, 
Mark, and Luke ; although in that of John it is met with but in one passage, where 
it is used in connection with the subject of the new birth. It is to be presumed, how- 
ever, that John’s gospel treats as much of this kingdom as either of the three others. 
The term kingdom of heaven occurs only in the gospel of Matthew ; but as it is there 
used we cannot consider it other than an equivalent for the term kingdom of God. 

The mystery of the kingdom of God is spoken of, Mark iv. 11, and Luke viii. 10, 
and the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, Matt. xiii. 11. Christ began his ministry 
with preaching the kingdom of God, that is, the mystery of this kingdom ; for except 
to his disciples he spoke of it in parables. So, after his resurrection, he was with his 
disciples forty days, speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, (Acts 
i. 3.) So, Philip preached the things concerning the kingdom of God, Acts viii. 12; 
and Paul spake boldly in the synagogue at Corinth for three months, disputing and 
persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. We conclude, therefore, that 
to preach the kingdom of God is to set forth the doctrines of the gospel, showing 
upon what principles God’s kingdom or his sovereignty is established ; the phrase, 
the kingdom of God is come, or is nigh at hand, being equivalent to the declaration 
that the exhibition of these principles of divine government are being made, or are 
about being made. 


THE HEAVENLY CHORUS. 935 


* For [or because] the accuser of our brethren is cast down,’ or, cast 
out.—The verb in the original being that employed in the ninth verse, some 
editions of the Greek have it combined with the preposition κατά; but even 
this only gives intensity to the expression, not necessarily implying the idea 
of down or up. The accuser is cast out of the divine system of govern- 
ment. In heaven he is manifested to be so cast out, and that by the power 
of the element of substitution or propitiation ; hence the manifestation, or 
advent of the salvation, the strength, and the kingdom of God and the power 
of Christ ; the article in the original being prefixed to the words salvation 
and strength as well as to that of kingdom. It is not merely salvation and 
strength in general that is manifested, but-the salvation and the strength of 
God as well as the power of Christ. The term now we suppose to be 
applicable to a certain stage in this development of truth, and not to a par- 
ticular epoch of time. As soon as the aceusing principle is shown to be 
cast out, then this power of Christ, and salvation, and strength, and kingdom 
of God, are manifested ; corresponding with that which Jesus himself 
described as a vision of his own mind, Luke x. 13, “I saw Satan as light- 
ning fall from heaven.” 

§ 284. The appellation ὁ Κατήγωρ, or Κατήγορος, the accuser, is from 
the verb χατηγορέω, a compound of the preposition κατὰ, against, and ἀγορεύω, 
to plead, and is used more particularly in reference to judicial proceedings, 
(Rob. Lex. 365.) We find it applied, John viii. 10, to those who urged 
the condemnation of the woman taken in adultery: ‘“ Woman, where are 
thine accusers?” and in Acts xxiv. and xxv., to the accusers of Paul. 
The Greek term ἀγορὰ is applied to a court of judicature or forum, as well 
as to a market-place. So ἀγορεύω sometimes signifies to speak in the forum, 
or to harangue, (Jones Lex. 19, 20, and 887,) whence χατηγορέω, to speak 
against, arraign, impeach, denounce, accuse. This term as well as that of 
diabolos has been supposed to denote a calumniator, or false accuser, (Rob. 
Lex. 365 ;) but for the reason we have already given, ($ 282,) to confine 
it to that meaning here would destroy the whole force of the passage. As 
the verb is employed, John v. 45, it signifies something very different from 
calumny: “ There is one that accuseth you, even Moses in whom ye trust.” 
Moses was no false accuser. If he could have been so regarded by the 
Jews, they would have thought the appeal to him of very little moment. If 
the devil or Satan be a false accuser, then his power is exercised only against 
the innocent, and then this salvation and strength of God, and the power 
of Christ, are manifested merely in saving the innocent from the effects of 
calumny ; a salvation for which the attribute of divine Omniscience alone 
would have been sufficient. But if this accuser be one whose office it is to 
bring criminals to justice, who argues and pleads for their condemnation, 
having the advantages of law and fact on his side, then those whom he 


936 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


accuses or argues against must be sinners, or their advocates or intercessors— 
criminals obnoxious to the vengeance of inflexible justice ; and if so, then 
there is indeed a display of might and power in overcoming the powerfully 
sustained arguments of this accuser. ‘The power of Christ is manifested in 
justifying the ungodly who believe in him, Rom. iii. 26, and iv. 5. Here there 
is room for the display of soverergnty; the sovereign power alone being 
able to pardon the justly condemned criminal. Here too there is indeed a 
mystery to be solved. It would be no mystery that a just God should declare 
the innocent to be justified ; but it is a mystery that the same just Being 
should himself provide a way of escape for the criminal ; still more a mys- 
tery that this way of escape should consist in an arrangement by which the 
actual transgressor appears in the light of an innocent person. The cause 
of rejoicing too is represented to be that the accuser 18 cast out ; whereas, 
if he were a mere calumniator, or slanderer, it would be a sufficient cause of 
rejoicing that the falsehood of his representations had been detected ; and 
in this case the glory of the justification must necessarily redound to the 
accused, and not to any mediator or intercessor. ‘The war in heaven might 
in such case have been spared; the work of redemption would not have 
been required, and there would have been no room for offerings of praise 
and gratitude to the Lamb. The devil may be the calumniatoy of the Most 
High, and as a teacher of self-righteousness and of self-justification he is a 
liar, and the father of a lie; but as the accuser of sinful man, his charges 
are but too well founded, and an Almighty Redeemer alone can deliver 
the transgressor from his vindictive power. 

‘Who accused them before God day and night.—Even an evil spirit 
could hardly be supposed so perversely mad as to prefer, without ceasing 
and for ages, false accusations before an omniscient Judge ; but the principle 
of legal accusation sustained may be regarded as continually in operation : 
it is only ejected from the divine scheme of government by the counteract- 
ing element of propitiation. The law having been transgressed, there must 
be on the part of retributive justice an unceasing demand for condemnation ; 
a demand to be satisfied only by the eternal punishment of the transgressor, 
or by some adequate vicarious suffering. 

‘They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.’—This choras or loud 
voice in heaven is not that of the combatants themselves, but of the specta- 
tors of the contest; they rejoice that the brethren are triumphant. The 
war was carried on by Michael and his angels, (Christ and the elements of 
redemption,) and the victory is theirs ; consequently these angels of Michael, 
or elements of redemption, must be the brethren alluded to. They have 
overcome the accuser by virtue of the propitiatory sacrifice of their leader : 
the LAMB in the work of propitiation ; the LION in the contest with the 
accusing spirit, (Rev. v. 5 and 6.) Apocalyptically, as already intimated, 


THE HEAVENLY CHORUS. 237 


we do not suppose these brethren to be the beneficiaries of the victory just 
gained. Christ bas laboured, and his followers enter into his labours, en- 
joying the fruit of his work: he has fought the battle, and his people 
enjoy the benefit of the victory. Michael and his angels—the intercessor, 
with all the elements of the economy of redemption—have not been con- 
tending for their own sakes with the accuser and his legal elements ;—the 
battle has been fought on account of a world to be redeemed; but this 
world has not itself been engaged in the contest. In this heavenly picture 
we contemplate the battle ground, we see the array of warriors on either 
side, we learn the issue of the contest, and are taught to whom the glory of 
the victory belongs ; but the subjects ultimately interested in the event are 
not presented to our imagination. 

It is not the sinner himself that overcomes in this contest, for then the 
glory would be his :—it is Christ that gains the victory ; and it is the work 
of Christ, with the principles of grace involved in this work, which counter- 
balances and overcomes the requisitions of the law. The brethren over- 
come ‘ by the blood of the Lamb,’—the precious blood of Christ, as of a 
lamb without blemish and without spot, 1 Pet. i. 19; the blood of Christ 
which cleanseth from all sin, 1 John i. 7. This blood could hardly be 
called for if the charges of the legal adversary were mere slanders ; but the 
question occurs, If these brethren be the elements or principles of the work 
of propitiation, and not the beneficiaries of that work themselves, in what 
sense can they be said to have overcome by the blood of the Lamb? This 
we may understand better perhaps after examining the subsequent clause. 

§ 285. ‘And by the word of their testimony.’—In the account given 
of the expulsion of Satan and his angels by Michael and his forces, the 
figure employed is that of a fight. In the relation given of the same con- 
test in this song of victory, it is very evident that the figure is changed ; and 
that instead of a battle a contest before a judicial tribunal is contemplated. 
The devil is spoken of as one who argued against the brethren day and night 
before God; and these brethreif we suppose to be elements of intercession 
belonging to the array of the great Advocate, pleading the blood of the 
Lamb in bebalf of the real defendant, the sinner. The expression might, 
therefore, be thus rendered, Now is come salvation, &c.; for the legal 
adversary of our brethren, who argued against them continually before the 
Judge of all, is cast out; he is no more permitted to plead or to argue on 
the side of the prosecution in this highest court of judicaturé. Prior to this ex- 
pulsion, however, we may suppose the same character to have been continually 
arguing, as we have before suggested ; while on the other side the advocate 
for the offender, (the Lamb,) with the brethren, or all the elements of inter- 
cession, plead for justification as counsel for the defendant. The prosecutor 
sustains his accusation by the elements of law, together with the evidence 


238 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


of facts. The offence is not denied on the other side, but the counsel for 
the guilty party plead a full satisfaction, made not merely in mitigation of 
punishment, but as a ground of full and entire acquittal. The elements of 
propitiation, or of vicarious sacrifice, on the part of the defence, plead the 
atonement of Christ, and by the evidence they offer gain their cause, 
and overcome the prosecutor in this judicial contest, as Michael and his 
angels is represented to have done in that of a martial character. The 
figure differs, but the contest is the same; and the real victor, to whom alone 
the glory of success is due, must also be the same. So also the beneficiaries 
are the same; but these last, as in the former case, are not brought forward 
in the picture. The whole attention of the spectator is supposed to be taken 
up with the conduct of the trial ; as it sometimes occurs in human courts 
of justice, that the party on trial is scarcely observed amidst the intense 
interest excited by the efforts of the counsel on both sides to obtain a verdict. 

Under this aspect we may easily form an idea of the character of the 
testimony of the brethren. ‘The accuser brings his witnesses on the stand to 
testify to the requisitions of a broken law ; the brethren are brought forward 
by the mediator—the intercessor—to testify to all the power of the propi- 
tiatory elements of salvation by sovereign grace. This is the werd of their 
testimony, by virtue of which they obtain their triumph over the legal ad- 
versary. Here indeed the character of the accuser may appear in the light 
of a slanderer or calumniator: as, in his efforts to destroy the testimony 
offered in behalf of the accused, he misrepresents the principles of sovereign 
grace, places a false construction upon their tendency, creates a false 
issue so as to conceal their relevancy to the case, and accounts, as it is 
said of those under his influence, the blood of the covenant as an unholy 
thing, Heb. x. 29. 

‘ By the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony ;’ that 
is, the testimony of the brethren.—These are not two powers of salvation, 
but two expressions of the same power; the one being involved in the other. 
Διὰ τὸν λόγον τῆς μαρτυρίας αὑτῦν, by or through the speech—the argument 
—the whole subject matter of their evidence or testimony ; of which evi- 
dence Jesus Christ is the alpha and omega, and his propitiation the whole 
substance. Whether we speak of pardon through the atonement of Christ, 
or of justification through his vicarious work, the logos of the whole testi- 
mony is the same. 

‘ And they loved not their lives unto the death.’—Here again the figure 
changes to a certain degree. In the first clause of the verse these brethren 
appear as of counsel for conducting the defence, and are said to have over- 
come by pleading the blood of the Lamb. In the second clause they ap- 
pear as witnesses, testifying to the truths of redemption ; by which testimony 
also they are said to have overcome, Lastly they appear as martyrs, ready 


os  υυν ΩΣ 


a 


THE HEAVENLY CHORUS. 239 


to give up their lives in maintaining their testimony. This expression, how- 
ever, may have a further signification ; as if it were said that these elements 
readily gave up their natural sense to maintain the spiritual sense of their 
testimony ;—the term ψυχὴν, rendered here lives, although in the singular, 
being applicable to the natural life or soul, in contradistinction perhaps to 
πνεῦμα, as having a more spiritual signification. 

ᾧ 286. ‘Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.’— 
Satan has just been cast out from heaven; the heavenly system has been 
freed from the accusing principle: therefore, it is for this system and its 
elements to rejoice. Here, as in the counsels of the Most High, the element 
of Christ’s propitiation reigns paramount. 

“Wo to the inhabiters of the earth, and of the sea! for the devil is 
come down unto you.’—Some editions of the Greek, as that from which we 
copy, omit the words, the inhabiters, and give the reading, wo to the earth 
and to the sea; the difference is not very material, but we are inclined to 
think our common version to be most correct in this particular. The 
heavens, and the inhabiters of the heavens, are first called upon to rejoice ; 
and the antithesis is most complete if we suppose those that dwell in or 
upon the earth also to be mentioned as subject to the wo, corresponding 
with the common editions, οὐαὶ τοῖς κατοικοῦσι τὴν γῆν καὶ τὴν ϑάλασσαν. 
This reading also corresponds best with the denunciation of the three woes, 
Rey. viii. 13, which are all woes to the inhabiters of the earth ; and the 
last of which is probably the wo here spoken of as the consequence of the 
coming of Satan. ‘The elements of the earthly system of self-righteousness 
and the elements of the sea system, or abyss system of legality, are in 
jeopardy from the coming of Satan ; because, as the legal prosecutor, the 
exercise of his functions tends to exhibit the insufficiency of these elements 
as means of salvation. 

‘ Having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.’ 
—Having great eagerness to accomplish his object. We do not suppose 
this short time is to be taken in a literal sense. The time given to the 
tempter to operate upon the mind of every human being individually, must 
depend upon the life of the individual ; and collectively mankind have been 
subject to the delusions of Satan ever since the creation of the world. We 
suppose the idea of time here is to be qualified by the circumstances of the 
vision. Satan has been cast out of his heavenly sphere of action, and the 
time is now at hand when such is to be the development of truth that he 
will also be ejected from his position in the earthly system ; all his powers 
are therefore now summoned for this last and greatest effort—this third wo 
of the last trumpet; and in proportion as the final development of truth is 
at hand, he is the more vehement in his action. In this speedy action, 
perhaps, also a portion of the wo just pronounced consists; as one trusting 


240 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


to his own merits or claims to moral perfection is sensible of no cause of 
alarm till he hears of an accusation about being preferred against him ; or as 
the offender against the laws of society feels himself safe so long as he is 
not summoned before a tribunal of justice, or so long as his conduct is not 
the subject of inquisition. The action of the third wo then consists in the 
immediate trial to which the earthly elements are subjected in consequence 
of the coming of the accuser or legal prosecutor amongst them. 'The devil 
is vehement because the period of his action is short: the inhabiters of the 
earth have reason to be alarmed because their moment of trial has now 
come.* Ἢ 


V. 13. And when the dragon saw that Kal ὅτε εἶδεν ὃ δράκων, ὅτι ἐβλήϑη εἰς 
dh snieoarvariic' dovoghiipuih thelninns yal The 18 (ΑΓ... aaa 
(child) [or the male}. 5 

ᾧ 287. ‘And when,’ &c.—The chorus being concluded, the narrative 
is here resumed, but the scene presented to the apostle’s mind is changed. 
He had been contemplating things in heaven: he had seen the offspring of 
the woman safely brought forth and taken to the throne of God; he had 
witnessed the flight of the woman from heaven to the wilderness ; he had 
seen something of the war in heaven, and had also witnessed the expulsion 
of the devil and his angels from their heavenly sphere of action. He now, 
although perhaps still retaining his heavenly position, contemplates what 15 
going on in earth, or, as we say, in the earthly system. 

‘And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, or, [ὑπίο the 
earth, vid. v. 9,] he persecuted,’ &c.—The first impression seems to be here 
that the dragon persecuted the woman, because he saw himself cast out of 
heaven ; but we rather think the sense intended is, as if it were said, When 
the dragon saw that the earth was allotted to him as a scene of action, then 
he applied himself to the persecution of the woman. Perhaps this may be 
said to arise from the nature of the case: the woman, or economy of redemp- 
tion in the earthly system, is seen without her child. ‘The element of im- 
puted righteousness is to be discerned only from a heavenly or spiritual 
view of the gospel mystery. Under a literal construction the economy of 
redemption, although still nominally retained, must appear fruitless and 
desolate ; and in that aspect incapable of withstanding the element of legal 
accusation. In this state, therefore, it must appear as in a wilderness, until 


* The devil is very commonly styled the templer, but perhaps he would be more 
correctly denominated the ¢rier ; the Greek term σειράζω, from πεῖρα, experiment, 
sometimes rendered tempt, signifying primarily the action of trying, as in the assay 
of metals, or putting one to the proof, as in the trial of a person accused. Of tempta- 
tion, in the ordinary sense, it is said every man is tempted when he is drawn away of 
his own lusts, (James i. 14.) ͵ 


THE DRAGON UPON THE EARTH. 241 


the aspect under which it is contemplated is changed, and it is seen either 
in heaven or as coming from heaven. So soon as the economy of redemp- 
tion appears to be deprived of the element of imputed righteousness, on which 
it depends for its efficiency, so soon it appears open to the assaults of the 
adversary. 

As it is said of a state of things somewhat similar, represented by 
the dissension in the family of the patriarch Abraham: He that was 
born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, (Gal. iv. 
29.) We do not say that Ishmael was a type of the dragon, or that Isaac 
occupied precisely the position of this woman in the wilderness ; but we 
feel no hesitation in assuming that the spirit of accusation, as an offspring of 
man’s position by nature, under the law, and dependent upon his own 
merits, may be said to resemble him that was born after the flesh. So the 
element of justification represented by the child of the woman is the off- 
spring of sovereign grace, without any intervention of human merit, and 
thus bears an analogy with that provision of sovereign mercy, which we 
suppose to have been typified in some respects by the child of promise. 
In these particulars, the persecution of Isaac by Ishmael is not unlike that 
of the woman by the dragon. The persecution of the son of the bond- 
maid consisted only in mockery, while that of the dragon was, as we shall 
see, an effort to overwhelm and to destroy. The spirit and purpose in both 
cases, however, is the same, that is, to set at naught, and to bring to naught, 
the object of aversion. 


V. 14. And to the woman were given Καὶ ἐδόϑησαν τὴ γυναικὶ δύο πτέρυγες 
two wings οἵ ἃ great eagle, thatshe might 79% ἀετοῦ τοῦ τὰ ἀξ te ae 
fly into the wilderness, into her place, 
where she is nourished for atime, and 


times, and halfa time, from the face of ¢**! ᾿ μ 
the serpent. ἅπο προςώπου TOU O*pEWs. 


‘ ΄ c ~ cr ' 
ἔρημον εἰς τὸν τόπον αὑτῆς, ὕπου τρέφεται 
> sw ‘ ‘ τ o ot 
EXEL καιρὸν χαὶ καιροὺς καὶ ἡμῖσυ καιροῦ, 


ᾧ 285. ‘And to the woman were given,’ &c.—The wings of an eagle 
we have before supposed to indicate the support and protection of the Holy 
Spirit—the Comforter and evangelical Teacher, (¢ 128.) This idea is 
rather confirmed by the use of the term great—two wings of a great eagle. 
The duplex character of this symbol also reminding us 6f the twofold, or 
cloven tongues of fire exhibited on the occasion of the descent of the Holy 
Spirit ; an appearance indicative of the double sense of the language of 
revelation. ‘The exhibition of the economy of grace is preserved in the 
written word of revelation by the Holy Spirit. both in a literal and spiritual 
sense, but for a certain period it is thus preserved as in a state of seclusion, 
or as not being perceived in its true character; this temporary position 
being spoken of as a place prepared for the woman. This economy has 
its place in the Scriptures, even in their literal sense, but it is not recognized ; 
or, if recognized, appears as it were childless or desolate, as the Greek 


249 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


term derived from the word rendered wilderness sometimes implies, Rob. 
Lex. 261. 

‘That she might fly into the wilderness, into her place.’—The wilder- 
nesses of Judea were mountainous, and we may reasonably suppose such 
to be the desolate place contemplated in this passage. A mountain is to a 
city a foundation, as a rock is to a place of defence. This place of the 
woman was therefore her mountain—her rock—that upon which she could 
rest ; as, in reference to the circumstances of the disciple, it is said, Ps. xi. 
1, “‘ How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain ?” and Ps. lv. 
6, 7, “Oh that 1 had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and 
beat rest. Lo! then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness.” 
As in reference to the same mountain it is also said: If the foundations be 
destroyed, what can the righteous do? As a besieged party when hard 
pressed falls back to his fortified position on some neighbouring height; so 
the economy of salvation finds its means of preservation from the elements 
of accusation, amidst all the disadvantages of self-righteous construction and 
literal interpretation, in the simple position that Christ alone is the rock or 
foundation upon which the disciples’ hopes of salvation are to be placed ; 
every doctrine tending to a different position, being manifestly erroneous. 
In Christ, and in him only, the sinner can be saved ;—this is the fundamental 
truth, by whatever variety of figures the doctrines emanating from it may be 
illustrated. In the midst even of the earthly system, the economy of grace, 
however imperfectly understood, is to be found resting upon Christ as upon 
a rock. Upon this foundation neither the rage of the accuser, nor the gates 
of Hades, (the powers of condemnation,) being able to prevail against it. Into 
this position it is conveyed by the two wings of the Holy Spirit, the literal 
and spiritual sense of revelation; and here it is preserved till the period of 
perfect development. 

§ 289. ‘Where she is nourished* for a time, times, and half a time,’ &c. 
—Comparing this expression with what has been before said of the same 
sojourn of the woman in the wilderness, (verse 14,) we perceive this term to 
be equivalent to a year, two years, and half a year of three hundred and 
sixty days, or alf§gether twelve hundred and sixty days. We are at a loss 
to assign a reason why the designation of this period should be thus re- 
peated in the same chapter and in this form, unless it be that a similar ex- 
pression is employed in a remarkable prediction of the prophet Daniel, 
where the reign of the fourth beast is spoken of as enduring until a time, 


* The words feed in the sixth verse of this chapter and nourished in the fourteenth 
verse, are both expressed by the same Greek term; the repetition probably being 
intended to indicate the identity of the periods expressed in one place by days, and 
in another by times, 


_— 


THE DRAGON UPON THE EARTH. 243 


times, and the dividing of time, (Dan. vii. 25 ;) the dividing of time and half 
a time being equivalent terms. ‘The expiration of this period being also 
afterwards spoken of by the same prophet as the time of the end, (Dan. 
xii. 7.) ἱ 

Whatever construction be put however upon these predictions of the 
prophet, we are still governed in our views of this period as mentioned in 
the Apocalypse, by the declaration of the mighty angel, time shall be no 
longer ; and accordingly, for the reasons before given, ($$ 251, 278, 230, 
940) we assume this mystical expression to be a sign of parallelism, 
indicating, not the synchronical character of certain events, but what we 
may style the correlative and interchangeable character of the peculiar 
features of a certain doctrinal system; all these pictures being so many re- 
presentations of one mystery—symbolical representations, involving each 
other. 

The woman is assigned a place in the wilderness, and she appears there 
desolate, (Gal. iv. 27,) for the same reason that the outer court of the 
temple is given to the Gentiles ; and it is, instrumentally, because they have 
possession of this outer court, and of the Holy City, and because the wit- 
nesses prophesy in sackcloth, that the woman appears as in a wilderness : 
so wherever the-two witnesses prophesy 2m sackcloth the woman will appear 
desolate ; as the children of the bride-chamber fast when the bridegroom is 
taken from them ;—a bride deprived of her spouse, or a woman without 
legitimate offspring, being alike figures of that state of desolation to which’ 
the economy of redemption appears to be reduced, when Christ is no longer 
discerned as the Redeemer and Husband ; or when his imputed righteousness 
is not perceived to be the fruit of the plan of sovereign grace. 

We find, for example, the covenant of grace spoken of by learned divines 
ever since the gospel was first preached ; if not in terms, at least by impli- 
cation ; but the offspring of that covenant, the imputed righteousness of 
Jehovah, has been nearly lost sight of: strictly speaking, we may say it is 
not to be met with in any earthly view of the plan of redemption. So 
amidst the multiplicity of views of Christian doctrine we find Christ univer- 
sally admitted to be the Redeemer ; but we hardly find in any of them that 
exhibition of the covenant, of grace showing the identity of the redeemed 
with this Redeemer, which enables the children of the bride-chamber to 
rejoice. 

‘From the face of the serpent.-—This expression is not, we apprehend, 
a mere redundancy. It is probably designed to give greater ‘prominence to 
the peculiarity of the woman’s position in the place assigned. That she is 
there entirely out of the reach of the serpent, the accuser, or prosecutor,— 
not even subject to accusation or trial ;—as the rule of the Roman law, 
well known in the time of the apostles, was, that no one should be tried 


944 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


without being permitted to meet his accuser face to face: so, to be removed 
from the face of the accuser, may be figuratively equivalent to being re- 
moved from a position of trial. 


Vs. δὴ 16. ΠΟΥ the agar tis of Καὶ ἔβαλεν ὃ ous ἐκ TOU στόματος OU» 

is meuth water asa fiood after the wo- a ᾿ ΤΣ 3 “ 
Ἢ του οπίισὼῶτ YUVULZLO τδο ως TOTHMOY 

man, that he might cause her to be car- ay : ee ts 


ried away of the flood. And the earth wa αὑτὴν ποταμοφόρητον ποιήσῃ. Καὶ 
helped the woman; and the earth opened ἐβοήϑησεν 7 vi τῇ γυναικί, καὶ ἤνοιξεν. i 
her mouth, and swallowed up the flood vi τὸ στόμα αὑτῆς καὶ κατέπιε τὸν ποταμόν, 
which the dragon cast out of his mouth. gy ἔβαλθν ὃ δράκων ἐκ τοῦ στόματος αὑτοῦ. 


§ 290. ‘And the serpent cast out of his mouth.’——The serpent is the 
accuser of the brethren, the counsel for the prosecution, the advocate of 
condemnation. Whatever comes from his mouth must be of the nature of 
an argument opposed to the side of mercy ; as it is said of similar characters, 
Ps, xxii. 13, “They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a 
roaring lion ;” Ps. v. 9, “ Their throat is an open sepulchre.” 

‘Water as a flood.’—As a fountain, water is an element of life; as a 
flood, it is an instrument of destruction. As a fountain, it is the figure of 

τὰ Saviour’s atonement; as a flood, it represents the vindictive agent of 
offended justice. ‘The flood from the mouth of the accuser of the brethren 
must have been a flood of accusation; a flood of elements opposed to the 
covenant of mercy, or economy of redemption; an allusion to which may 
be made, Is. lix. 19 and 20: ‘‘ When the enemy shall come in like a flood, 
the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him, and the Redeemer 
shall come to Zion,” &c.; the pouring forth of this accusation being in 
effect the means of placing in a prominent point of view the provision to 
meet and to counteract it. 

‘That he might carry her away with the flood.’—As the legal adver- 
sary would have swallowed up or devoured the provision of imputed right- 
eousness, or vicarious element of justification ; so he would now, by an 
array of all the arguments to be drawn from the principles of the law, and from 
the admitted fact of the sinfulness of sin, overwhelm the gracious purpose of 
divine sovereignty, showing if possible its insufficiency to protect the trans- 
gressor from the punishment justly merited. This figure may be designed 
to represent the tendency of the broken law in the nature of the case; or 
the action of the element of divine vengeance when exhibited or brought 
forward to try the strength of the economy of grace. As if a polemical 
advocate for the legal system should bring forward, in argument, the strict 
requirements of the law in heart and mind, as well as in outward deport- 
ment, and should then show the immensity of the sinner’s offences, and his 
infinite short-comings, together with the necessity of an adequate vindication 
of divine justice; thus endeavouring to prove salvation by grace to be 


THE DRAGON UPON THE EARTH. 245 


inconsistent with the perfection of the Deity, and so to carry the doctrine 
away as he supposes with a flood. 

We are not told how long this persecution of the accuser continues ; but 
the presumption is, that so long as the woman remains in her desolate state, 
so long she is subject to this trial ; while on the other hand, so long as she 
is found in her place—on her mountain—she is safe ;—as it is said of the 
house built upon a rock, Matt. vii. 25, “The floods came, the winds blew 
and beat upon that house, but it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock ;”” 
the case of the woman being parallel with/that of the individual believer, 
whose shelter from the wrath to come rests upon this rock of his salvation. 
Time indeed, apocalyptically, is here also out of the question ; but the 
action and counteraction of the principles represented may be considered 
simultaneous, and the general rule applied—“ Where the carcass is, there 
shall the eagles be gathered together.” 

‘And the earth helped the woman,’ &c.—We do not suppose the 
earthly system to be professedly opposed to the economy of redemption ; 
on the contrary, it contains this economy, but contemplated under a literal 
aspect, and subjected to a relf-righteous misconstruction. This helping, 
however, may not be viewed as a voluntary action, but rather as some- 
thing arising out of the nature of the case. The earthly system is a literal 
exhibition of revealed truth ; it receives the economy of redemption, but as 
in a desolate state, not yet at least as the bride adorned for her husband. 
Such a system is therefore open to the attacks of the adversary, and the 
flood of accusation, which cannot affect the true plan of mercy, falls upon 
this misrepresentation of it. The accuser pours out his flood of legal ele- 
ments and principles of condemnation, drawn from man’s state by nature, 
upon the earthly system ; and by this it is absorbed before it reaches the 
woman, whose place, besides, is a sufficient protection for her. Thus the 
earth helps the woman by causing a diversion. 

_*The earth opened her mouth ;’—that is, this system puts forth or 
exhibits its elements and principles; and in doing so shows itself to be 
obnoxious to the flood of wrath from the mouth of the accuser, against which 
the true plan of salvation is secured. It thus swallows or takes up the 
element of destruction intended for another. We are not told what is the 
further consequence to the earth, but we may suppose the swallowing up 
of this flood to be one figure of the wo, to which the earth and those dwell- 
ing upon it are now exposed: we say one figure, because we take the next 
chapter to be the commencement of a new series of figures of the same wo; 
covering ground already past over. The swallowing up of the flood by the 
earth, we may suppose to represent the termination of the contest, so far as 
the woman is concerned. ‘The covenant of grace itself is no more directly 
attacked, but the same spirit of hostility exhibits itself in another direction. 


246 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET, 


V. 17. And the dragon was wroth with Καὶ ὠργίσϑη ὃ δράκων ἐπὶ τῇ γυναικί, 


the woman, and went to make war with ναὶ ἀπῆλϑε ποιῆσαι πόλεμον μετὰ τῶν λοι- 

the remnant of her seed, which keep 6 - 2 ; ἥν τω ἢ dhs 

commandments of God, and have the tes- Τὼ» TOU σπέρματος GUITS, Tam τής ΟΥΤΩΣ 

timony of Jesus Christ. TUS ἔντολας τοῦ ϑεοῦ καὶ ἐχόντων τὴν μαὰρ» 
tugiuy Πησοῦ. 


§ 291. ‘And the dragon raged against the woman.’~—This was not 
merely for the moment when she first took flight, or when the flood was first 
poured out ; we may presume it to be something continual in its action, 
although the object of hostility may not be directly attacked. ‘The legal 
accuser rages perpetually against the economy of grace, perpetually exhibit- 
ing the wrath of offended justice as opposed to the exercise of mercy ; 
which exhibition, instead of affecting the arrangement of grace, is applicable 
only to the literal and self-righteous scheme presented by the earthly 
system. All this action we say must be continual, in the nature of things, as 
long as the male child is not revealed from heaven ; or so long as the prin- 
ciple of imputed righteousness is not manifested as the offspring of the 
covenant of grace.” 

‘And went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep,’ 
&c., or, with the remaining ones of her seed ;—the opposites of the rest of 
men who repented not, mentioned Rey. ix. 20. The Greek term οἱ λοιποὶ, 
being rendered in one place the rest, in the other the remainder. The 
signification of the word is strictly plural, corresponding with the et cetera 
of the Latins, and applicable to all other principles or elements of the class 
under contemplation: td omne genus. ‘The seed of the woman was to 
bruise the serpent’s head ; this we apply more especially to the male-child, 
the element of divine righteousness brought forth by the purpose of sovereign 
grace to countervail the plea of a broken law. But with this we suppose 
the same covenant, or purpose to bring forth a multitude of auxiliary and 
subordinate elements or principles, which as forming parts of the same plan, 
or expression of the divine mind, (the Logos,) are figuratively spoken of as 
those who keep the commandments of God ;—the element of imputed right- 
eousness being out of the reach of the accuser, protected as it is by the 
principle of divine sovereignty ; and the economy of redemption as a whole 
being also safe, protected as that is by its place resting on its mountain— 
Christ. The attention of the adversary, hke that of a skilful military com- 
mander, is directed to the outworks, making war upon elements and princi-. 
ples, all intimately connected with these two special objects of hostility ; 
but apparently more or less in proportion as they seem to be more or less 
dependent upon these distinguishing elements of truth. ‘This warfare might 
be illustrated by adverting to a multitude of polemical discussions upon 
points of Christian doctrine, in which neither the element of imputed nght- 
eousness nor the plan of sovereign grace are distinctly or directly the 


THE DRAGON UPON THE EARTH. Q47 


assailed. "The woman and her male child may be both out of sight, and as 
it were out of reach in these controversies, but the remaining principles of 
doctrine connected with the development of the divine plan of redemption, 
are pursued with unrelenting virulence. 

“ And have the testimony of Jesus.’—That is, they all bear testimony to 
Jesus ; principles figuratively spoken of as martyrs witnessing for the truth, 
—testifying of Christ, especially as the Saviour—and on this account pecu- 
liarly the object of the accuser’s hostility. 

There is no mention in the Apocalypse of any other seed or offspring 
of the woman than the male child. The expression οἱ λοιποὶ τοῦ σπέρματος 
αὐτῆς, must be taken as a license of vision ; the remaining ones of her seed 
being other principles of the same character, figuratively assumed to be a 
kindred offspring, from their character and tendency. As if the question 
were asked, Who are these? The answer is immediately given, Those 
that keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus. 
This, as we may say, being the gospel rule of kindred ; corresponding with 
the declaration of Christ himself, “‘ My mother and my brethren are those 
which hear the word ef God, and do it,” Luke viii. 21, and elsewhere. 

Of the commandments of God, one of the most prominent is to believe 
on him whom He hath sent; but, apocalyptically, “those which keep the 
commandments of God’? may be put here for elements of doctrine so sus- 
taining the requisitions ef the law, as to manifest the necessity of a super- 
human provision to satisfy its demands ;—the serpent making war upon 
these elements by bringing down, when it suits his purposes, the standard 
of law to the supposed capability of human fulfilment ; thereby endeavouring 
to show the absence of a necessity for the scheme of redemption. 

Accgding to our text, these which keep the commandments of God are 
also those which have the testimony of Jesus Christ ; which testimony is 
declared, Rev. xix. 10, to be the spirit of prophecy. Those that have this 
testimony, we suppose accordingly to be all the elements of the prophecies ; 
as well as all elements of the interpretation of the divine purposes, tending 
to exhibit Jesus Christ as the end of the law for righteousness to every one 
that believeth, Rom. x. 4. This war of the dragon is therefore equivalent 
to the general hostility continually carried on by the spirit of legal accusa- 
tion against the covenant of grace, as exhibited in the law and the testimony. 
Perhaps an equivalent of the war made against the two witnesses prophesy- 
ing in sackcloth by the beast from the bottomless pit, as related in the last 
chapter, (Rev. xi. 7.)* 


* Our edition of the Greek, with some others, closes this chapter with the words 
“ Kai ἐστάϑην ἐπὶ τὴν ἄμμον τῆς ϑαλάσσης" And I stood upon the sand of the sea ;” 
but this clause so evidently belongs to the subject of the next chapter, that we prefer 
following the arrangement of our common English version in this respect. 


25 


Ἀ 


948 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


RETROSPECT. 


§ 292. In the first part of this chapter we are indulged with an insight 
into the secret purposes of Deity. The temple of God having been opened, 
even the Holy of Holies is exposed to view. The plan of divine wisdom 
laid before the foundation of the world, for the redemption of that world, is 
revealed. 

We have witnessed the throes, the travail, the difficulties existing in the 
way of the consummation of this plan—the efforts of vindictive justice to 
defeat the design of sovereign mercy. The element of salvation—the 
imputable righteousness of Jehovah—has been nevertheless brought forth, 
and we have seen it safely sheltered in the love and sustained by the sove- 
reignty of the Most High. The element of man’s salvation trumphs over 
the power of accusation, and is destined to rule and to control every oppos~ 
ing principle, as with an iron sceptre. 

The difficulties here overcome have been besides exhibited to us as the 
martial power of an enemy conquered only by Him, who is the express 
image of the Almighty; the result of this contest being apparently a 
necessary consequence of the manifest sovereignty of the element of redemp- 
tion, taken to the throne of God ; the elevation of the man-child, and the 
victory of Michael, constituting one triumphant display of redeeming power, 
and giving occasion to a joy in heaven corresponding with that typically 
spoken of by the prophet, as a joy according to the joy of harvest—as vic- 
tors rejoice when they divide the spoil.‘ For thou hast broken the yoke 
of his burden, and the staffof his shoulder, the rod of his opptessor, as 
in the day of Midian. For every battle of the warrior is with confused 
noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and 
fuel of fire. For unto usa child is born, unto us a son is given: and the 
government shall be upon his shoulder : and his name shall be called Won- 
derful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince 
of Peace,” Is. ix. 4-6. 

The accuser being driven from heaven by the power of the element of 
propitiation, or of vicarious justification, we have the assurance that what- 
eyer may be the mistakes of man upon the subject, the power of Christ is 
invincible. The disciple therefore may safely cast his care upon Him, who 
is thus manifested to be able to save to the uttermost. 

So far, however, we have seen things only as they actually exist in 
heaven ; the latter part of the chapter exhibits to us things as they appear 
on earth. The accuser has really no power in God’s system of govern- 
ment; but he appears to have great power in man’s view of that system. 


RETROSPECT. 249 


Driven from heaven to earth, the element of accusation is seen directing*its 
energies in the first instance against the exhibition of the economy of grace, 
endeavouring to prove its insufficiency ; and when incapable of doing this, 
undermining the various principles connected with it—principles spoken of 
as the seed of the woman. Perhaps the same offspring as that alluded to 
in the language of the prophet: “ Behold, I and the children whom the 
Lorp hath given me (are) for signs and for wonders in Israel from the 
Lorp of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.”—*“ ΤῸ the law and to the 
testimony : if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is 
no light in them,” Is. viii, 18 and 20. 

The latter part of this chapter, from the flight of the woman to the end 
of her sojourn in the wilderness, and probably to the end of the war made 
upon her seed, covers the same ground as that occupied by the other sym- 
bolical narrations, characterized by the three and a half years’ standard, 
which may be symbolized by the measuring-rod given the apostle, to 
measure the temple of God and the altar, and them that worship therein. 
We are to expect, accordingly, in the subsequent portion of the book, not 
something different from what has been already represented, but a further 
development of the same mystery ; the particulars of this war carried on 
by the dragon against the woman and the remnant of her seed. The devil 
however in the earthly vision, as we shall see, does not appear in his true 
character. There he acts by proxy, under an assumed garb: he is a 
deceiver; and he could not deceive, if he exhibited himself in his proper 
colours. Those who bow with submission to his vicegerent may not be 
aware of the master whom they really serve. Accordingly we do not find 
him making his appearance again in this apocalyptic narrative, till we reach 
the twentieth chapter; where he is represented as altogether deprived of 
power, even upon the earth, for a certain period. 

We are not sufficiently advanced in this revelation to make an applica- 
tion of the subject. We are but just now entering the commencement of 
the third wo; the picture of the influence of Satan upon earth and upon 
the earthly system. Hitherto our attention has been occupied with partic- 
ulars of the different characters of this dramatic vision, preparatory to the 
principal development of the plot. The interest increases as we advance, 
and the chapter we have just gone over gives us a general idea of what we 
are further to expect. The plot thickens ; but still it remains for us to see 
in what manner this earthly warfare is conducted, and which of the parties 
is triumphant here. 

It may be a disappointment to some who accompany us in this examin- 
ation, that, according to our construction of the term brethren, they are not 
themselves to be viewed as combatants in the heavenly contest with the 
dragon. ‘They wish to share the glory of the triumph, not merely as recipi- 


250 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


ents of its advantages, but as victors who divide the spoil; and they say, 
If this be not the case, what interest have we or others in the representation 
we have been witnessing ? We would ask them, When Jesus was wounded 
for their transgressions, did they take a part in his wounds? When he was 
smitten, afflicted, chastened, did they share in his sufferings? When he was 
forsaken of God, were they also forsaken? When he poured out his soul 
unto death, did they pour out their souls unto death? Yet it was by these 
very sufferings, and by this very death, that the victory we have been con- 
templating was obtained. He was wounded for our transgressions ; he was 
bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was upon him ; 
and with his stripes we are healed. He trod the wine-press alone, and of 
the people there was none to help. Shall it be said because we are not 
sharers in the work we have no interest in it ? 

The mystery of salvation is set before us in the Apocalypse, as it is by 
the symbolical history of the Old Testament ; by the visions of the pro- 
phets ; and by the literal history of the New Testament. The whole 
modus operandi, with the difficulties of the work, are exhibited on the one 
hand, and all the proofs of its sufficiency on the other; and this is done for 
the purpose of engaging our faith. As if it were said, Behold the coming 
deluge ! here is the ark! satisfy yourselves of its strength and capability to 
protect you, and fly to it for refuge while there is yet time. Is it for the 
passer-by to say within himself, I have had no share in the labour of con- 
structing this wonderful provision for escape ; I can reap no glory from it ; 
and I can feel therefore no interest in it? Or is it not rather for him to 
ask, Shall all this be done in vain for me? Shall the infinite wisdom 
of the Deity be engaged in devising a means of salvation for a world of 
sinners, consistently with his justice and his perfect purity, and shall I treat 
this plan of mercy with contempt, or contemplate the exhibition of it with 
indifference ? 


=o rrr rrr errr rr 


THE BEAST EROM THE SEA. © 251 


CHAPTER XIII. 


THIRD WO CONTINUED. 


THE BEAST FROM THE SEA.—THE BEAST FROM THE EARTH. 


V. 1. And I stood upon the sand of the Καὶ ἐστάϑην ἐπὶ τὴν ἄμμον τῆς ϑαλάσ- 


sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the g,.. καὶ εἶδον ἐκ τῆς , ' 
3 ς᾽ καὶ sidoy ἐκ τῆς ϑαλάσσ toy 
sea, having seven heads and ten horns, 9. 7s Fug 


? ~ 2» , ' \ ‘ 
2 uy {}0} τ 
and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon ἀναβ ee a eee δέκα ΤῊΣ «ερκλὰς 
his heads the name of blasphemy. ἕπτα καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν κεράτων αὑτοῦ δέκα δια- 
δήματα καὶ ἐπὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς αὑτοῦ ὀνόματα 


βλαςφημίας. 


The Beast from the Sea. 


§ 293. ‘ And] stood upon the sand of the sea.—The scene is now 
changed, at least in the foreground of the exhibition. The apostle is still 
in spirit ; he sees things in their spiritual sense, but his position during 
the contemplation of the present spectacle is changed. In heaven he saw 
things as seen in heaven ; on earth he saw things as they are on earth, but 
with a spiritual discernment. 

The time of this spectacle, if the term be admissible, commences with 
the coming down of the dragon or serpent to the earth. The earth is 
allotted to Satan fora certain period of time, as the earthly system is 
assigned to the influence and operation of the element of accusation. The 
sea, we suppose to be a figure of the element of vindictive wrath: wrath 
justly deserved on the part of man, and for that reason the subject of appre- 
hension, (Ὁ 124)—the sea and the waves roaring, being a cause of the 
distress and perplexity of nations, and of the failing of men’s hearts for fear, 
spoken of Luke xxi. 25, 26. A position on the sand of the sea must be 
the converse of a position upon a rock or mountain. The apostle stood not 
merely upon the sea shore, but upon the sand of the sea; a quicksand, a 
movable foundation, and a foundation to be moved, even by the over- 
whelming element to which it is peculiar. He thus occupies the position 
of one who builds his hopes of salvation upon a sandy foundation ; not that 
his own faith is of this character, but he is thus placed that he may see and 
understand the peculiarities of such a condition. As Paul was caught up in 


952 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


spirit into paradise, that he might discern the peculiarities of that position ; 
and as John himself had been favoured with a position in heaven, to enable 
him to understand the things of heaven ; so he is now brought into the posi- 
tion enabling him to contemplate the earthly system, especially as exposed 
to the action of the element of wrath. 

‘ And saw a beast rise up [or rising up] out of the sea.—The Greek 
term rendered beast here is an entirely different one from that designating 
the four living creatures around the throne, which our translators have also 
rendered beast, (Ὁ 125.) The animal now described is of the ferocious, 
destructive, and unclean character, and as such the opposite of any thing 
set apart as acceptable to God; while it equally represents something 
hostile to the welfare (the eternal welfare) of man. Whatever the character 
of this animal be, however, it is an emanation from the element of vindictive 
wrath ;—rising or coming up, as it is rendered in the Rheims version. The 
action is not confined to a particular moment, it is something continually in 
operation. Any one who occupies the sandy position from which the 
apostle makes his observations, if gifted with a spiritual understanding, 
may be said perhaps to see this beast coming up, or emanating from the 
element of wrath. It is in the nature of a legal element of wrath to give 
birth to a principle or spirit of the kind represented by this animal. 

ᾧ 294. ‘ Having seven heads.’-—The number of these heads is the same 
as that of the heads of the serpent or great dragon, and we apply to them 
the interpretation already given to the heads of that monster. ‘They are lead- 
ing and directing principles. ‘Taken severally, or as a whole, they constitute 
one head, having perhaps seven peculiar characteristics ; and if, as we think 
it probable, they represent the heads of the great serpent transferred to this 
beast, then also, like the heads of that monster, they contain the sting : 
the sting of the legal adversary, which carries with it the power of charac- 
terizing the action of the sinner as a Jegal transgression, or as sin ; and which 
thus constitutes that deadly venom,—that finishing of its operation, which 
bringeth forth death or condemnation, (James i. 15.) ἡ 

‘And ten horns.’—The horns also correspond in number with those of 
the fiery red dragon, and we suppose them also to be the same. They are 
powers—powers of the law, (ᾧ 271,)—the ten being put for the whole 
law, or for so many characteristics of the whole law, or for the infinity of 
obedience which the whole law requires ; every jot and tittle of the law being 
to be fulfilled :—the power of these horns depending of course, as before 
suggested, upon the fact that the law has not been fulfilled, either in effect 
by the disciple, or vicariously for him. 

‘And upon his horns ten crowns ;’ or, as before, ten diadems.—Here there 
is a difference between this beast and that designated as the great dragon : 
the dragon wore these diadems upon his heads ; the beast carries them upon 


THE BEAST FROM THE SEA. 253 


his horns. This may be because his horns possess only a real power, while 
the dragon assumes a regal authority for his heads of accusation; or we 
may consider the horns of the beast as occupying the place of the hand of 
a man—the instrument of power, whether of offence or of defence. ‘Thus 
the diadems on the horns of the beast may be equivalent as a figure to the 
diadem in the hand—that is, the kind of diadem or royal shawl carried in 
the hand as a sign of delegated power—as distinguished from the identity of 
power, symbolized by the diadem placed upon the head of one participat- 
ing in the authority of the sovereign, (¢ 272.) We incline to this latter 
construction, for the reason that this beast is a representative on earth of the 
dragon, as we shall see hereafter ; and in this respect an opposite of her of 
whom it is said, Thou shalt be a royal diadem in the hand of thy God, (Is. 
Ixii. 3.) We might indeed suppose the beast to affect the appropriation of 
these insignia of royalty to his ten elements of legal power, acting under 
the hypocritical pretence of magnifying the law, and of making it honour- 
able ; but there does not appear to be, in the subsequent picture of his char- 
acter, even this affectation of modesty. 

‘And upon his heads the name of blasphemy ;—or, according to our 
Greek edition, names of blasphemy :—every head importing a blasphemous 
pretension ; and, as a whole, the seven heads constituting one name, or grand 
pretension, of the same blasphemous character. ‘The horns are not im- 
pressed with the blasphemous character ; for the law is good, if a man use it 
lawfully. It is only the perversion of its use that is to be deprecated. But 
the leading principles of this beast, that is, the whole spirit and tendency of 
its action, is blasphemous. 

Blasphemy, according to some, (Rob. Lex. p. 109,) may consist in 
calumny or evil speaking; but this does not appear to be the Scriptural 
sense of the term. Amongst the Jews, as we see from John x. 33, the 
crime of blasphemy consisted essentially in the pretension of making one’s 
self equal with God. In this respect, the motive urged by the tempter to 
induce the transgression of our first parents was itself a blasphemous one ; 
urging upon-them the consideration that by the opening of their eyes they 
would become as gods, knowing good and evil: this being the first case on 
earth, we may say, in which the knowledge of the law was perverted to a 
blasphemous purpose. Blasphemy, strictly speaking, then, is the attempt 
to deify self—to put one’s self in the place of God—to make one’s self an 
object of worship and service ; an effect corresponding with that ascribed to 
the man of sin—the son of perdition, 2 Thess. 4: ‘‘ Who opposeth and ex- 
alteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped ; so that he, 
as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” 

If we suppose the distinguishing characteristics (heads) of the beast to be 
self-dependence, self-justification, self-redemption, self-exaltatioa, self-glori- 


-- 


954 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET- 


fication, self-adoration, self-service, or self-devotion, (worship,) or elements 
of this description, we shall perceive that they all of them bear the stamp of 
blasphemy,—all tending, or pretending, to place the individual actuated by 
them in the position of the Sovereign God. 


_V.2. And the beee, mpc Isaw was Καὶ τὸ ϑηρίον, ὃ εἶδον, ἣν ὅμοιον παρ- 

ibis het}. fn bear inidolls meth miu tie 1. ἈΣΊ πο due tek ante > 7 τον 

mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave , ny eee. SE ile eal ahi ieee 

him his power, and his seat [throne], and ἔδωκεν Re δράκων τὴν δύναμιν a 

great authority. : καὶ τοῦ ϑρόνον αὑτοῦ καὶ ἐξουσίαν μεγά- 
λην. 

ᾧ 295. ‘And the beast which I saw was like,’ &c.—All three of the 
animals here spoken of are wild beasts of the earth, peculiarly ferocious and 
destructive, as well as Levitically unclean. They are also spoken of by 
the prophet as eventually to be so changed in temper and disposition as to 
associate with animals of an entirely opposite character. The leopard is to 
lie down with the kid; the cow and the bear are to feed, and their young 
ones to lie down together; and the lion is to eat straw like the ox, Is. xi. 
6,7. The beast from the sea however is not said to resemble either of 
these wild animals altogether, but apparently only in certain particulars. 

‘Like a leopard.’—As the likenesses of the other two animals are con- 
fined to certain specified members of the body, and that of the leopard is 
not so restricted, the inference is that this last is applicable to the general 
appearance of the animal. The leopard is scripturally distinguished for 
his spots; as it is said, Jer. xiii. 23, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or 
the leopard his spots?” A leopard is thus an opposite of the lamb without 
spot, (Numb. xxviii. 3, and 1 Pet. 1. 19,)—the lamb without spot repre- 
senting Christ: spiritually, the righteousness of Christ, unmixed with any 
human merit—the only propitiatory oblation acceptable to God. 

A garment of salvation, supposed to be wrought partly of the merits of 
Christ and partly of those of the disciple, is a garment spotted by the flesh ; 
an opposite of that in which the church is supposed to be clothed by her 
Redeemer, Eph. v. 27, ‘ Not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.” 
Corresponding with this, a doctrine or system of doctrines of a mixed char- 
racter, destructive in its nature as well as unclean or impure in the sight of 
God, may be figuratively spoken of as having the appearance of a leopard. 
Such we suppose to be the characteristic of the spirit or principle represented 
by this beast ; something professedly Christian, but in fact so amalgamating 
pretensions of human merit with a professed reliance upon Christ as virtually 
to ascribe to man the glory of his own salvation. 

ᾧ 296. ‘His feet were as (the feet) of a bear.’—An animal the opposite 
of the cow or heifer—destructive and unclean. ‘The bear is said to hold its 
prey with its fore-paws, embowelling the animal in its possession with its 


po 


͵ 


THE BEAST FROM THE SEA. 255 


hinder feet ; in which peculiarity it may represent the character of those of 
whom it is said, Rom. iii. 15, “ Their feet are swift to shed blood: de- 
struction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace have they not 
known ;” that is, they are strangers to the way of peace, or of reconcilia- 
tion with God, pointed out in the gospel. The heifer was a sacrifice of 
propitiation ;—the bear, not parting the hoof, was wholly unfit for this pur- 
pose. So the tendency of certain doctrinal principles are as hostile to the 
sinner’s salvation as the bear is adverse to the heifer. The feet of the bear 
are also remarkable for their ugliness ; in this they are figuratively opposites 
of the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, that bring glad tidings 
of good things, Rom. x. 15. They bring only tidings of fear and terror ; 
that is, they represent doctrinal principles of this import. 

* And his mouth as the mouth of a lion. —The beast is not described as 
generally like a lion, as was the case in what was said of the living creature 
in and about the throne. He resembles the lion only in his mouth. “ Save 
me (says David) from the lion’s mouth ;” “ They gaped upon me with their 
mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.” It is not merely the lion’s roar 
that is terrific ; the sight of his mouth is as the sight of impending destruc- 
tion. So we may suppose the tendency of the spirit or principle represented 
by this offspring of the element of vindictive wrath to be not merely of a de- 
nunciatory character, but one which enforces its views with a threatening 
of immediate destruction—views, the opposite of that doctrine which is said 
to drop as the rain, and that speech which is said to distil as the dew, as 
the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass, 
Deut. xxxii. 2. 

The apparel, the head dress, and the ornaments of the feet, of the 
woman in heaven bearing the man-child, were described in the last chapter. 
In this chapter we have the outward appearance, or skin, the feet, and the 
mouth of the beast from the sea as particularly detailed; the contrast of 
the two figures suggesting the probability that, to a certain degree, one is 
nearly equivalent ton opposite of the other; the woman bringing forth the 
element of justification being the harbinger of peace, while this beast from 
the sea is the messenger of wo. Here, too, we may have a specimen of 
the manner in which the woman and her seed are persecuted by the serpent ; 
that is, by his getting up something οἵ a counteracting tendency ;—the 
beast and the false prophet representing principles, and the harlot, sustained 
by the beast, representing a system; all opposed to the elements of the 
economy of grace, and all emanating from the power of the legal accuser, 
or all indebted for their power to his. 

ᾧ 297. ‘And the dragon gave him his power and his seat, and great au- 
thority ;’—or, the dragon gave him his strength, throne, and great power. Here 
we have the explicit declaration that this beast is the representative of the 


256 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


accuser of the brethren or of the legal adversary: “ All this power will I give 
thee, (said the devil to Jesus,) and the glory of them,” (that is, of the king- 
doms of the world,) “for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I 
will I give it. If thou, therefore, wilt worship me, all shall be thine.” We 
may presume the beast to be a worshipper of Satan, or he would not have 
received the strength, authority, and power, spoken of: ‘The earth is the 
Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” 
Strictly speaking, the devil has no power or dominion; but, spiritually, he 
had been cast to earth ;—the earth had been allotted to him as a field of 
operation : in the earthly system he has power. 'The condition prescribed 
by Satan was therefore equivalent to this, that if the Redeemer would make 
his work of propitiation subservient to establishing the power of the accuser, 
the elements of the earthly system should be subordinated to him, (Christ.) 
It is only in this sense that the devil could be supposed to give power and 
authority. The beast accordingly renders his ministration subservient to the 
views of the accuser ; he may be presumed to fulfil this condition; and by 
so doing he obtains, virtually, power and authority over the elements of the 
world, or over what we call the earthly system. 

It is a peculiarity of the management of Satan, that he does not appear 
in this earthly system in his own character. ‘This is the assigned field of 
his operation: here he is to carry on the war against the woman, and against 
her seed ; but he does not do this in his proper person. Another takes his 
seat, supplies his place, and occupies his throne, if such it can be called ; 
and to this other he gives his strength—the strength which he derives from 
the law, as symbolized by the ten horns, (transferred from his own head to 
that of the beast,) and great authority, or ruling power, as figured by the 
diadems upon the horns. We may therefore consider the two characters 
nearly identic ; as much so as the viceroy and the sovereign ; remembering 
only that when the viceroy is taken away the sovereign may still be sup- 
posed to remain. Meantime the beast for a certain space possesses the 
legal power of the accuser, and is directed probably by the same heads or 
ruling elements of condemnation. 

Something parallel with this seems to take place in the gospel dispen- 
sation, when viewed under a certain aspect. ‘The legal dispensation is 
generally admitted to have passed away, and of course the office of the 
public prosecutor is no more avowedly recognized ; or rather he himself is 
not recognized in that capacity. If, however, in this professedly new state 
of things the disciple be supposed to depend for eternal life upon the work- 
ing out of some holiness or righteousness of his own, the office of the accuser 
is again revived,—the element of self becomes in effect the legal adversary ; 
self or man, like the betrayer of Jesus, becoming his own accuser and exe- 
cutioner. For if a man pretend to justify himself by works of righteousness 


THE BEAST FROM THE SEA. Q57 


of his own doing, he becomes in the result his own legal prosecutor. It is 
sufficient for us, however, at present, to bear in mind that, whatever be the 
delegated power possessed by the beast, the whole of it is derived from the 
accuser, and depends for its efficiency on the false assumption that the law 
still remains to be fulfilled by the disciple—that, notwithstanding all that 
Christ has done, salvation is not of grace. 


Vs. 3,4. And ᾿ πὰ _ ¥ his ae Καὶ μίαν ἐκ τῶν κεφαλῶν αὐτοῦ ὡς ἐσ- 
as it were wounded to death; and his f 3 ud ee : Ss 
ayusyny εἰς ϑάνατον, καὶ ἢ πλ τοῦ 

deadly wound was healed; and all the ee Uh Se 29 . ‘9 me, few ᾿ 
world wondered after the beast. And Wa td Dotan Soke tien tiene 
they worshipped the dragon which gave δὲν ody ἡ γῆ ὀπίσω τοῦ ϑηρίου, Mee 8 

. ~ , ¢ 2» > 

power unto the beast: and they worship- ἐχύνησαν τῷ δράκοντι, ὅτι ἔδωκε τὴν ἐξου- 
Bes ‘oa nares sayangy Who (is) like ayo clay τῷ ϑηρίῳ, καὶ προςεκύνησαν τῷ ϑη- 
the beast? who is able to make war with ,; : ΓΝ: Ω lov» καὶ 
him ? : : oi, λέγοντες " τίς ὁμοῖος τῷ ϑηρίῳ ; καὶ 


τίς δύναται πολεμῆσαι MET αὐτοῦ ; 

ᾧ 298. ‘ And I saw.’—These words are not to be found in all editions 
of the Greek, but the sense is unavoidably the same; the appearance of 
this head, as well as that of the others, being part of the vision. 

‘One of his heads as it were wounded to death ;’—or, I saw one of his 
heads as (if) it had been slain or slaughtered, ὡς ἐσφαγμένην ;—precisely 
the same words, with a change only of the gender, as those applied to the 
Lamb as it had been slain, Rev. v. 6 ;—a slaying or slaughtering as of a 
victim offered in sacrifice. Death in this vision is not merely a circum- 
stance, but a personage or mystery ; and the preposition εἰς may be ren- 
dered unto, as well as in: εἰς τί οὖν ἐβαπτίσϑητε ; εἰς τὸ ᾿Ιωάννου βάπτισμα----- 
“Unto what then were ye baptized? Unto John’s baptism,” Acts xix. 3. 
The passage therefore might be thus rendered: I saw one of his heads as if 
it had been slain or slaughtered in sacrifice unto death ;—the same death 
that was seen riding on the pale horse, and which is on that occasion, as 
well as on others in this Apocalypse, associated and almost identified with 
hell or Hades. Taking these particulars into view, whether the passage 
will bear this construction altogether or not, we cannot help thinking that the 
phrase wounded to death, or slaughtered to death, is not a mere redundancy. 
The idea intended to be conveyed seems to be, that one of those heads 
appeared as if it had been offered in atonement, or that it represented a 
principle of professed propitiation. 

* And his deadly wound was healed ;’—or, the stroke or plague of its 
death was healed, or, his plague of death was healed. A deadly wound or 
a stroke of death must be a mortal wound or stroke, and it could not be so 
unless attended with death. To heal such a wound must be equivalent to a 
restoration to life. ‘The head appeared as if it had been slain or dead, but 
it was now alive. In explanation of this, we suppose the apostle to see the 


258 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


beast in its proper light. ‘To other eyes a propitiatory sacrifice appears to 
have been made by the beast. The head to them appears as if it had been 
slain—as if an atonement had been made ; while to the view of the apostle 
the head is healed, or appears, as in fact was the case, as if it had never 
been slain. Or perhaps we may say, at first sight the head appeared as 
having been slain ; but upon more just examination the illusion vanished, 
and it appeared otherwise. Or, as we might say of a doctrine of Christian 
faith, which apparently on a first apprehension admits of the efficacy of an 
element of propitiation, but afterwards, in effect, sets the agency of such an 
element aside. Reminding us of the theories of those who commence their 
views of religious doctrine with an avowed reliance upon the atonement of 
Christ, as the only means of salvation, but who virtually, if not professedly, 
lose sight of this element in their reliance upon other foundations of hope, 
or other supposed means of justification. Without shedding of blood, or 
loss of life, there is no remission of sin. Here there was no actual loss of 
life, and consequently no actual atonement. Such we may suppose to be 
the pretended propitiatory provision peculiar to a principle, which, notwith- 
standing its professed support of the doctrine of the atonement, places all 
the disciple’s hope of pardoning mercy upon some merit or righteousness of 
his own. 

§ 299. ‘And all the world wondered after the beast ;—or, as it is in 
the Greek, all the earth wondered, &c. That is, all they of the earth— 
the dwellers or inhabiters of the earth—those against whom the wo is pro- 
nounced: the elements of the earthly system, personified as human beings 
led away by their admiration of what appears to them the wonderful power 
of the beast. The devil had come to the earth and to the sea with great 
vehemence ; but from the account here given we find him no sooner on the 
earth than he gives his power and authority to another. He does not 
appear himself; he deludes and governs in his earthly dominions by the 
specious appearance and pretensions of his viceroy. ‘The whole earth is 
deceived or led astray, excepting, we suppose, the sealed ones mentioned 
in the seventh chapter ; this perversion of the elements of the earthly 
system being apparently coeval with the operation of withholding the wind 
from the earth—of suppressing the spiritual sense of revelation as far it is 
connected with this earthly system. We were not told indeed what the 
four angels did after the one hundred and forty-four thousand of the tribes 
were sealed, but we may presume they then fulfilled the functions assigned 
them. When the dragon came down to earth, the court was given to the 
Gentiles, the two witnesses prophesied in sackcloth, the woman bearing the 
man-child fled to the wilderness, the beast with seven heads and ten horns 
made his appearance, and all the elements of the earthly system were per- 


THE BEAST FROM THE SEA. 259 


verted to sustain his authority ; as the people of Samaria were led away 
by their wonder after Simon the sorcerer, saying, Surely this is the great 
power of God, (Acts viii. 9, 10.) 

‘And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast ;;-— 
or, according to some editions of the Greek, because he gave power unto 
the beast. It is said of some, Rom. i. 25, that they worshipped and served 
the creature more than the Creator. Here the inhabiters of the earth wor- 
ship and serve the accuser of the brethren, rather than the intercessor ; 
the legal adversary, rather than the mediator. This we may suppose they 
do, not because they recognize the dragon in the beast, but because, being 
deluded through the instrumentality of the beast, in following after him, 
they virtually worship and serve the devil in their ignorance and unbelief of 
Christ. Some barbarous nations, it is said, professedly worship the evil 
spirit; and do this, as they declare, lest he should harm them. Strange as 
this may appear to more enlightened minds, there is something analogous to 
it in the views of those who are operated upon in their religious conduct by 
no other motive than the fear of accusation, on the part of their legal 
adversary, before the tribunal of divine judgment. Instead of flying for 
refuge and protection to him who has fulfilled the law for them, and subse- 
quently performing their duty to Him, in gratitude for their deliverance, they 
are driven to obedience, as by the lash of the task-master, and literally 
pay divine honours to the accuser, or worship the dragon from fear of his 
malice. Such we suppose to be the mistake illustrated by the conduct of 
these inhabiters of the earth. 

ᾧ 300. ‘ And they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the 
beast ? who is able to make war with him ?’—It is a characteristic of idolatry, 
that it admits of the worship of more gods than one ; but we do not suppose 
these earthly idolaters to be taken as professedly worshipping both the devil 
and the beast. We are not to suppose them so far acquainted with the 
history of the dragon and with the mystery of his representative, as to recog- 
nize these two distinct characters. ‘They have not been witnesses of the 
war in heaven, or of the expulsion of the dragon from heaven to earth, nor 
are they privileged as we are with a knowledge of these transactions, through 
the account given by the apostle. Nor have they like the apostle seen this 
beast originating from the element of wrath ; they see him only as he is in 
the exercise of his power, with his seven heads or attributes, and his ten 
instruments of exacting obedience. If they perceive his head as it had 
been slain and again restored, they see in this a token of his triumphant 
power ; but they do not recognize him as a mere creature. They are sup- 
posed to substitute him in their apprehension for the Creator and sovereign 
Ruler of all, or for a representative of the Deity, identified with God. 
They apply to the beast the question implied in the name of Michael, (Ὁ 


260 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


279,) Who is so like unto God? Who is so able to save to the uttermost ? 
And who is so much like Jehovah that there is not any able to contend 
with him? ΤῸ them the beast is a manifestation of Deity. 

The beast however, as a figure, we suppose to be rather an opposite of 
God the Saviour and Redeemer, (Christ,) than of God the Creator and 
Supreme Governor. As in the heavenly scene the accuser or dragon is 
the opposite of the man-child, or element of propitiation and justification ; 
so, in this earthly scene the beast is something the opposite of Christ, as 
he is also in some respects of the woman; with this difference, that the 
accuser opposes the man-child and the woman in heaven as an open enemy : 
the beast on earth operates against both of these, by substituting himself in 
their place. On this account he is, apparently with good reason, supposed 
to be a figure pre-eminently of Antichrist ; that is, of some supposed prin- 
ciple or element of salvation, the opposite of the means represented in 
Christ. For to whatever object the disciple ascribes his eternal salvation, 
to that object he is bound to devote all his worship and service. The 
earthly system, or the elements of this system as a whole, here personified, 
in their tendencies exalt the principle represented by the beast to an equality 
with God ; or rather, they virtually recognize no other God or Saviour than 
that thus represented. This delusion or perversion of these earthly elements 
being, as we have observed, part of the war carried on by the dragon 
against the woman and against the remnant of her seed; the remnant 
keeping the commandments of God, and having the testimony of Jesus 
Christ, being exceptions to those denominated all the earth—exceptions 
probably elsewhere symbolized as the one hundred and forty-four thousand 
sealed ones. 


Vs. 5,6. And there was given unto Καὶ ἐδόϑη αὐτῷ στόμα λαλοῦν μεγάλα 


him a mouth speaking great things and 
blasphemies ; and power was given unto 
him to continue forty (and) two months. 
And he opened his mouth in blasphemy 
against God, to blaspheme his name, and 
his tabernacle, and them that dwell in 
heaven. 


καὶ βλαςφημίας, καὶ ἐδόϑη αὐτῷ ἐξουσία 
ποιῆσαι μῆνας τεσσαράκοντα δύο. Καὶ ἢν- 
οιἕξε τὸ στόμα αὑτοῦ εἰς βλαςφημίαν πρὸς 
τὸν ϑεὸν, βλαςφημῆσαι τὸ ὕνομα αὐτοῦ καὶ 
τὴν σκηνὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ τοὺς ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ 


σχηγοῦντας. 


§ 801. ‘ And there was given to him ἃ mouth speaking great things 
and blasphemies.’—The beast is described in the first instance as having 
the mouth of a lion ; but this we may suppose to be a separate figure from 
the present. In addition to the lion’s threatening aspect, and the language of 
terrible denunciation, it was given to the beast to speak great things; and 
as these great things are coupled with blasphemies, the conclusion is sug- 
gested that they are something of the same kind—something corresponding 
with the language of the fourth beast, spoken of Dan. vii. 25, “ And he 
shall speak (great) words against the Most High.” 'The word things 


THE BEAST FROM THE SEA. 2601 


indeed is not in the original in this passage of Revelation, the adjective 
μεγάλα only being expressed ; as it occurs also, according to the Septuagint, 
Dan. vii. 8, where the little horn is said to have a mouth speaking great 
things, λαλοῦν μεγάλα; which things are styled by the interpreter words, in 
the twenty-fifth verse, where the term great is omitted in the original He- 
brew, as well as in the Greek of the Septuagint: the term λόγους in the last 
being put for words ; a term which carries with it the idea of doctrines or rea- 
sonings. Speaking great things is very different from doing great things ; 
as it is said of God, (Luke i. 49,) He hath done great things; or, He doeth 
great things. ‘The beast is only a speaker of great things—a vain boaster. 
Such was the character of Nebuchadnezzar previous to his humiliation, when 
walking in his palace he boasted of the might of his power, (Dan. iv. 30 ;) 
and such was the language of Lucifer, who is described to have said in his 
heart, “I will ascend into heaven; [ will exalt my throne above the stars 
of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the 
north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the 
Most High,” (Is. xiv. 13, 14.) Similar characters are alluded to 2 Pet. ii. 
18, “ Who speak great swelling words of vanity ;” Rom. i. 30, ‘“ Proud 
boasters, inventors of evil things,” (false doctrines ;) and 2 Tim. iii. 2, 
“‘Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers ;’? so the tongue is described, 
James iii. 5, as a little member boasting great things. Of the nature of this 
boasting, we obtain a further insight from the argument of the Apostle Paul, 
showing that a great design of the plan of sovereign grace is to exclude the 
possibility of any foundation for such arrogance: Eph. ii. 8, 9, “For by 
grace are ye saved,” * * * * “ Not of works, lest any man should boast.” 
Rom. ili. 23, 24, and 27, ““ For all have sinned, and come short of the 
glory of God ; being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption 
that is in Christ Jesus’ * * * * “ Whereis boasting then? It is excluded. 
By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law (or rule) of faith.” 

We suppose the speaking great things and blasphemies of the beast to 
be of this description ; corresponding with the pretensions of the man of sin, 
2 Thess. ii. 4, already quoted ; in effect giving himself out to be God. 

Jesus Christ (God in the flesh) is called the author of life, ἀρχηγός τῆς 
ζωῆς, Acts iil. 15; ἀρχηγός τῆς σωτηρίας, Heb. ii. 10, the author or cause 
of salvation ; αἴτιος σωτηρίας αἰωνίου, Heb. v. 9, the efficient cause of 
eternal salvation, (Rob. Lex.)—the merits or righteousness and propitia- 
tion of Christ, imputed to the disciple, being this efficient cause of salvation. 
Opposite to this, any one making his own merits the efficient cause of his 
salvation, puts himself in the place of Christ—making himself equal with 
Christ ;—which is equivalent to putting his own righteousness in the place 
of God’s righteousness—making himself equal with God. Such is in effect 
the boasting, vain words, blasphemy, pride and arrogance of the principle 


262 THE SEVENTH SEAL._THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


of self-righteousness ; a very different sentiment from that charity, which 
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, (1 
Cor. xiii. 4, 5.) We readily recognize the unseemliness of this boasting 
spirit, when it exhibits itself between man and man; how much more must 
we admit its extremely odious character, when exhibited by the creature 
towards his Creator ; by the sinner towards his Redeemer. Yet such is the 
presumptuous operation of that spirit which, however professedly Christian, 
places the eternal happiness of man upon some meritorious work, or good- 
ness, or righteousness, or perfectiom of his own. If we ask, Where is such 
a spirit to be found? the answer appears unavoidably to be, that we shall 
find it in the heart of man. As it was said of the kingdom of God, (Luke 
Xvil. 21,) so we may say of the kingdom of the beast to every inquirer, 
“¢ Behold, the kingdom of the beast is within you.” 

§ 302. ‘And power was given to him to continue forty and two 
months ;;—or, more properly, power was given him to do, or fo act, or, as 
some editions have it, πόλεμον ποιῆσαι, to make war ; that is, not merely to 
exist, but to continue in full operation, to contend with the truth ; the 
term forty-two months being applicable to the active agency of the beast, 
and not merely to his continuance in being. ‘This period of forty-two 
months corresponds with that of the treading of the holy city under foot, 
(Rev. xi. 2;) and turning the months into days, as before, it corresponds 
also with the other periods of twelve hundred and sixty days, Rev. xi. 3, 
xii. 6; and allowing times and days to represent years, with the three and 
a half days of Rev. xi. 9, and the time, times, and half a time of Rev. xu. 
14. As in all the other cases there is no epoch given for the commence- 
ment of this term, we must suppose the beast to begin to act when the 
dragon gave him his power; and the dragon (the devil and Satan) to have 
given this power when he was cast down to the earth; and we must then 
inquire when it was that the devil was not in the earth, or had not come 
down upon the earth; and unless we can find a more recent period when 
Satan did not operate upon the hearts of men, we must go back at least to 
the period of the creation. 

Our only course, therefore, here is, as it has been in other instances, to 
call to mind the declaration of the mighty angels, Rev. x. 6, that there 
should be time no longer. ‘These forty-two months, accordingly, we suppose 
to be not a measure of duration, but a standard of parallelisms, showing us 
the action of the beast during the’ whole of his operation to be correlative, 
simultaneous, and interchangeable with the actions of all of the other series 
of figures of the same measure. ‘The beast has the power to act in conse- 
quence of the treading of the holy city by the Gentiles, of the prophesying 
of the witnesses in sackcloth, of the spiritless state of their bodies, and of 
the seclusion of the woman in the wilderness. 


THE BEAST FROM THE SEA. 263 


§ 303. ‘ He opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme,’ 
&c.—The nature of this blasphemy in general we have already considered ; 
something in effect equivalent to a proud and vain assumption of equality 
with God, especially as the efficient cause and author of eternal life. There 
appears besides to be three subdivisions of this blasphemy :—first, against 
the name of God ; second, against the tabernacle of God ; and third, against 
the dwellers in heaven. 

‘His name.’—As the opening of the mouth, here mentioned, is not to be 
taken in a literal sense, so neither is the blasphemy against the name of the Most 
High to be supposed to consist literally in an act of speech :—it is something 
virtually equivalent to blasphemy. To blaspheme the name of God, accord- 
ingly, must be something else than literal profanity, or what is commonly 
called the taking of God’s name in vain. The glory of God’s name con- 
sists especially in this, that his righteousness is the efficient cause of the 
sinner’s salvation: his name prevails in this matter, not the name of 
the sinner; or, which is the same thing, the name of Christ, God manifest 
in the flesh, prevails. To blaspheme the name of God is to deny to his 
name the glory due for the work of redemption; to give that glory to the 
creature which belongs to the Creator. A system of salvation representing 
the glory οἵ the sinner’s salvation to be due to himself, is a system that 
exalts the name of the sinner in opposition to that of the Saviour.  Corres- 
ponding with this view, we find the reason given by God himself for pub- 
lishing the glad tidings of peace is, that has name may be known ; and this 
because that name had been every day blasphemed, (Is. li, 5-7.) The 
plan of salvation alluded to in this prediction, is published to counteract a 
blasphemy of the name of Jehovah. So we suppose this blasphemy of the 
name of God, by the beast, to be something opposed to the exhibition of 
salvation by grace; that salvation by which only the name of God is 
honoured. 

‘ His tabernacle. —-To blaspheme the tabernacle of God must be some- 
thing nearly of the same import ; a tabernacle being a covering, or shelter, 
or refuge. Jesus Christ is called a minister of the true tabernacle, Heb. viii. 
2. The true tabernacle, or shelter, is that imputed righteousness by which 
alone the disciple can be protected from the wrath to come: “For we (says 
Paul) that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we 
should be unclothed; but clothed upon ;” that is, “ with our house (shelter) 
which is from heaven.” ‘To blaspheme the tabernacle of God is to set a 
naught this provision of imputed righteousness; to make the righteousness 
of man a substitute for it, exalting this tabernacle, as Paul calls it, above the 
tabernacle of God; and such we suppose to be the tendency or spirit of 
this blasphemous principle, represented by the ten-horned beast. 

Them that dwell in heaven.’—It will be perceived from the Greek 

26 


264 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


that the idea of the tabernacle is to be preserved. Under this head, also, the 
blasphemy of the beast was directed against the name of God, against his 
tabernacle, and agaist those tabernacling in heaven: those that dwell or 
tabernacle in heaven being opposites of the dwellers upon earth. As such, 
those that tabernacle in heaven are such as belong to the tabernacle of 
God. We suppose the tabernacle itself to be the shelter provided for the 
sinner—Christ, or the righteousness of Christ ; and those that tabernacle in 
heaven to be corresponding principles (personified), truths, and doctrinal 
elements connected with the distinguishing doctrine of imputed righteous- 
ness; as we have before supposed heaven to be a display of the divine 
counsels, or a spiritual exhibition of the divine purposes, in opposition to the 
earthly or literal exhibition. The blasphemy of the beast, under this head, 
is exhibited in denying to the name of God the glory due for man’s salvation, in 
rejecting his imputed righteousness as a means of that salvation, and in scoffing 
at all the doctrines or principles connected with such a view of the plan of man’s 
redemption ; the accuser setting at defiance the purposes of sovereign grace. 


Vs. 7,8. And it was given unto him 
to make war with the saints, and to over- 
come them: and power was given bim 
over all kindreds, and tongues, and na- 
tions. And all that dwell upon the earth 
shall worship him, whose names are not 
written in the book of life of the Lamb 


Καὶ ἐδόϑη αὐτῷ πόλ i ; 
αἱ ἐδόϑη αὐτῷ πόλεμον ποιῆσαι μετὰ 
- τς Ομ x ~ 2 if Ἀ ser 
τῶν ἁγίων καὶ νικῆσαι αὐτοὺς " καὶ ἐδοϑὴ 
ot. ἡ. PS ~ ‘ ‘1 
αὐτῷ ἐξουσία ἐπὶ πᾶσαν φυλὴν καὶ λαὸν 
\ ~ ἣν. δ \ » 
καὶ γλῶσσαν καὶ ἔϑνος. Kui προςκυνή- 
> , ~ 
σουσιν αὐτὸν πύντες οἱ κατοικοῦντες ἐπὲ 
- - = 2 , λῶν - 
τῆς γῆς, ὧν οὐ γέγραπται τὸ ὄνομα ἕν τῷ 


slain from the foundation of the world. βιβλίῳ τῆς ζωῆς τοῦ ἀρνίου τοῦ ἐσφαγμέ- 


YOU ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου. 

§ 304. ‘And it was given unto him to make war,’ &c.—The dragon 
was wroth, it is said in the preceding chapter, and went to war with the 
We now find this war carried on, not by 
The war is the 
same, and those against whom the war is made are the same ; that is, the 


remnant of the woman’s seed. 
the dragon in person, bu: by his vicegerent, the beast. 


seed of the woman—the elements or principles of the economy of grace— 
holy ones, saints, or those set apart ;—principles which, although perhaps to 
human understanding not forming part of that economy, are yet set apart in 
the divine mind with reference to it, and are eventually to be manifested as 
subservient to it, or as proceeding from it, in conformity with what we 
have before considered the strict meaning of the term holy, or saint, or any 
person or thing sanctified, (ᾧ 88.) The terms servants and saints we con- 
sider different appellations of the same thing; the servant being the person 
or principle which really and directly serves God, and the saint, or holy 
one, being the person or principle set apart in the divine mind for this real 
and direct service. 

‘And to overcome them.’—That is, we may presume, for the period 
of the predominance of this power. The evil principle represented by the 


ee 


THE BEAST FROM THE SEA. 265 


beast, armed as he is with all the power of the law, is permitted for a period 
to overcome the principles of the economy of grace; not the economy 
itself, for that is in a position of safety, beyond the reach of the power of 
the beast ; but all other principles or doctrines of salvation, although really 
belonging and pertaining to that economy, are for a time permitted, on 
earth, or in an earthly view, to appear subservient to the system or king- 
dom of the beast. So we have seen the beast from the bottomless pit per- 
mitted to make war against the two witnesses, and to overcome and to kill 
them, which we have supposed to be equivalent to the present overcoming 
of the saints ; the two witnesses representing the whole multitude of the 
saints, as the Old and New Testaments represent the whole multitude of” 
truths and doctrines contained in them. 

‘ And power was given him over all kindreds, tongues, and nations.’— 
*'Thou couldst have no power,” said Jesus to Pilate, “ except it were given 
thee from on high.” So the power given to the Beast is from God, and 
given to fulfil His purposes. The original of the word kindreds is rendered 
elsewhere tribes—tribes of the earth ; probably the same as those mentioned 
Matt. xxix. 30, kindreds, tongues, and nations. There is a pleonasm of 
expression here, seemingly furnishing us with a hint that these terms are not 
to be taken ima literal sense, either one of them being sufficient to designate 
all the inhabitants of the earth in such a sense. Taken together, they 
represent powers of the earth as opposites of heavenly powers: powers 
of salvation of the earthly system,‘as opposites of those of the heavenly 
system ; and, together or separate, they may be intended to direct our 
attention to other portions of Scripture, where they are symbolically em- 
ployed in such a manner as to throw light upon their meaning here. These 
earthly powers are subservient to the beast ;—not as the saints just men- 
tioned, conquered or overcome and brought into subjection for a time, but as 
the proper subjects of his realm; excepting always, as we may suppose, the 
one hundred and forty-four thousand of the sealed ones before spoken of as 
to be exempted from the desolations of the earth, Rev. vii. 3. 

ᾧ 305. ‘ And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him,’ &¢.— 
That is, all the opposites of the dwellers in heaven—all the elements of the 
earthly system, inhabiters of the earth, shall be subservient to him ; except- 
ing again, those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, 
another figure of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. This book of 
life, as we have already had occasion to notice, is not literally a book or 
schedule of the names of human beings, the subjects of salvation ; we sup- 
pose it to be something equivalent to the plan of salvation, or the covenant 
of grace. So those, whose names are said to be written in it, are the prin- 
ciples or elements of truth belonging to this plan or covenant ; these ele- 


266 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


ments of truth being found in the earthly system, as the pure metal is found 
in the ore mingled with dross and foreign substances; or as the gold and 
silver will be found in the day of trial amidst wood, hay and stubble, when 
“the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is.” As in that day of 
manifestation, the foreign substances will be shown not to be of the precious 
material, so in the same final development, principles belonging exclusively 
to the earthly system will be manifested to be subservient to the beast. 
The same allusion is met with, Rev. xvii. 8, where it is said, “ They that 
dwell] on the earth shall wonder, (whose names were not written, in the Book 
of Life from the foundation of the world ;) which passage we suppose to 
‘be capable of the same construction as the present. 

‘From the foundation of the world.’—It is immaterial whether we ren- 
der the expression, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, or the 
names written in the Book from the foundation of the world. It is evident 
that in either case the reference must be to the divine purpose which has 
been unchangeable from all eternity, and which is thus spoken of to adapt 
the expression to the ordinary apprehension of human minds. 

It may be noticed here that the word rendered world in this verse, dif~ 
fers from that translated world in the third verse in our common version ; 
the term κόσμος (the world) being applicable to an order of things, while 
that of #77 (the earth) expresses rather a position under a certain order of 
things. Ἢ 

Vs. 9, 1η. εἶ any men Dane anear,let εἴ τις ἔχει οὖς, ἀκουσάτω. Ei τις αἷἶχ- 
nine, Heat adh Mtn σινύγε, abut ὑπάγει 
with the sword, must be killed with the pF POG CARE 5 CORED hee ee ee 
sword. Here is the patience and the faith MOZ@1O¢ iid ν ἐε ade ἐστίν ἡ ὑπο- 
of the saints. μονὴ καὶ ἡ πίστις THY αγίων. 

ᾧ 306. ‘If any man have an ear,’ &c.—This is the same expression as 
that met with at the close of each of the addresses to the seven churches of 
Asia ; supposed to be designed (ὃ 46) to give a special caution against 
adopting the literal sense, or even taking the literal sense of the passage 
where it is found at all into view; and so we consider it here, Not that 
other portions.of the Apocalypse are more literal than this, but that there is 
more danger of taking this passage in a literal sense than there is of others : 
or rather, we should say, there is more danger of adopting the temporal 
sense, for it would be hardly possible to fall into the mistake of a literal 
construction. An animal, such as this beast is described to be could not 
be supposed to exist literally ; but what is next to this literal sense, is the 
application of this vision to temporal objects, (ecclesiastical or political 
affairs,) which is, in fact, a literal or carnal construction, as opposed to the 
spiritual sense. To guard against such a construction we may presume to 


THE BEAST FROM THE SEA. 267 


“ 


be the design of the caution here given: the necessity of it is but too evi- 
dent from the experience of ages.* 

‘He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. —This denun- 
ciation we presume to apply here to the beast and his partisans. The 
word translated leading or going into captivity, signifies leading or going 
into bondage: “ΤΠ ἰχμαλατίζω, captivum abduco ; vel, in captivatatem bello 
captum abduco ; in servitutem abduco, (Suiceri Lex.)—“I lead away into 
bondage the prisoner taken in war;” captivity and bondage, according to 
the custom of ancient warfare, being almost synonymous terms. We meet 
with the same expression Rom. vii. 23, “bringing me into captivity to the 
law of sin.” Better rendered, perhaps—bringing me into the state of bond- 
age peculiar to the law of sin. The law of sin may be said to be that of 
ancient warfare—that the captive is entirely at the mercy of the captor. 
His life is forfeited, and if it be spared it is only that death is commuted for 
bondage. In allusion to which, Paul exclaims, in connexion with what he 
has just said of this captivity, “OQ wretched man that Lam, who shall deliver 
me from the body of this death.”’ ‘The law of sin is, the soul that sinneth 
it shall die. ‘To be brought into captivity to this law of sin, is to be brought 
into this position of legal condemnation or death ; a position from which the 
sinner can be delivered only by the redemption which is in Jesus Christ. 

Those who advocate the principle of self-justification by one’s own ful- 
filment of the law, make themselves by their own system subject to the 
law ; leading themselves into the position of bondage, or captivity, under 
the law or rule of sin. They choose to be justified by that law, and they 
teach that others are to be so. With what measure they mete, therefore, it is 
to be measured to them: they must be judged out of their own mouths, 
and according to the principles of their own system. 

We suppose such to be the tendency of the self-righteous spirit or prin- 
ciple represented by the beast. His action is to bring his followers into 
this captivity ; and we find, corresponding with the declaration of this pas- 


* No commentator of the Apocalypse pretends to render its meaning literally. A 
few passages perhaps excepted, it is universatly considered a figurative composition. 
But the ordinary construction given to it is that of applying these figures to worldly 
or temporal objects. The beast, for example, has been supposed by some to repre- 
sent the Roman emperor Nero; (vid. Calmet, art. Antichrist ;) by others, the Roman 
empire under Charlemagne. The ten horns by some are supposed to represent ten 
kings or governments. into which that empire was first divided, &c. This construc- 
tion cannot be called literal, but it may be called carnal; this last being a term 
expressing apparently something equivalent either to literal or temporal; as 1 Cor. 
ix. 11, where it applies to what we call temporal things, as distinguished from spirit- 
ual things ; and Rom. viii. 6, where it is used in the sense of literal. So we might 
say of the construction usually put upon this mystic composition ; although not literal, 
itis carnal. There is in it the admission of a mystic sense, but the application of 
that sense is to worldly or temporal objects, whether secular or ecclesiastical. 


268 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


sage, he is, in the issue, himself taken captive, and subjected to a condition 
represented by a state far worse even than that of bondage, or of death 
itself, (Rev. xix. 20.) 

The same term in the original is found Eph. iv. 8, in allusion to the tri- 
umph of Christ over the power of the law, and the consequent gift or grace 
of salvation: ‘“ Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he 
led captivity captive :’—-He captured, bound, or overcome the bondage 
of captivity—iyuulocevoer αἰχμαλωσίαν. So itis said, 2 Tim. iii. 5, 6, of 
certain teachers of false doctrines, or of the doctrines themselves—‘ having 
the form of godliness, (or piety,) but denying the power thereof ”’—that 
they creep into houses, and lead into the bondage of captivity silly women* 
laden with sias: probably a figurative expression for the influence of legal 
views upon those who, weak in faith, and feeling the burden of their sins, are 
seeking to work out a righteousness of their own ; on which account they 
are the more easily led to adopt principles placing them im the position of 
this bondage. 

ᾧ 307. ‘He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.’— 
The sword is a scriptural figure, of a twofold character. In one sense, the 
sword is that of the Spirit, which is the word of God ; in another, it is the 
sword of the magistrate—the instrument of vindictive justice. We must 
judge of the construction by the manner in which the figure is employed. 
Here it is evidently employed as the sword of the magistrate-—the sword 
of vengeance—an instrument of wrath against which the sinner has no 
defence but that of the shield of faith ; a weapon terrible to the unbeliever, 
but one which cannot separate the faithful follower from the love of Christ, 
Rom. viii. 35. 

“They that take the sword, shall perish with the sword,” Matt. xxvi. 52. 
This is an axiom undeniable in a natural sense ; but we suppase the applica- 
tion in the Apocalypse to be especially spiritual, and the construction to be 
similar to that given to the figure with which it is connected. Even here, 
however, both swords may be alluded to. The sword of the beast, or the 
weapon of Ais warfare, is not the sward of the Spirit ; it is something corres- 
ponding with the power of his ten horns; it is a legal sword, the instru- 
ment of the magistrate—the weapon of vindictive justice. On the other 
hand, we find this beast at the end of his career to be overcome and 
taken by the WORD, ont of whose mouth went a sharp sword; which 
SWORD is evidently that of the Spirit, Rev. xix. 15, 19, and 20. Those 


* The word translated silly women, is merely a diminutive of womankind, and is 
apparently applicable not to a few weak women, in a literal sense, but to something 
represented by persons of this character, “ever learning and never able to come ta 
the knowledge of the truth ;” the truth as itis in Jesus; the truth of salvation by 


sovereign grace. 


le ee -- 


THE BEAST FROM THE EARTH. 269 


who advocate the legal principles of vengeance, must be themselves judged 
by those legal principles. Doctrines advocating these principles must also 
be judged by the same. A system of self-righteousness sustaining itself by 
such legal principles, on the same principles will be proved to be void— 
incapable of giving life—Gal. ii. 21, ‘“ For if there had been a law given 
which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the 
* As this process, however, is effected by the word of God—the 
sword of the Spirit—the result is the same. He that killeth with the sword, 
is killed with the sword: and even here the sword of the Spirit may be as 


law.’ 


the sword of the magistrate, when exercised against erroneous doctrines or 
principles. 

‘Here is the patience and the faith of the saints..—Perhaps we may 
say, here is matter for consideration, capable of affording faith and pa- 
tience ; as if in allusion to the inquiry of the souls under the altar, Rev. 
vi. 10: ‘ How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and 
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ?”? The dwellers on, or 
elements of, the earth are supposed to conspire and to co-operate with the 
beast in depriving the principles and doctrines of truth of their spiritual and 
proper sense. ‘The advocates of the truth, or the principles of truth person- 
ified as such, are supposed, like Lot in the midst of Sodom, 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8, 
to be vexed in beholding the prevalence of these self-righteous and anti- 
evangelical doctrines. In the anguish of their minds they exclaim, How 
long, O Lord, will these errors be permitted? In reply, they are assured 
that the errors themselves carry with them, and in them, the elements of their 
own destruction: they have led captive, they will on their own principles 
be brought into captivity—they have taken the sword, they will perish by 
the sword. Here is wherewith to sustain faith and patience ; as if it were 
said, Be assured falsehood itself is designed to work out the development 
of the truth. The period and process of this manifestation is certain and 
sure ; therefore, ‘‘ Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him,” Ps. xxxvii. 
7; or, as it is expressed by Paul, (2 Thess. ii. 5,) “‘ And the Lord direct 
your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.” 


The Beast from the Earth. 


V. 11. And I beheld another beast Kai εἶδον ἄλλο ϑηρίον ἀναβαῖνον ἐκ τῆς 
coming up out of the earth, and he had ς ; 
two horns like a Jamb, and he spake as ἃ 
dragon. 


~ ‘ τ ." ἢ ao > 
γῆς, καὶ εἶχε χκερατὰ δύο ὑμοια ἀρνίῳ χαὶ 
aa f ε SY. 
ἐλάλει ὡς δράκων. 


§ 308. ‘And I beheld another beast..—The apostle still retains his 
position upon the sand of the sea. ‘The scene is unchanged, another object 
only makes its appearance in the midst of the same scenery ; or rather, 


270 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET, 


another object attracts the attention of the spectator; for we may suppose 
both beasts to have been present at the same time, although the apostle 
completes his account of the rise and power of one before he commences 
upon that of the other. The two animals coexist from the beginning of 
their career,.as we shall find they co-operate and finally perish by the same 
miserable end. 

‘Coming up out of the earth ; ---ἀναβαῖνον, coming up, the same word 
precisely as that rendered rise up in the first verse of the chapter. ‘The 
idea to be associated with it we apprehend being also the same, viz., that 
of a continual coming up of this element from the system or mystery sym- 
bolically termed the earth. ‘The earth we suppose to be a system of self- 
dependence, founded in a literal interpretation of the language of revelation ; 
a system of faith, placing man in the position peculiar to his state by nature 
as opposed to his state by grace. ‘This system, wherever it prevails, and 
as long as it prevails, sends forth an element represented here as a beast, 
ϑήριον, an unclean and a destructive animal. 

‘ And he had two horns like a lamb.’—Thiat is, as a lamb has two horns, 
so this beast has the same ; a male lamb no doubt being the one in con- 
templation. And if we choose to render the Greek by the definite article, as 
if it were understood, which occurs frequently in other passages, the reading 
would be, he had two horns like the lamb ; that is, like the Lamb of God— 
the Lamb afterwards said to be seen standing on Mount Zion. So far we 
may suppose this spurious lamb to affect to be a representative of the real 
lamb. He resembles the real lamb, however, only in haying two horns ; 
these horns perhaps resembling also those of a lamb, in other characteristics 
beside that of their number. 

‘ And he spake as a dragon ;’—or, if we suppose the definite article to 
be understood, he spake as the dragon. ‘The language of the first beast 
was that of a vain boaster, speaking great things and blasphemies ; the 
language of the second beast is that of the accuser of the brethren, who 
accused them before God day and night. He is not the accuser himself, 
nor does he profess to be so; no doubt he assumes a very lamb-like char- 
acter; but his language is in effect that of an accuser. He may pretend to 
be on the side of the mediator or intercessor, but he virtually and really 
argues for the prosecution: a character alluded to, Ps. 1. 19, 20, ‘“‘ Thou 
givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest (in 
judgment) and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thme own 
mother’s son.” 

This beast is not mentioned under the same appellation in any portion 
of the revelation subsequent to the close of this chapter ; but by comparing 
what is said of him here, especially in the next two verses, with Rev. xvi. 
13, and xix. 20, we feel fully warranted in identifying him with the false 


THE BEAST FROM THE EARTH. ΩΤ] 


prophet of those two passages. And according to the definition before given 

of the term prophet, (Ὁ 69,) viz., an interpreter, we assume the beast with ‘ 
two horns to be a false interpreter, or rather a false interpretation or standard 

of interpretation of the language of revelation—a false mode of interpreting 

—a misconstruction of the sense and meaning of the revealed word of God: 

a mode of interpretation arising from the self-righteous system represented 

by the earth ; and which itself depends upon a literal or carnal construction 

of the sacred Scriptures. 

The horns of this animal we suppose to represent the false prophet’s 
powers (instruments) of perverting the sense of revelation ; that is, the 
leading doctrines upon which he depends for his misrepresentation of gospel 
meaning. The appearance of the beast, as a lamb, indicates the apparent 
tendency of this misinterpretation to sustain the propitiatory views of the 
gospel plan; and if we suppose its two horns to be in appearance like those 
of a lamb, although not really such, we may suppose the two doctrines by 
which it effects its purpose of misconstruction to have the appearance of 
evangelical or gospel doctrines, although in reality something very diverse ; 
or, if once such, so changed in their nature by misapplication as to become 
the converse af the power of a vicarious or propitiatory scheme of redemp- 
tion: the signs of an element of atoning sacrifice becoming the indications 
of an element of destruction ; as the horns of a lamb transplanted to the 
head of a wild beast would thenceforth become the weapons of a ferocious 
animal. Corresponding with this, while the earthborn beast wears the 
insignia of peace and reconciliation, his speech or doctrine is that of accusa- 
tion ; as we might suppose a certain mode of interpreting Scripture to carry 
with it, and to be sustained by, two doctrines bearing the appearance of 
gospel doctrines, while the system of faith to which they belong is really 
calculated by the aid of these doctrines only to enforce the law with its 
utmost rigour, leaving the sinner as much without the hope of salvation as 
if no plan of redeeming mercy had existed. We should say of such doc- 
trines, that although they wore the appearance of powers of salvation, they 
_ were virtually and in effect powers of condemnation. 


V. 12. And he exerciseth all the power Kei τὴν ἐξουσίαν τοῦ πρώτου ϑηρίου 
of the first beast before him, and causeth 
the earth and them which dwell therein 


to worship the first beast, whose deadly ; Ἷ Ὁ ΜΔ : χὰ 
wound was healed. ZVUVIGCWOL TO ϑηρίον TO πρῶτον, OV ἐϑερα- 


πεύϑη ἢ πληγὴ τοῦ ϑανάτου αὐτοῦ" 

ᾧ 309. ‘And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast.’-—The 
power of the first beast was represented by his ten horns, being the same 
horns as those of the dragon ; and these ten horns we suppose to represent 
the law, as a whole. ‘The power of the first beast was also a transmitted 
power, having been bestowed by the dragon. It was in effect the power of 


~ ting sibel 4 ? ~ ~ ‘ 
πᾶσαν ποιεῖ, ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ" καὶ ποιεῖ THY 
- ‘ > ~ " , 
γῆν καὶ τοὺς ἐν αὐτῇ κατοικοῦντας ἵνα προς- 


972 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


the accuser of the brethren ; all which power is put into operation by this 
second beast. This false prophet (false interpretation personified) sustains 
his perversion of divine revelation by appealing to the law ; by professing 
to enforce the law on the ground that it has not been fulfilled by Christ, 
and consequently is yet to be fulfilled by man. The first beast receives 
the law from the accuser, and uses it as the constitution of his government ; 
the second beast acts under the authority of this law, and places himself in 
the stead of the accuser, acting as proxy for the public prosecutor ; in doing 
which he employs his own two horns or powers as the elements of his argu- 
ment. As we may suppose, by way of illustration, a controversialist pro- 
fessing to advocate the gospel view of God’s plan of salvation, through the 
atoning sacrifice of Christ, so arguing his case as to leave the sinner more 
than ever, if possible, in the position of condemnation. He admits the law 
to have been fulfilled and satisfied by a divine surety ; but in order to main- 
tain, as he supposes requisite, the perpetual authority of the law, he brings 
forward two leading doctrines of the gospel; by which, through his misin- 
terpretation, he makes it virtually to appear that, notwithstanding the 
redemption wrought out by the Son of God, a perfect fulfilment of the law 
on the part of the disciple, (a work to be wrought by his own conduct and 
actions,) is still the condition of eternal salvation. Here the second beast 
uses all the power of the first beast, which is in effect the power of the 
accuser or dragon, through the instrumentality of his two horns—two doc- 
trines of the gospel, either perverted in their character and features, or mis- 
applied in the use for which they were designed. 

‘ Before him ;—éreziov αὐτοῦ, in presence of—not before in point of 
time. The second beast exercises all this power in the presence of the first 
beast ; that is, with his consent, concurrence, and approbation ; as a prime 
minister, acting under authority of his master, may be said to exercise the 
sovereign power in the presence of the sovereign himself. In fact we may 
take all that is supposed to be done in the first part of the chapter by the 
first beast, to be done through the instrumentality of the second beast ; the 
last coexisting and co-operating with the first, as we have before remarked. 
So an historian may first state in general terms what was done by a certain 
temporal monarch during his reign, and then give an account of the char- 
acter and management of the prime minister through whom these things 
were done. In reading this account of the second beast, therefore, we must 
carry our minds back to the account given of the first ; and when it is said 
that all the world wondered after the beast, we may conclude that this 
general admiration of the sovereign ruler was brought about in a great mea- 
sure by the artifices of the premier. 

‘ And causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first 
beast.’——This is a confirmation of the idea just enlarged upon, In the fourth 


THE BEAST EROM THE EARTH. 273 


verse it is said, they worshipped the beast, saying, &c.; and here in the 
twelfth verse we are told that it is through the second beast that this worship 
is brought about ; that is, we suppose the use made in the misintenpretation 
represented by this lamb-like beast of the two doctrines, symbolized by his 
horns, to be such as virtually to cause a worship and service of the element 
represented by the first beast. 

‘Whose deadly wound was healed ;’—or, of whom was healed the stroke 
of his death. In the first mention of this wound it appeared as if only one 
of the heads of the animal had been slain, leaving the beast alive ; but here 
it appears that this slaying of one of the heads was a stroke of death to the 
beast, so that the whole animal had the appearance of having been dead, 
and of being again alive. As the principle of self-justification, or self-propi- 
tiation, may be said to have been alive in the first instance, under the legal 
dispensation ; to be dead on the coming in of the gospel economy, and to 
be alive again when that economy is so perverted as to render it a legal 
system. 

This last change in the ten-horned beast may be supposed to have been 
brought about through the operation of the two-horned power of the second 
beast ; this apparent exercise of power being a portion of the wonder-work- 
ing ability displayed by the false prophet. 


Vs. 13,14. And he doeth great won- . 


ders, so that he maketh fire come down 


from heaven on the earth in the sight of 


men; and deceiveth them that dwell on 
the earth by (the means of) those mira- 
cles which he had power to do in the 
sight of the beast; saying to them that 
dwell on the earth, that they should make 
an image to the ‘beast, which had the 
wound by a sword, and did live. 


‘\ ~ ~ , cr Ν ~ 
Καὶ ποιεῖ σημεῖα μεγάλα, ἵνα καὶ πῦρ 
Stee ~ 2 ~ E ’ Ν ὦν ᾿ - 
ποιῇ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ χαταβαίνειν εἰς τὴν γῆν 
~ » ΝΜ ~ 
ἐγώπιον τῶν ἀνϑρώπων. Kot πλανᾷ τοὺς 
~ ~ ~ ‘ ’ ~ τ 
κατοικοῦντας ἐπὲ τῆς γῆς διὰ τὰ σημεῖα, ἃ 
, 3 ~ ~ , ~ 
ἐδόϑη αὐτῷ ποιῆσαι ἐνώπιον τοῦ ϑηρίου, 
λέγων τοῖς κατοικοῦσιν» ἐπὲ τῆς γῆς ποιῆσαι 
ΙΑ ~ , “ωΦΨ» ‘ ‘ ~ 
εἰκόνα τῷ ϑηρίῳ, ὁ ἔχει τὴν πληγὴν τῆς 
are 
μαχαίρας καὶ ἕζησε. 


§ 310. ‘And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire,’ &e.— 
That is, in the sight of men he doeth great wonders; the making fire to 
come down from heayen being one of these wonders. He is a deceiver or 
false interpreter of the divine will; he brings forward these signs in testi- 
mony of the correctness of his interpretations: but the signs, as well as the 
interpretations, are false. They appear to human apprehension to be signs 
and wonders, but they are not really such ; neither is the fire really heavenly 
fire, nor does it really come down from heaven ; but in the sight of men it 
appears to be what it is given forth to be ;—as it was predicted, Matt. xxiv. 
24, “ For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show 
great signs and wonders ; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall de- 
ceive the very elect.” 

Fire is the symbol of the element of trial. ‘The revealed Word of 
God is the true fire by which every work or doctrine is to be tried; heaven 


274 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


being the system of divine government as exhibited in the Scriptures. Out 
of these Scriptures the false prophet brings the revealed word to prove the 
correctness of the earthly system ; that is, to human apprehension he does 
this, or rather, to the literal or carnal apprehension this appears to be done. 
Taking Scripture in its literal sense, passages may be quoted sustaining ap- 
parently the delusive mode of interpretation, represented by the false 
prophet or two horned-beast ; and supporting the system or view of man’s 
position under the law, figuratively spoken of as the earth. 

‘And he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth, Καὶ πλανᾷ, and 
leadeth astray.—The elements of the earthly system are perverted by this 
false interpretation of Scripture. They are made to lead away from the 
truth : something of the character of the perversion of the right ways of the 
Lord, charged upon the sorcerer, (Acts xiii. 10.) 

§ 311. ‘Saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make 
an image,’ &c.—The tendency of the false interpretation, represented by 
this second beast, is such as to cause the elements of the earthly system to 
sustain a view of religious faith, equivalent in effect to the erection of an 
image to the principle figuratively spoken of as the beast. Not that the 
image and the beast are two different objects of worship, but that the beast 
is worshipped in its image. 

From the account we have of the image set up by the king of Babylon 
in the plain of Dura, we cannot but suppose that the worship of the image 
was in effect a worship of the king. Nebuchadnezzar did not intend to 
divert the homage of his people from himself, but he aimed at receiving 
divine honours through the instrumentality of this image; the erection of 
which may be called a royal contrivance for deifying the monarch, with- 
out an absolute pretension on his part to the character of a divinity. We 
read, indeed, of sovereigns of later times mad enough to make such preten- 
sions openly, giving themselves out as descendants of the gods; as them- 
selves demi-gods, and even gods; and when the admonitions of mortality have 
convinced the more thinking part of them of the folly of such pretensions, 
they have indemnified themselves in this particular by making provision for 
their own apotheosis after death. But Nebuchadnezzar appears to have 
been an intellectual, thinking monarch, as well as an ambitious and power- 
ful one; and he was probably too well imbued with a knowledge of the 
true God, derived from his Hebrew captives, not to be convinced of the 
madness and even impiety of assuming to be himself an object of religious 
worship ; but the same feeling, which would otherwise have prompted him to 
such an assumption, easily led him to gratify his desire of adoration, by re- 
quiring it indirectly from his people ; as if one, not himself a deity, could 
make a deity for others. Even the ministers and flatterers of the Babylon- 
ish monarch would not venture, we may suppose, upon such an excess of 


THE BEAST FROM THE EARTH. Q75 


sycophancy, as to suggest his setting himself up as an object of worship ; 
but they appear to have fallen readily in with his vain imagination, in 
maintaining this right and power to create such an object of worship, and 
the reasonableness of the requisition in behalf of his idol, that it should be 
adored by his subjects. 

Something like this may be found in the heart of man, even in the most 
enlightened portions of Christendom. Common sense, common experience, 
is sufficient to convince any human being of ordinary understanding of the 
folly of setting one’s self up as an object of worship ; of placing one’s self 
in the position of Deity. The idea is revolting, and repugnant even to our 
ordinary sentiments of propriety ; how much more must it be so to those 
enjoying a knowledge of revealed truth, and professing to be actuated by its 
precepts! What the Christian disciple would not do, however, directly, he 
may do indirectly ; and a folly which he could not be persuaded to commit 
avowedly, he may be led away to commit, or may be deluded into commit- 
ting virtually and in effect. 

We have already more than once intimated that there is such a worship as 
that of self ;—that the worship of God is the service of God ; that this service 
or worship must be characterized by the motive of conduct or action; and 
that if even our best actions proceed from a motive of benefiting ourselves, 
it is self that we are serving, and not God. So we have noticed that if, by 
any merits of our own, we justify ourselves,—save ourselves from eternal 
punishment, and obtain for ourselves eternal happiness,—we then become 
our own saviours. Accordingly, he who pretends to have accomplished 
such a work puts himself in the place of God, making himself the object of 
his own grateful adoration for this work of redemption : placing himself in 
such a position that, as in the first instance he acted from no motive but 
that of benefiting or serving himself, so subsequently his only motive even 
for eternity must be that of gratitude, or love to himself: thus constituting 
his own self the object of his love, and worship, and service, both in this 
life and in the next. 

There is scarcely any one professing the Christian name, who would 
openly and avowedly make such a pretension as this. There is scarcely 
any Christian disciple of ordinary intelligence who would not reject with 
abhorrence and disgust an interpretation of the Scriptures, directly incul- 
cating such an extreme of self*worship. 

But while the direct and avowed error is easily detected, and instantly 
repudiated, there is an indirect mode by which the disciple may be deluded 
or led away into precisely this species of idolatry. A false interpretation, 
or misconstruction of the language of revelation, leads him into the belief 
that he is to work out his salvation by an intrinsic holiness, perfection, and 
goodness of his own; causing him in effect to create an image of his own 


“976 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


righteousness, to which he virtually bows down as to an Object of adoration, 
considering it the source of all his hopes, for time and for eternity. In this 
image of his own perfection, his own self is the real deity; he has not 
two obiects of worship,—one is represented in the other,—self is worship- 
ped in the image of its own merits. 

‘The heart is deceitful above all things.-—A delusion such as we have 
here depicted finds, therefore, a ready reception ; but the immediate cause 
of the error is the false interpretation, leading astray or perverting the 
language of revelation ; causing the elements of the earthly system, or plan 
of salvation, as drawn from a literal or carnal view of the written word, to 
substitute an image of human fabric for the true object of worship—the 
Creator and Redeemer of the world. 

ᾧ 312. The action of the second beast is to place the worshipper (the 
elements of the earthly system spoken of as worshippers) under the dominion 
of the first beast, whose ten horns, or legal powers, are the instruments of en- 
forcing his authority. It is the misinterpretation of the false prophet which 
places the disciple under the dominion of self, and puts him in the posi- 
tion of a worshipper of self, and consequently brings him back from his 
position of freedom in Christ to a state of bondage under the law. 

So the first beast is represented as making war upon the saints: 
a war probably of the same kind as that carried on in heaven between 
Michael and his angels, and the dragon and his angels ;_ with this difference, 
that the war in heaven is a contest between the elements of redemption and 
those of accusation. The war on earth is between the true elements of re- 
demption on the one side, and the elements of falsehood, of self-justification, 
and of self-propitiation, on the other.* The latter war, although said to be 
made by the first beast, is in fact carried on by the second beast ; the 
false prophet (misinterpretation) leading the elements of falsehood just 
spoken of to contend with those of truth, figuratively spoken of as the saints, 
or holy ones. ‘This spirit of misinterpretation, ostensibly evangelical, and 
bearing the insignia of propitiatory power, comes from the earth: a literal 
and self-righteous origin. Its tendency is to bring into operation the whole 
power of the law, and, like the letter which kulleth, to destroy the opposite 
elements of grace, by re-establishing the dominion resulting from the power 
of condemnation. 

Such is the action of the second beast ; but this action is through the in- 
strumentality of his two horns, or powers, the weapons of his warfare— 
carnal weapons—the opposites of those of which the apostle speaks, as 


* The war in heaven may be considered equivalent to the contest in the nature 
of things between the elements of justice and those of mercy, figuratively represented 
as a division in the councils of the Most High; the war on earth is equivalent to a 
manifestation of truth resulting from this heavenly contest. 


THE BEAST FROM THE EARTH. ΩΤ 


mighty to the vidi down of strong holds, (2 Cor. x. 4.) Such is the 
misinterpretation we may also say of the false prophet ; which misinterpre- 
tation is effected, or put into operation, and made efticient, by the instru- 
mentality of two doctrinal powers, or weapons; two leading doctrines, 
bearing the appearance of something evangelical ; professing to advocate, no 
doubt, a system of atonement or propitiation, but in reality wresting the 
meaning of the sacred oracles in a manner to deceive even the very elect, 
(Matt. xxiv. 24.) The disciple, carried away by this misinterpretation, 
operating as it does by the means of these two doctrines, being led not only 
to worship, or serve something opposed to God, (self,) but also to form in 
his own mind or heart an image of the moral perfection of se/f; which image, 
according to his system, he actually adores without being conscious of it. 
Such, indeed, is the effect; but we suppose here, as elsewhere, the im- 
mediate design of the Apocalypse to be, that of pointing out and illustrat- 
ing the end to be repudiated, not that of designating literally a class of human 
beings eventually to suffer from it. 

Nothing is said of the time allotted to the action of the second beast, 
but we take the term of forty-two months (verse 5) to be equally applica- 
ble to the predominant influence of both of these monsters; the last co- 
operating with the first, or rather the first acting in, and manifesting itself in 
the last, from the beginning to the end of his career. The several opera- 
tions of the beast from the sea, described in the first part of the chapter, are 
effected by the agency of the beast from the earth. The particulars re- 
lated of both beasts, although described successively, are in fact coeval ; 
the requisition of the work set forth in the seventeenth verse of the chapter, 
all being of as early a date, so to speak, as the worship of the dragon and of 
the beast, adverted to in the fourth verse ; and this worship, as well as the 
overcoming of the saints, and the subjugation of the dwellers upon the 
earth, being the result of the intervention of the false interpreter, with his 
signs and lying wonders, exhibited through the instrumentality of his two 
important, most prominent, and leading doctrinal powers. 

‘Which had the wound by a sword, and did live,’—or, as it is in the 
Greek, by the sword. ‘The first beast is mentioned in the third verse as 
having one of his heads wounded to death. In the twelfth verse he is 
spoken of as one whose deadly wound was healed; and here, in the four- 
teenth verse, as the beast which had the wound by the sword and did live. 
There seems to be a gradual development in the character of this wound. 
The animal appears at first as having been wounded only in one of its mem- 
bers—a wound deadly indeed to that member, but not so to the whole 
beast ; next, his wound seems to be alluded to as altogether morta] ,— 
a deadly wound of the beast itself; and lastly, we are informed by what in- 


278 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 
x" 


strumentality the wound had been inflicted, viz., by “the sword. This 
sword, according to our previous interpretation of the symbol, we suppose 
to represent the revealed Word of God, spiritually understood—the sword 
of the Spirit: the sword of the magistrate, when employed for the destruc- 
tion of error; that of the warrior, when engaged directly in the defence or 
promulgation of the truth. 

Having supposed (by way of approximation) the beast from the sea to 
represent the element of self, or something of that kind, we suppose this 
element to be contemplated as having been alive under the legal dispensa- 
tion ; self being then supposed to depend upon its own strength for the 
means of eternal life. Under the gospel dispensation it receives a mortal 
wound—a wound manifestly effected by the revealed word, properly under- 
stood. Wherever this word is so understood, there the beast (self) is 
wounded to death——manifested to be without life ;—that is, without the 
means of eternal life. Where this word, on the contrary, is not rightly 
understood, or where the Scriptures are taken literally, (carnally,) under a 
false construction, there the beast is alive again ; self-righteousness being 
then contemplated as the element of eternal life. So, in a system of doc- 
trine, according to which the disciple is supposed capable of satisfying the 
requisites of the law by merits or by works of his own, the element of self- 
justification prevails in full power ; the sword of the Spirit only being able 
to destroy the error. 


V. 15. And he had power to give life Καὶ ἐδόϑη αὐτῷ δοῦναι πνεῦμα TH εἰκόνι 
unto the image of the beast, that the image : 

of the beast should both speak,andcause |, . νι aint Kh ’ 
that as many.as would not worship the 9(007 γον αὐτὴν 0001 0% Mil ΕΘ ΡΟΝ PT TEgt 
image of the beast should be killed. THY εἰκόνα TOU ϑηρίου ἵνα ἀποχτανϑῶσι. 


- ’ c 1 
τοῦ ϑηρίου, wa καὶ λαλήσῃ ἡ εἰκὼν τοῦ Fy- 


§ 312. ‘And he had power ἡ ον, it was given him to give life, or 
rather τὸ give spirit unto the image. The word translated life here, 
(πνεῦμα,) is the same as that rendered spirit, as opposed to the letter, (τὸ 
γράμμα,) 2 Cor. iii. 6 ; and in its adverbial form, spiritually, (πνευμασικῶς,) 
Rev. xi. 8, it is to be distinguished from the term ζωή; properly rendered 
life, John i. 4, and v. 26. ‘The false prophet, or false interpreter, had~ 
power given him, (this office was assigned to him,) to cause the image of 
the beast to appear to have been created in accordance with the spiritual . 
sense of Scripture, and to appear to speak the spiritual sense ; appearing 
to have life in itself—that is, appearing to possess in itself the means of 
eternal life. As we may suppose the advocates of self-righteous views to 
claim for these views a certain refinement of ethics, to which they apply the 
appellation of spirituality, or perhaps of spiritual mindedness ; the appella- 
tion, nevertheless, being misapplied, and the views being in reality the 
dictate of the letter, and not of the spirit. This appearance is a part of the 


THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST. 279 


deception practised? by the false prophet, and so practised we may presume 
through the instrumentality of his two horns, or doctrinal powers, for he is 
not represented as possessed of any other weapons or instruments. By this 
delusion he causes all principles of faith or doctrine opposed to the service 
of the beast, or not tending to exalt the beast as an object of worship, to 
appear as dead works : figuratively speaking, he causes them to be killed— 
to appear to be void of spirituality, and inconsistent with the means of 
eternal life; the action of the false prophet upon the elements of true 
doctrine, being an opposite of that of the sword of the Spirit upon the 
wounded head of the first beast. As when Moses, the true prophet, the 
true interpreter of the will of God, performed certain real miracles in the 
presence of the king of Egypt, the magicians of the king (the false pro- 
phets) professed to perform precisely similar miracles ; it being given to 
them to delude the monarch and his court, that their hearts might be hard- 
ened, and that the purpose of God might be fulfilled. 

The first monster gives himself out as in the place of God ; or is made 
to appear as God, through the instrumentality of the second beast. The 
image of this monster we suppose to be the opposite of him who is declared 
to be the image of God, 2 Cor. iv. 4; the image of the invisible God, Col. 
i, 15; and the brightness of the glory, and the express image of the person 
of God, Heb. i. 3. We may define the image of God, spiritually, to be his 
righteousness, personified in Jesus Christ ; in whom dwelt all the fulness 
(perfection) of the Godhead bodily. On this account, while the disciple is 
said to bear the image of Christ, 1 Cor. xv. 49, being clothed by imputation 
with the moral perfection or righteousness of his Redeemer, he is also said 
to be conformed to the image of this image of God. The disciple thus, in 
and through Christ, being contemplated as clothed even with the righteous- 
ness of God himself—Jehovah our righteousness. 

The image of the beast, to be the opposite of this divine perfection, must 
be the righteousness or pretended perfection of man—the righteousness of 
self ; a conclusion similar to that before reached (ᾧ 310) by a different 
process. ‘To give life to this image is accordingly to cause this human 
righteousness to appear to be spiritually the image of God and not of man ; 
in other words, it is to cause the pretended moral perfection of man to be 
substituted for the real perfection of God. The false prophet, assuming this 
to be the just interpretation of the written word of revelation, causes all ele- 
ments of doctrine not subservient to the worship of this image of man’s 
righteousness, to be denounced as inconsistent with the means of eternal life. 
In like manner, perhaps, the speaking of the image of the beast may be 
defined to be what might be termed a speaking for itself; the false inter- 
pretation placing this element of self-righteousness in such a plausible 

27 


980 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


aspect as to cause it to argue as it were for the reasonableness of its own 
claims. 

This false interpretation, in effect, causes the opposing elements to be 
killed, but it is through the agency of the image that it does this; and the 
effect produced is a result apparently of the appearance of life or of spiritu- 
ality given to the image. It is given to the false prophet to give spirit to the 
image of the beast, in order that the image should both speak and cause that 
the subsequent idolatrous requisitions may appear as of the image and not of 
the prophet.* Self-righteousness (the image) under the sanction of pro- 
fessed spirituality, arguing its own cause, virtually revives the operation of 
the law, and thus causes the death, that is, the temporary deadness, of the 
elements of the gospel—we do not say destruction, because the terms 
destroy and destroyed imply annihilation. ‘The elements of truth cannot 
be annihilated ; so, those opposed to the worship of the image, although 
killed, may be presumed to be subsequently resuscitated. The speaking of 
the beast, its apparent spirituality, and its action in killing, we are to 


remember are things taking place in the sight of men only, not in the sight 
of God. 


Vs. 16,17. And he causeth all, both Kui ποιεῖ πάντας, τοὺς μικροὺς καὶ τοὺς 
small and great, rich and poor, free and 
bond, to receive a mark in their right 
hand, or in their foreheads; and that no of a Saas ; iy tee 
man [no one] might buy or sell, save he λους, ἐμή δῶσιν αὐτοῖς ΤΟ peice 
that had the mark, or the name of the χειρὸς αὐτῶν τῆς δεξιᾶς ἢ ἐπὲ τὸ μέτωπον 
beast, or the number of his name. αὐτῶν * καὶ ἵνα μή τις δύνηται ἀγοράσαι ἢ 


’ . 
μέγαλους, καὶ τοὺς πλουσίους καὶ τοὺς πτω- 
, \ ‘ > , 
χούς, καὶ τοὺς ἐλευϑέρους καὶ τοὺς dov- 


πωλῆσαι, εἰ μὴ ὃ ἔχων τὸ χάραγμα, τὸ ovo- 
μὰ τοῦ; ϑηρίου ἢ τὸν ἀριϑμὸν τοῦ ὀνόματος 
αὐτοῦ. 


§ 313. ‘And he causeth all,’ &c.;—or, and he moveth all. The 
Greek verb zoiew does not necessarily imply an external compulsion. In 
this, as well as in the twelfth verse, it is rendered in the Latin version of 
L. and G. by moveo. He moves the earth and its inhabitants that they 
should adore the first beast, so he moves them that a certain character or 
mark should be received by them. The influence of the false prophet, in 
causing the infliction of the mark, is something taking effect in the element 
itself, as by spontaneous action ; the officious sycophancy of the subject 
under the delusion of the false interpreter. leading to the ready perform- 
ance of an act of servility, which the sovereign himself alone might be sup- 


* As if we might suppose the courtiers of Nebuchadnezzar to have persuaded 
their monarch, and the people of Babylon, that the golden image of his setting up, 
itself required the destruction of those refusing to worship it; thus shielding the bar- 
barity of the contemplated persecution under the pretence of its being a requisition of 
the divinity. 


/ 
THE MARK OF THE BEAST. 281 


posed hardly to have required: a degree of sycophancy generally « the 
accompaniment of a mercenary and selfish motive of conduct. 

‘Small and great, rich and poor,’ &c.—The enumeration of these 
different classes may be designed only to give intensity to the term all. 
Possibly the verse may admit of a further analysis, but it appears sufficient 
to take these specifications altogether as indicating the peculiarity that, 
without exception, every principle or element belonging to the kingdom, 
system, or mystery of the beast, must exhibit the characteristic feature 
alluded to ; the influence producing this exhibition being in all cases that 
of the false prophet, through the instrumentality of his two horns or most 
prominent doctrines. 

The term rendered mark, χάραγμα, occurs in the New Testament only 
in the Apocalypse, and is not found at all in the Septuagint. The term 
χαρακτήρ, which approaches nearest to it, coming also from the same root, 
is met with but once in the New Testament, Heb. i. 3, and once in the 
Septuagint, Lev. xiii. 28. In Hebrews, it is applied to Jesus Christ as the 
character or express image of the Deity. In Leviticus, it designates a 
mark (cicatriv) attendant upon a certain stage of leprosy. As the term 
from which both these words are derived primitively expressed the action 
of digging a trench around’a camp, and was thence applied to the cutting 
or graving upon stone or metals, the leading idea to be associated with this 
mark is its almost indelible nature ; at the same time we may presume it to 
be not merely an arbitrary mark, but some peculiar expression of the lead- 
ing feature of the thing of which it bears the impression. It may be char- 
acteristic of the abject bondage peculiar to the kingdom of the beast, or of 
the blasphemy with which the principle of self is chargeable; or it may be 
some prominent feature of selfishness, or of want of gratitude to God, neces- 
sarily predominating in all the elements of the doctrinal system of this spirit 
of error. ‘ 

We find, from the next chapter, that the one hundred and forty-four 
thousand sealed ones are seen standing with the Lamb upon the Mount 
Zion. ‘This mount is part of the earth, and the one hundred and forty-four 
thousand were inhabitants of the earth at the time of their being sealed, but 
they cannot be amongst those who bear the mark of the beast. On the 
contrary, they have the name of the Father of the Lamb in their foreheads, 
—an opposite of the mark. They are exceptions to the general rule here, 
as they were before exempt from the action of the four angels, withholding 
the winds from blowing on the earth. The power and influence of the two 
beasts extends to all the dwellers upon the earth, but always with this ex- 
ception. 

The seal upon the foreheads of the chosen ones, we have supposed to be 
something bearing an analogy with the marks of the blood of the paschal 


282 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


lamb upon the door-posts of the houses of the Israelites ; this blood being 
a figure of the atonement of Christ—a memento of his vicarious interposition. 
If this seal and the Father’s name in the foreheads of the one hundred 
and forty-four thousand be identic, we may suppose these elements of truth 
to bear the impress of the new name, JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUS- 
NESS; a name having the-same protecting quality as that ascribed to the 
evidence of the vicarious sufferings of the Redeemer. Both figures or 
marks representing the same truths—every element of doctrine exhibiting 
a tendency to inculcate a reliance upon the means of salvation represented 
by either of them, bears as upon its front the seal of its intimate connection 
with the plan of sovereign grace. On the other hand, we suppose the mark 
of the beast to be put for the leading feature of elements of doctrine, of pre- 
cisely an opposite tendency ; the name of the beast being also an opposite 
of the new name just alluded to. Every element belonging to this system 
is to bear the mark in one or the other of these particulars. 

‘Tn their right hand, or in their foreheads.’-—The mark in the right hand 
may be a characteristic of action or tendency. ‘The mark in the forehead 
may be a mark of identity. The right hand of man may be taken as an 
opposite of the right hand of God ;—the right hand of God is his righteous- 
ness, (Is. xli. 10,) the power by which he saves’ The right hand of man 
may be put for man’s supposed or pretended righteousness. Every element 
of doctrine, accordingly, sustaining the principle of man’s salvation by his own 
merit, bears upon it the mark of the beast. So, as the seal of the Father’s 
name upon the foreheads of the one hundred and forty-four thousand ex- 
hibits the identity of the principles thus sealed with the divine word or 
purpose, the name (perhaps self) in the foreheads of the subjects of 
the beast, may be supposed to designate the identity of every selfish, and 
mercenary, and vainglorious principle, with the ruling element setting itself 
up in the heart of man in the place of Jehovah. 

The subjects of the beast are marked in the right hand, as well as in the 
forehead ; the chosen ones of Jehovah are sealed only in their foreheads. 
Under the economy of grace, the disciple needs no other power than that 
of the right hand of his God and Saviour. If he have the mark ‘of iden- 
tity, or of adoption, it is all that is required. Under the economy of works, 
man depends upon his own right hand, as well as upon the character of his 
faith: as it is said, Ps. cxliv. 8, Their right hand (their professed means of 
deliverance) is a right hand of falsehood. In this state of dependence, we 
may suppose him to be met with the requisition of the false interpreter, that 
every element of doctrine belonging to the system of self-justification must 
bear, as on the right hand, the characteristic of self, self-love, or selfishness. 

§ 314. ‘And that no man (no one) might buy or sell.’—Here it is im- 
plied that buying and selling constitute the universal occupation of these 


THE MARK OF THE BEAST. 283 


dwellers on the earth. All belonging to the kingdom of the beast, high and 
low, rich and poor, are engaged in traffic—all are actuated by the merce- 
nary motive of getting gain. To cut them, or any of them, off from this 
privilege, is equivalent to depriving them of the rights of citizenship, and 
even of the means of sustaining life ; still more of the means of accumula- 
ting riches either for purposes of ransom, for their immediate gratification, or 
for promoting their future glory. In like manner, under the influence of the 
false prophet, no doctrine is deemed efficient in pointing out the way of eter- 
nal life, and of entering into the glory of a future state, unless it bear the 
mark or stamp of this blasphemous principle in its avowed character, or in 
its virtual tendency. 

We find nothing said of buying or selling, or getting gain, in connection 
with the New Jerusalem. There all avocations of toil or labour cease, and 
there (in the economy of grace) no mercenary motive of action finds a 
place. Babylon on the contrary, as we shall see hereafter, is distinguished 
for her commercial avocations ; and that great city we suppose to be but 
another figure of the kingdom of this ten-horned beast. The dwellers 
upon the earth we take to be the elements of a system of which all the 
principles are of a mercenary character—making a gain of Godliness ; every 
motive of obedience urged upon the disciple being grounded upon calcula- 
tions of profit and loss, present or future. Consequently, every motive or 
principle, not bearing this mark of selfishness—not having the glory and in- 
terest of self in view—is virtually deprived of its franchise in this system, 
or kingdom, influenced, as the system is, by the mode of interpreting reve- 
lation adopted by, or rather represented by, the false prophet; this in- 
fluence being part of the deception practised by the second beast, and the 
means by which from the beginning he causes the dwellers upon the earth 
to worship the first beast through the image of their own creation. 

‘Save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number 
of his name.’—Here there appears to be three grades or classes of this pe- 
culiar characteristic of the beast: the mark, (χάραγμα,) the name, and the 
number of the name. Some editions of the Greek, however, omit the first 
disjunctive particle 7, (or,) so as to leave room to suppose the two last 
classes or grades to be in apposition to the first;—as if it were said, Save 
he that had the mark, that is, the name of the beast, or the number of his 
name ; the mark comprehending the other two particulars. So, Rev. xiv. 
9, the mark in the forehead or hand seems to be given for name and num- 
ber, both or either; and Rev. xiv. 11, the mark of his name is spoken of as 
identifying name and mark. Again, Rev. xv. 2, the mark and the number 
of the name only are mentioned, leaving us to suppose the mark to be put 
for the name itself; while, Rev. xvi. 2, xix. 20, and xx. 4, the mark alone 
is mentioned, apparently, as equivalent to all three of the terms, Unless 


284 - THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


we can find, therefore, some meaning for the mark distinct from that of the 
name, we should be inclined to think the first 7 (or), above alluded to, 
rightly omitted in the Greek edition from which we copy ; the mark, name, 
and number, being but three ways of expressing the same characteristic, 
and neither of the terms being designed to be understood in a literal sense, 
any more than those of the forehead and hand. ΑἹ] of them apply to some 
remarkable characteristic of doctrinal elements, exhibiting, as soon as their 
true nature is exposed, the mark of the beast—the mark of something blas- 
phemous in its pretensions, destructive in its tendency, and essentially un- 
clean in the spiritual sense of the term.* 

Allusions to this name continue to be made, as we have noticed, as far 
as the twentieth chapter; we shall, therefore, have occasion hereafter to 
advert to it further. Meantime we may remark, that, as it is an opposite of the 
name Jehovah, we may also consider it an opposite of the name Immanuel, 
God with us, and equally an opposite of the name Jesus. Of the first it is 
said, Ps. exlvii. 13, Let them praise the name of Jehovah ; for his name 
alone is excellent. The false prophet’s interpretation is, that the name of 
the beast is excellent. Of the second it is said, Is. ix. 6, It shall be called 
Wonderful, the Counsellor, &c. ; whereas, according to the false prophet, the 
name of the beast is the wonderful, and mighty name. Of the third the 
apostle says, Col. iii. 17, Whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the 
name of the Lord Jesus. In the kingdom of the beast nothing is done but 
what pertains to buying and selling; the exaction of the false prophet is, 
therefore, equivalent to a requisition exactly counter to the injunction of 
the apostle Paul. The false interpreter, by the mark in the forehead or 
hand, requires every thing, in word or deed, to be done in the name of the 
beast. The follower of Jesus does every thing in the name of his master, 
that all the honour and glory of what is done may be ascribed to that 
master, that God in all things may be glorified. The subject of the beast, 
on the contrary, by the misconstruction of the false prophet, (through the 
instrumentality of his two doctrinal powers,) is prevailed upon to do all in 


* The leading idea to be associated with the Scripture term wnelean, &c., is that 
of miature, or adulteration. Doctrinal principles, systems of faith, modes of inter- 
pretation, Antichrist, and the spirit of error, are all, we apprehend, of this character 
of adulteration; corresponding with the definition of Suicerus of the Greek term 
applied to the misinterpretation of Jezebel, as well as to that of the contents of the har- 
lot’s cup, Rev. xvii. 4: Πορνένα, proprié notat commixtionem eorum qui extra conju- 
gium vivant. We think it important to keep this discrimination in view, because the 
error represented by the crime is one chargeable not merely upon infidels, but rather 
upon professed disciples. It is not so much the vice of a skeptical as of an erroneous 
system of faith which ‘possesses this peculiar character of impurity. Hence the anti- 
Christian elements depicted in this chapter, are both of them represented by animals 
Levitically unclean as well as naturally ferocious and destructive. 


. THE NUMBER OF THE NAME. 285 


the name of self, that to his own self may be ascribed the glory and 
honour of what he is enabled to perform. 


V.18. Here is wisdom. at him that * 28e ἣ σοφία ἐστίν" ὃ ἔχων γοῖν ψηφι- 
hath understanding count the number of gira τὸν ἀριϑμὸν τοὺ ϑηρίου" ἀριϑμὸ 
Ἄρτα ᾿ ς 

the beast: for it is the number of a man; ov ig hie 
and his number (is) Six hundred three- 7 Ὁ 
score (and) six. χὲς. 


‘ > ~ 
γὰρ ἀνθρώπου ἐστί, καὶ ὃ ἀριϑμὸς αὐτοῦ 


‘Here is wisdom.’—An intimation of a hidden or mystic meaning— 
something requiring a particular kind of wisdom to be understood ; a wisdom 
peculiar to the subject—wisdom in a spiritual sense—the wisdom of God 
in a mystery—the hidden wisdom, spoken of by Paul, 1 Cor. i. 6, 7, 8. 

‘Let him that hath understanding. —This understanding must be also 
of the same kind as the wisdom. An ability to discern the spiritual sense 
of revelation—the deep things of God, which it is said the Spirit searcheth. 
«ς Howbeit,” says Paul, “we speak wisdom among them that are perfect (in 
faith) ; yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world,” τῶν 
ἀρχόντων τοῦ αἰώνος τούτου. Not in the words, he adds, which man’s wisdom 
teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. Not the didacties of human 
wisdom, but those of the Spirit—the spiritual understanding. The natural 
or physical man, he says, (the man that understands what is said of the 
mysteries of the gospel in an ordinary sense,) receives not—comprehends not 
—the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, (the 
ravings of madness :) neither can he know them, because they are spiritually 
discerned, (1 Cor. 11. 6-15.) 

An allusion to a change of views in this particular seems to be made by 
the prophet, Is. xxix. 24: “ They also that erred in spirit shall come to 
understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.” So Daniel 
had understanding in all visions and dreams, being able to give the hidden 
meaning from the external indication of it. Solomon also had a wise and 
an understanding heart, especially we think in reference to matters of reli- 
gious doctrine; as the whole tenor of the Canticles, and a multitude of 
allusions in his proverbial sayings, might be brought to testify. Paul prays 
for the Ephesians, that the eyes of their understandings may be enlightened: 
and this, not in order that they may be converted to the Christian faith, 
but because they are already converted; and being now disciples and fol- 
lowers of Christ, it is desirable for them (as it is their privilege) to become 
acquainted with the mysteries of their faith. ‘The same apostle’s prayer for 
the Colossians, also, was that they might be filled with the knowledge of the 
will of God in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, συνέσι πνευματικὴ, (Col. 
i. 9;) the word translated understanding signifying a concurrence, as of 
two streams running together, or as two persons may concur in seeing an 
object in the same light; and, as Paul expresses himself elsewhere, “‘ We 


986 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


have the mind of Christ: we contemplate matters of revelation in the 
light in which they are contemplated by him. Such we suppose to be the 
wisdom and understanding called for in the passage before us. 
‘Count the number of the beast. —The number no doubt spoken of in 
the preceding verse, as the number of the name of the beast. We find 
nothing like this number of a name, or of a beast or man in any other part 
of the sacred writings ; neither do we find any thing to contrast with it as 
an opposite, unless it be the number one hundred and forty-four thousand 
of the sealed ones ; the verb τηφίζω, rendered count, occurring only in one 
other passage of the New ‘Testament, where it is applied to calculating the 
cost of a building, Luke xiv. 28. The verb is not met with at all in the 
Septuagint. Its root, ψῆφος, is the appellation of a small stone employed 
in balloting, Acts xxvi. 10: “I gave my voice (χατήνεγκα ψῆηον, | 
brought forth a ballot) against them.” It is also employed in the appellation 
of the white stone, upon which the new name is written, and which may 
afford an example of a ballot, the opposite of that mentioned by Paul; the 
two examples reminding us of the white and black balls in use on some 
occasions in balloting at the present day. The term wiqog is employed in 
the Septuagint, Eccl. vil. 25, where our common version renders it, standing 
in connection as it does with wisdom, by the reason of things. We find it 
nowhere else in the Septuagint, except Ex. iv. 25, where it is applied to a 
stone in the ordinary sense. Amongst the Greeks, the appellation ψῆφος 
was given to a mode of divination with pebbles, properly called ϑριαί; and 
the art or practice of legerdemain with pebbles was termed τρηφοπαιξία, and 
a practitioner in this art ψηφοπαίχτης, (vid. Donnegan’s Lex.) ‘The deriv- 
ative ψήφισμα, expresses in the Septuagint a decree of fate, the supposed 
result of the lot, "2 pur, cast by Haman ;* being thus the translation of a 
Persian term strictly magical, (Β nomen vow Persica ; χλῆρος, sors; χή- 
φισμα, decretum, Trommii Index Heb. et Chald.) The mode of divination 
above alluded to, having been probably borrowed from the practices of the 
Eastern magi or astrologers, whence the pretended science of later times, 
denominated Arithmomancy or Arithmaney, a pretended method of fore- 
telling future events by means of numbers. The ordinary Greek term for 
counting is ἀριϑμέω, as Matt. x. 30, “The hairs of your head are all count- 
ed,” or numbered, ἠριϑμημέναι εἰσί. 
Taking all these peculiarities into view, we think the word count, in this 
passage, (ψηφισάτω,) is designed to carry with it a mystic or cabalistic allu- 


* The account given of Haman in the book of Esther furnishes an example of the 
authority and functions of an eastern prime minister, or grand vizier; and so far 
affords an illustration of the office of the sccond beast: not a sovereign himself, but 
exercising all the power of his sovereign; abusing that power, and hypocritically 
sanctioning this abuse, by causing it to appear as a dictate of divine will. 


THE NUMBER OF THE NAME. 287 


sion, something different from a mere arithmetical calculation ; as if it had 
been said, alluding to the astrologers of the East, the soothsayers of the 
Greeks and Romans, or the cabalists of the Jews,* Here is real wisdom! 
as in contradistinction to the wisdom of these pretenders ; here is a real 
mystery, as distinguished from their pretended mysteries ; here is a nwnber, 
under which there is really something of importance concealed ; a number, 
the counting or casting of which is really worthy the attention of those who 
have, or profess to have, understanding in these matters. Here is a num- 
ber really given, from which the purport of the divine mind, in a certain 
particular, may be ascertamed. Let those who have the true understanding 
turn their attention to this number. 

ᾧ 316. ‘ For it is the number of a man, and his number (is) six hundred 
threescore (and) six ;’—or, it is the number of man, or of the man ; or, it 
is a number of man, and the number of it, or of him, that is, of the beast, is 
six hundred and sixty-six—y&c’. 

We suppose the term man to be as figurative as the term beast ; both of 
them in the Apocalypse being put for a principle, or something of that 
nature. The number six hundred and sixty-six is usually supposed to 
express the name of a person or thing ; each letter of which, according to 
the ancient mode of representing numbers by letters of the alphabet, possesses 
a certain arithmetical value, the aggregate value of all of the letters of the 
name constituting this mystic sum. Various calculations have been made 
upon this hypothesis, showing the different mames to which this number 
may be applied. Calmet enumerates fourteen of these, (art. Antichrist 5) 
others have been since made by more modern writers. We do not pre- 
tend to decide upon any of them ; believing that the real character of the 
beast is to be discovered from other data, and that this number, if used in 
the way proposed, is to be so only in proof of the correctness of the de- 
ductions made from other particulars in the character and history of the 
animal. 

The figures of Scriptural language appear often to be governed by the 
chain of thought incident to the subject under consideration. The system 
or mystery of the beast is represented as a kingdom under the dominion of 
an absolute sovereign. ‘The mercenary and selfish character of the system 
is represented by the universal avocation of the subjects of this kingdom— 


* The cabalist Rabbins are said to have studied principally the combinations of 
particular words, letters, and numbers, expecting to discover by these means the 
sense of certain difficult passages of Scripture. The artificial Cabala is of three 
kinds: of these the Cabala Gematry “consists in taking the letters of a Hebrew 
word for arithmetical numbers, and explaining every word by the arithmetical value 
of the letters composing it.”—(See Calmet Dict. art. Cabala and Cabalists.) 


988 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


the business of buying and selling. ‘The idea of buying and selling suggests 
the idea of the use of coin as an instrument of traffic. The use of the 
metallic medium gives rise to the idea of the legalization of coin ; and this 
we may suppose brings forward an allusion to the custom of the Romans in 
this particular in the time of the apostles. 

Coining, amongst the Hebrews, does not seem to have been introduced 
till about the time of the Maccabees; and even then, it is said, the Jews 
were particularly careful to avoid stamping their money with the image of 
any earthly object. Amongst the Greeks, it was first adopted by Alexander 
the Great, who is said to have put the image of his horse upon some of his 
coins. Amongst the Romans, in the time of the republic, coming was a 
privilege enjoyed and availed of by the richer citizens, whose name or mark 
was impressed upon the pieces of money they issued, as a kind of warranty 
of their value, but no one was permitted to stamp such coin with his own 
image ; Julius Cesar being the first to whom this distinction was allotted. 
Subsequent to his time, and of course under all the Cesars, the money 
receivable by government appears to have borne the impress of the reign- 
ing monarch, if not that of his predecessors ; corresponding with what 
is said of the tribute money, Matt. xxii. 20, 21, ‘“‘ Whose is this image, 
and superscription? They say unto him, Cesar’s.” That the prime minis- 
ter of a despotic prince should induce his master to issue an edict that no 
coin should pass current, or be used in traffic, but such as bore the image 
and superscription or name¥of the monarch, is an idea which it is easy to 
suppose might have been familiar with persons of all classes, at the time 
when this Apocalypse was written. An illustration, accordingly, drawn 
from such a supposed enactment would be readily comprehended.* 

The false prophet had caused his master to become an object of the 
most servile adoration ; if not directly, at least indirectly, through the wor- 
ship of his image. Not satisfied with this, he causes the exercise of sove- 
reign power over the circulating medium of his country to be carried to its 
utmost extent; requiring every element of that medium to bear the mark 
or image, or number of the despot, without which it is of no avail as a 
representative of value. A figure the more striking, when we consider that 
from a very early period this exercise of sovereignty has been coveted, for the 
purpose of enablingdespotic rulers to raise a revenue, and so to augment their 
power by giving a fictitious value to debased coin ; arbitrarily obliging their 
subjects to attach more importance to the mark of the prince than to the 


* One of the Roman emperors is said to have refused the tribute money of a sub- 
jugated nation, because it was not paid in his own coin. Not bearing his image and 
superscription, and being the coin of another, it seemed to derogate from his au- 
thority over his tributaries.—(Vid. Charlestown Ed. Calmet. Frag., No. 92.) 


THE NUMBER OF THE NAME. 289 


purity of the metal ;—governments having learned only of later years, and 
in the more civilized countries of Christendom, the important lesson in this 
particular, that for them as well as for their subjects honesty is the best 
policy. 

The Mahometans, like the Jews, scrupulously avoid the exhibition upon 
their coin of any image or picture of natural objects. ‘The coined money 
of the Turks to this day, instead of bearing the image of the Grand Seignor, 
is stamped with a fac simile of his sign manual, or with certain letters or 
characters equivalent to a designation of his name or title, and the date of 
the issue. As the coin of the Romans was legalized by the image and 
superscription of the ruler, that of eastern countries is so by the letters of 
the name or title of the sovereign. Amongst the Persians, it is said, 
(Chambers’s Dict.,) no gold coin is stamped except in the first year of the 
monarch’s reign; and if we were disposed to keep the idea of time in view, 
this number of the beast, six hundred and sixty-six, might be supposed to 
designate the date of the commencement of his reign ; from which era the 
twelve hundred and sixty years might be calculated. But we think the 
reasons are too strong for rejecting any literal idea of time in this matter ; 
and we are rather inclined to think, if the figure contemplated be that of 
coin, that the number six hundred and sixty-six on the coin is susceptible 
of being converted into a name of some principle which, when ascertained, 
will serve as a seal to a correct interpretation of the whole of this portion of 
revelation. We may suppose a certain prince to cause a part of his coin 
to bear the impress of his image, another part the impress of his name, and 
another part to be stamped with certain characters equal to a given number, 
which at the same time is equivalent to the sum of the letters of his name, 
or of one of his names; these letters, as amongst the Greeks and eastern 
nations in the time of the apostles, answering the double purpose of arith- 
metical and alphabetical characters. The law of the realm in the domi- 
nions of the prince supposed, in conformity with this arrangement of the 
mint, may thus be imagined to prohibit the use of any coin in the acquisition 
of riches, or even in the payment of a ransom, unless it bear one or the 
other of these three impressions, all or either of which may be denominated 
the mark of the prince. 

Analogous with this, the first beast being taken for the controlling prin- 
ciple of a blasphemous and mercenary system, (his kingdom ;) the false 
prophet, or second beast, fora false interpretation ; and riches being a figure 
of the means of eternal life; we may suppose the whole of this account to 
represent the effect of an erroneous literal or carnal interpretation of revealed 
truth, tending to establish a doctrinal system, every principle of which 
must necessarily be impressed with the characteristic of self or selfishness, 


990 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. Γ 


as a sine qua non, without which it is deemed of no avail in this supposed 
system of salvation. In this construction the change of figure, from the 
subjects of the prince bearmg his mark in their foreheads or in their right 
hands, to the circulating medium of his dominions, is no more sudden or 
extraordinary than the change in the case of the Euphratean angels, and 
in that of the war in heaven, already noticed ; changes of figure so entirely 
wanting in premonition being consistent with the composition of a vision, 
and perhaps with that of a vision only. 

Whether the name or number of the beast,  ietiet be expressed on a 
piece of coin or otherwise, or whatever the allusion may be in this figure, the 
difficulty in understanding what the number (six hundred and sixty-six) 
imports, still remains. Here we must keep our opinions in suspense till the 
proper moment of development arrives. As it is said, 1 Cor. iv. 5, “ 'There- 
fore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who will bring to 
light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of 
the hearts ;”—the moving principles of action. While we keep our judg- 
ments in suspense, however, we are to search the Scriptures to investigate 


and to examine ; comparing spiritual things with spiritual: remembering 


that the things of the Spirit of God, which are foolishness to those who 
understand them literally, are to be spiritually discerned ; and, consequently, 
their proper spiritual sense is to be sought for: and as this sense is to be 
gathered from the literal expression or allusion, it is important for us to ascer- 
tain correctly what this literal expression or allusion is ; and this, perhaps, 
in the case before us, is all that we can do at present. 

The words rendered in our common version, ‘“ Let him that hath under- 
standing count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and 
his number is six hundred and sixty-six,” might equally be rendered, as 
already intimated, “‘ Let him that hath understanding count, or cast, the 
number of the beast, for it is a number of man, and the number of him (that 
” the number of the beast 
being explained in the previous chapter as the number of the name of the 


is, of the beast) is six hundred and sixty-six ; 


beast ; that is, if we get at the right meaning of the number it will give us 
the name of the beast; and this name will correspond with a number of 
man, or with the number of a name of man. The several letters of this 
name of man having each, according to the ancient mode of representing 
numbers already alluded to, a certain numerical value, the sum of the let- 
ters will give the number, showing who or what the real beast is ; thus 
confirming or setting aside the suppositions. originating from other indica- 
tions. Jf, for example, we should find a generic name of man, the letters 
of which amounted to the sum of six hundred and sixty-six, such a naine 
would correspond very nearly with our suggestion, that self (man’s self or 


ee | 


THE NUMBER OF THE NAME. 291 


something like it) is the blasphemous beast, setting up a kingdom in the 
human heart, or establishing a system of faith in opposition to JEHOVAH, 
and sustained in this rebellious action by what we may term a literal or 
carnal construction of the written word of revelation. For if we suppose 
every man’s self to be his own saviour, we do in effect elevate man to the 
position supposed to be assumed by the beast, or to be given to him by the 
false prophet. 

We have not, however, yet found the name of man here supposed. Our 
remarks, therefore, must be taken as they are intended, merely as sugges- 
tions, and our judgment of.the designation to be given to the ten-horned 
beast must be still suspended ; except, indeed, that he may be safely iden- 
tified, we think, with the man of sin of Paul, and the Antichrist or spirit of 
error of John. 

The apostle John in his first epistle (1 John 11. 18-22) speaks of many 
Antichrists, and gives us (ch. iv. 1-6) marks or tokens by which they may 
be discerned. From all these it appears that by the term Antichrist he 
means the spirit of an anti-evangelical doctrine ; and he alludes especially to 
the spirit of error, as something intimately connected with that of Anti- 
christ which should come, and perhaps as identic with it. The spirit of 
error, τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς πλάνης, or spirit of delusion or deception, must nearly 
resemble in its action the false prophet or two-horned beast of Revelation ; 
the term which as a substantive is rendered by error in the epistle, being 
the same as that which as a verb is applied to the deception of the false 
prophet in the Apocalypse. This suggests to us the probability that the 
same mystery of iniquity which is spoken of in the epistles of both apostles 
as the action of one spirit of delusion, may be represented in the Apoca- 
lypse by the action of three several figures: fhe first beast, the false pro- 
phet, and the harlot. So the first beast with seven heads, taking seven for 
a sign of totality, (δ 9,) may represent all Antichrists, or false Christs ; 
the blasphemous element of self-exaltation, self-justification, or self-redemp- 
tion exhibiting itself in a variety of forms. 

The action of the second beast or false prophet in his misinterpretation 
of Scripture, it will be perceived, corresponds very nearly with that ascribed 
to the tail of the dragon, (¢ 273,) in dragging the stars of heaven down to 
earth, and so far coinciding with the scriptural definition of a false inter- 
preter: The prophet that speaketh lies, he is the tail. In other words, the 
two-horned beast from the earth and the tail of the dragon are identic ; the 
last probably, like the tails of the Euphratean horse and those of the scor- 
pion-locusts, carrying with it the sting of the serpent; the false interpre- 
tation tending to bring the disciple back to his position under the law, and 
exposing him to the sting of death. 


292 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


We have thus gone through with the description of the first and second 
beast in the full exercise of their powers ; and here the narrative leaves them 
for the present. We are to suppose this exercise of power to continue for 
the period designated in the fifth verse of the chapter, forty-two months, 
whatever is to be understood by that period as an apocalyptic term of time. 
Our attention will hereafter be called to the termination of their power, and 
the character of their end. 


RETROSPECT. 


§ 317. In the preceding remarks we have supposed the first beast 
spoken of in this chapter to represent the element or principle of SELF ; 
but this, as we wish it to be understood, is only by way of approximation, to 
give a facility to the illustration of our views; as, in a mathematical demon- 
stration by algebraic process, a letter, x for example, is assumed as the 
sum or answer sought for. The appellation does not exactly meet our 
wishes, and, as already intimated, we are not yet sufficiently advanced in 
the history of these two extraordinary animals to give a decided opinion 
respecting them; and perhaps the time has not yet arrived when a perfect 
development of their characters is to be expected. ‘The discovery of the 
name of the ten-horned beast would, perhaps, involve an entire exposition 
of the spirit of error, of which we suppose this beast to be the moving 
principle—such an exposition of error, involving an equally entire exposi- 
tion of truth; which last is to be expected, we apprehend, only at the 
epoch spoken of as the day of the Lord: of course, till that time the name 
of the beast must remain amongst the Azdden things, then only to be brought 
to light, (1 Cor. iv. 5.) 

At present, in respect to the first beast, we content ourselves with re- 
verting to some of the particulars before commented upon, by way of fixing 
in our minds the stage of development at which we have arrived, prior to 
the change of scene taking place at the commencement of the next chapter. 

Of the second beast, there are some peculiarities mentioned in this 
chapter which are not again adverted to, and which it appears necessary 
to enlarge upon more fully here, that our meaning may be better under- 
stood. 

The first beast emanates from the element of wrath or of legal appre- 
hension, (the sea.) We do not mean to say that se/foriginates from that ele- 
ment; but we think that this principle obtains its exaltation, or is made to 
appear the author of its own salvation, by that apprehension of the wrath of 
divine justice which originates from the supposition that the sinner is to work 
out his own salvation, as under the law, by his own merits,—to justify and 


Oe 


RETROSPECT. ᾿ 293 


redeem himself by works of righteousness, which he has done; the terrors 
of the law misapplied leading the disciple into the delusive effort of going 
about to justify or to redeem himself, and thereby virtually causing a blas- 
phemous exaltation of self. Accordingly, the seven heads of the beast 
represent seven pretensions, or, as a figure of totality, all the pretensions of 
self; being opposites, perhaps, of the seven spirits before the throne, and 
the seven horns and seven eyes of the Lamb. So the beast employs the ten 
horns, or powers of the law, the decalogue being put for the whole law, 
the power wielded in asserting the prerogative of self. Not that there is any 
thing in the law, in its own nature, to countenance this exaltation of self: on 
the contrary, the law lawfully used convinces of sin ; but it is the illegal use 
of the law,—the pretension that it is to be fulfilled by man, which causes it 
to appear to be a weapon or power of se/f. So these horns of the beast’ 
are crowned with diadems, and not the heads, because the attribute of sove- 
reignty claimed by self, is supposed to be derived from the operation of the 
law ; the real power being in the law represented by the horns, and not in 
the pretensions represented by the heads. It is accordingly these last 
which bear the name of blasphemy, as they in effect assume for self an 
equality with God. 

The first beast had a leopard skin, appearing in a spotted raiment, an 
opposite of the white linen or righteousness of the saints, without spot ;— 
self being arrayed in a garment of salvation not entirely of its own merits, 
but of a mixed character, (hypocritically ;) as the deluded disciple, profess- 
ing to depend upon Christ alone, claims, notwithstanding, to be arrayed 
partly in his own merit, and partly in that of his Saviour. For we suppose 
the blasphemous principle represented by the beast to be something exhibiting 
itself in the Christian church, nominally such—something resting its claims 
upon a perversion of gospel revelation ; not a thing entirely irrespective of 
it. Not that se/fis in its own nature an amalgam; for if it appeared in its 
true character the colour of its array would be entirely the opposite of white ; 
but apocalyptically. when revealed, its pretensions have this spotted or 
mixed appearance ; this mixture at the same time being of a blasphe- 
mous character, because any pretension even of the partial efficiency of 
man’s righteousness in the process of salvation, is virtually a division of 
the glory of that salvation with Him, who has declared that He will not 
divide this glory with another. 

Armed as this monster se/f is with the powers of the law, he utters the 
denunciations of justice with the voice or mouth of the lion, possessing at 
the same time the power, and occupying the position, and discharging the 
functions, of the legal accuser. 

Taking all these features into consideration, we suppose the beast to 
represent an opposite of Christ, the Lamb without spot; something sub- 


294 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


stituting itself in the place of him who was God manifest in the flesh; as 
a disciple claiming to be saved by virtue of his own righteousness, and his 
own holiness, although professedly a Christian, in effect places himself in 
his own heart or mind in the position of his divine Redeemer. 

§ 318. The construction above adopted appears to be confirmed by 
the consideration that the beast not only appeared with seven heads, or 
seven blasphemous pretensions, but also that one of these heads, especially, 
appeared as having been slain in sacrifice, and again restored to life ; which 
characteristic of the head is afterwards identified with the whole beast ; 
showing that one of his blasphemous pretensions consisted in the assump- 
tion of an equality with Him who died for our sins. and was raised for our 
justification,—who declares himself in the vision to have been dead, and 
yet to be alive for evermore, (Rev. i. 18.) This beast professes to have 
performed the same propitiatory work ;—like Christ, or rather instead of 
Christ, having more than satisfied the demands of infinite justice ; on which 
account it seems to have been wondered after by all the world, with the 
admiring interrogative, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make 
war with him ?—implying a belief in the power of the beast, by virtue of 
this slaughtered and resuscitated head, to overcome the accuser ;* for we are 
not to suppose the world cognitive of the fact, that the beast derives his power 
from the accuser: this is a mystery known only to those who see as John 
saw, in spirit, and in a heavenly position. ‘The world supposes the beast to be 
its champion in the contest with the dragon; as he who confides in his own 
righteousness looks upon his own self as the object of trust in the great 
work of legal justification ; not considering that this self, from the very 
position which it occupies, must be an agent or instrument of the element 


* We do not propose to point out decidedly the signification to be attached to this 
wounded head ; but we suppose, for illustration, that, of seven heads or leading prin- 
ciples in the process of se/f-eraltation, the element of repentance or penitence, erro- 
neously contemplated, may be considered the more than sufficient atonement offered 
by the beast; the apparent triumphant sufficiency of this element being that which 
excites the wonder of the world, and which gives the error its currency in human 
estimation. ᾿ 

There may be a variety of ways in which this element is exhibited, from the self- 
inflicted flagellations of the hermit of the desert, to the more refined mental self-mor- 
tification of those who, in later times and in more enlightened regions, go mourning 
all their days. The error being the same in all, if this exercise of mind or body be 
put for propitiation, or be substituted as an object of faith or trust, in place of the 
atonement of Christ. The world we may say has been carried away with the same 
false estimate of the power of this element of man’s righteousness, from the time 
when the wilds of Africa bore testimony to the well-meant but mistaken seclusion of 
_ early Christians, to the present day, when the sombre, subdued aspect of the devotee 
tells of the atoning sacrifice he is endeavouring to work out for himself by his own 
voluntary humiliation, mental or corporeal.—( Vid. Col. ii. 23.) 


Ὁ RETROSPECT. ἢ φοῦ 


of accusation, With these assumptions and pretensions se/f is enabled to 
overcome the elements of gospel truth, (the saints or holy ones,) for a cer 

tain season ; and all on the earth, with a certain exception only, are said to 
worship him. So we may say, almost literally, that the error of self-righteous- 
ness or of self-dependence, in the matter of salvation, is the predominant error 
of mankind ; man, almost universally, making himself in effect the object of 
his own adoration. The representation, however, in the present case, we 
suppose to be confined to the predominance of the error in contemplation 
especially in the visible Christian church, symbolized by the seven churches ; 
to which churches the whole revelation is inscribed, and for the edification 
of which the vision is committed to writing: “* For what have I to do,” says 
Paul, “with them that are without—them that are without God judgeth,” 
1-Cor. v. 12, 13. 

This predominance of self we suppose to be something of a universal 
character in the visible church—something arising from, or sanctioned by, a 
misconstruction or misinterpretation of divine revelation, and of course to 
be found where that revelation is found. As we may say, those whe have 
never seen the Scriptures can know nothing of the misconstruction to which 
they are liable: as it is also where Christ is preached that Antichrists 
make their appearance. The man ofsin seating himself in the temple of 
God; not taking up his abode where there is no such temple: the tares 
growing amongst the wheat, not in a field by themselves ; so, wherever the 
visible church of Christ is to be found, there the spzrzt of error will also be 
found insinuating itself in a greater or less degree; and this we are not to 
confine to any particular sect, or denomination of Christianity. 

ᾧ 319. Although from a perusal of the first part of this chapter the ten- 
horned beast appears to exercise his power and authority, as of himself and 
by his own acts; yet, by comparing this account with that given in the 
latter part of the chapter of the second beast, it is evident that all that is 
done by the first is through the agency of the second. It is the two-horned 
beast which causeth the first beast to be worshipped; it is by the delusion 
or deception practised by the second beast, that all the world is led to 
wonder after the first beast, that the saints or holy ones are overcome, that 
an image of the first beast is created as an object of adoration, and that all 
are caused to be subservient to the first beast. 

This second beast has two horns, and these two horns we suppose to be 
two powers by which he acts,—the instruments with which he performs his 
wonders, and by which all his functions are discharged. As we take the 
ten horns of the first beast to represent the decalogue—the whole law con- 
stituting his power—so we suppose the two horns of the second beast to be 
two doctrinal powers ; and as these two horns are said to be like those of a 
lamb, or of the lamb, we suppose them to represent two leading doctrines; 
28 


296 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


in appearance seeming to be two important doctrines of the gospel, or of 
Christ, but only so in appearance. They are not in fact the two horns of 
a lamb, but they are really two horns of a ferocious, destructive, and un- 
clean animal; an animal speaking in effect the language of a dragon, or of 
the dragon or accuser, while it affects the countenance of a lamb ; its 
power, its ability to delude, depending upon its appearing to have two horns 
like the Lamb. 

We have a key to the character of this beast, which we lack m the de- 
scription given of the other. The two-horned beast throughout the re- 
mainder of the book is uniformly termed the false prophet, and this so 
manifestly in connection with the first beast that there can be no mistake 
respecting him. This false prophet, (as we feel no difficult in averring,) 
must be a false interpretation or construction ; consequently, his two horns 
are two doctrines, or doctrinal powers, peculiar to, and growing out of this 
false construction. As the horns of an animal emanate from its head, so 
these two doctrines emanate from the leading principle of the false construc- 
tion or misinterpretation of revealed truth, represented by this second 
beast. The power of the first beast is exercised through the agency of the 
second ; so we suppose the exaltation and deification of self to be the result 
of a certain misconstruction of revealed truth; and as we may suppose the 
second beast could not act his part without the instrumentality of his two 
horns—his only weapons—so this misconstruction, or false interpretation, 
could not effect its blasphemous exaltation of self, nor cause its marks of 
subserviency to be inflicted upon the subordinate elements subjected to its 
control, if it were not for these two pseudo doctrinal powers—powers having 
the appearance of two important and leading doctrines of the gospel, but in 
reality widely differing from them. 

ᾧ 320. The real Lamb was seen, Rev. v. 6, to have seven horns and 
seven eyes, declared to be the seven spirits of God. The Spirit of God we 
suppose to be an expression nearly equivalent to the powerof God. These 
seven spirits then are powers ($ 137) qualifying the Lamb for opening the 
sealed book. The horns of the Lamb might indeed be considered powers of 
salvation ; but we cannot suppose the salvation of the sinner through Christ 
to be effected by seven distinct powers, or even operations ; we may, however, 
consider the one power of salvation exhibited and allustrated by seven dif- 
ferent operations, all resulting in the same effect. ‘These horns of the real 
Lamb may be considered seven different powers of illustration, by which the 
mystery of Christ’s salvation is exemplified and brought home to the under- 
standing of the disciple. They may be properly considered the weapons 
or instruments by which he developes the contents of the sealed book, and 
may be thus appropriately styled doctrinal powers. Christ is the only way 
of salvation, and the only way of being saved is to be ἐμ Christ,—to be 


RETROSPECT. 297 


contemplated by God as in Christ ; but there may be seven different modes 
of illustration, by which this one way is to be made familiar to the human 
mind. The process of atonement, redemption, or Vicarious sacrifice, may 
be one of these modes or symbols ; that of burial with Christ by baptism, 
and subsequent resurrection, may be another; union, as by marriage, may 
be another; communion, as in a participation of flesh and blood, another ; 
adoption, another ; regeneration, or the new birth, another ; and sanctifica- 
tion, or setting apart, another. These are not distinct operations, but seven 
different figures, all resolving themselves into the one operation, of substitu- 
tion in Christ. Provided with these, the true Lamb appears prepared to 
open the sealed book,—to develope the divine plan of salvation. 

The false prophet, as the second beast exhibits himself, has two horns 
only, carefully avoiding even a simulation of the other five organs of reve- 
lation. ‘These two instruments of indoctrination appear to be two of the 
horns of the real Lamb, and by the aid of this similarity of appearance the 
impostor is able to perform all his wonders. As a false prophet he operates 
by misinterpretation, putting a false construction on the language of revela- 
tion ; but this operation owes its efficiency to the two doctrinal powers, so 
much resembling certain gospel powers, and perhaps in human estimation en- 
titled to bedr the same appellation. By these two simulated doctrines we 
suppose the whole gospel system to be so perverted as to represent the disciple 
in a position of dependence upon his own merits; as much indebted to his 
own self for his eternal salvation and future happiness, as if no redemption 
had been wrought out for him; making him in effect a worshipper of self; 
causing him to fabricate in the imagination of his heart an idol of his own 
pretended righteousness ; looking to this image as an object calling for his 
devotion and gratitude, and necessarily stamping all his actions of mind 
or body with the characteristic of a mercenary and selfish motive ; virtually 
denying to God the Saviour—the Lord our righteousness—the tribute of 
gratitude due to Him, and to Him alone; and tending to deprive him of 
that glory which is not only his, but is that in which no other being can be 
permitted to participate. 

Without pretending to point out definitively what two doctrines are 
contemplated, as counterfeited in this figure of the horns of the beast from 
the earth, we assume as such, for illustrating our views, the two last named 
of the seven doctrinal powers above enumerated ; and we do this, because 
the genuine doctrines are justly, and almost universally considered, with all 
denominations of Christians, as of the utmost importance, and because of 
the seven they are most liable perhaps to perversion. We mean the doc- 
trines of regeneration, or of the new birth ; and of sanctification, or of holi- 
ness. 

The process of regeneration, and that of sanctification, according to the 


298 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


Scriptures, are both of them indispensable to the salvation of man; and yet 
their agency cannot be inconsistent with the all-predominant truth, that 
Christ only is the efficient cause of the sinner’s redemption,—that there is 
no other name given amongst men than the name of Jesus, whereby we 
ean be saved, and that this salvation through him is of grace alone. 

§ 321. We shall first show what we apprehend to be the Scripture 
doctrine of these two powers, and afterwards in what manner we sup- 
pose them to be so misrepresented as to be attended by the errors of faith 
depicted in the operations and delusions of the second beast or false 
prophet. 

‘Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 
This is the language of him, who declares himself to be the life of the 
world ; who became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of 
God in him. Can it be that, notwithstanding this vicarious work of the 
Redeemer, the sinner is lost unless he undergo a certain change within him- 
self, making him almost, in a literal sense, a new creature ? 

We have somewhere read of the custom of a barbarous nation, by which 
a captive taken in war is not only spared as to his life, but is also taken 
into the family of the captor, and adopted in the place of a member of 
that family whose life has been lost in the same contest in’ which this 
captive has been taken ; not only so, the ceremony of this adoption is that 
ef celebrating the birth of a child;—the adoption of the captive by 
this act of grace on the part of the captor, being esteemed equivalent, in 
the apprehension of these barbarians, to a new birth of the favoured indi- 
vidual. 

Whether this custom has been correctly detailed or not, it answers the 
purpose of illustrating our views. We suppose in the meaning of divine 
revelation no difference to exist between adoption in Christ, and regenera- 
tion or a new birth. We do not suppose the disciple to be first adopted, 
and afterwards born again, but rather that the two figures represent the 
same process—a process also identic with that of regeneration. ‘This pro- 
cess we contemplate as an act solely of the word, or purpose of God—an act 
of sovereign grace, not only freely pardoning the sinner, but also receiving 
him in the place of a beloved son, looking upon him as in the face of. the 
Anointed. In Christ,—thus substituted in the place of Christ, in God’s 
account,—the disciple is a new creature, recreated or regenerated in a 
spiritual sense ; a change by which the redeemed sinner is made to partici- 
pate by imputation in the purifying power of his Saviour’s atonement, and 
in the justifying efficacy of his righteousness. Such a regeneration effects, 
as we conceive, the appropriation of the great vicarious sacrifice of the 
master to the disciple, in whose behalf the offermg is made. Without this 
process the offering could not be so appropriated, neither could we see the 


RETROSPECT. 2909 


connection between the sacrifice and the sinner; and yet there is nothing in 
this arrangement inconsistent with any portion of the scheme of God’s salva- 
tion through Christ by grace, in the strictest sense of the term ;—the declara- 
tion, Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God, being 
equivalent to declaring, that except a man be accounted by God to be in 
Christ, he cannot participate in the benefits of redemption, not bemg in the 
position spoken of as the kingdom of God. 

“ Without holiness no man shall see the Lord,” (Heb. xii. 14 ;)—or, 
as the word translated holiness here (ἁγιασμός) is rendered in five other 
passages of the New Testament, without sanctification no man shall see the 
Lord. This is the declaration of an apostle, who, of all others, points out the 
salvation of Christ most distinctly and explicitly as a matter of grace, in 
contradistinction to one of works. Can it be then that all this grace, and 
all the work of Christ are of no avail, unless there be in the disciple a cer- 
tain portion at least of some intrinsic good quality termed holiness ; upon 
the existence of which, as a condition, he is to ground his hope of appearing 
in the presence of his God? and if so, how much of this good quality is 
necessary to qualify a man for the privilege contemplated? It is not said, 
however, ‘ Without some degree of holiness, no man can see the Lord,’ nor 
is there any idea of a partial good quality, or of a sanctification in part at 
all implied. Whatever this holiness is, it must be something whole and entire. 

We take the term holiness or sanctification here as we have taken it 
elsewhere, to be a term of position ; the result or effect of a setting apart 
of the person or thing said to be sanctified ; this setting apart, if effected at 
all, being something entire and complete. The gold of the temple was not 
sanctified in part, neither was it changed in its quality, by being attached 
to the sacred edifice. The offering upon the altar was not sanctified in 
part, nor was it changed in essence by being placed upon the sacred pile, 
but it was sanctified by its position. So the holiness*or sanctification of the 
disciple is not an intrinsic change of quality in him, but it is a change of his 
position ; he is sanctified, or set apart, or made holy ia Christ: and this 
not partially, but altogether. In Christ he is regarded, in divine estimation, 
as being taken out of his position by nature and placed in a position of 
grace. In Christ, and in him, (as by adoption,) he is in that position 
which will qualify him for seeing God ; ‘as, in Christ, under the figure of 
being born again, he is in the same divine estimation a new creature. So 
Moses was enabled to see God, not by a change wrought in himself, but by 
being placed in a cleft of the rock. So, likewise, the Corinthians were 
sanctified or made holy in Christ, and called (termed) holy, or saints, 1 
Cor. 1, 2 ;* no doubt, because they were so sanctified, (ἡγιασμένοις ἐν Χρια- 


* The words to be in this verse have been, as we conceive, unnecessarily and 
gratuitously supplied by our translators, 


300 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


τῷ ]ησοῦ, κλητοῖς ἁγίοις.) As it is also said of them, (1 Cor. vi. 11,) “ But 
ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the 
Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God ;” the spirit, as we apprehend, 
of adoption. ‘They are sanctified in the same way that they are washed 
and justified ; that is, by the word or purpose of God, and they are no more 
said to be sanctified in part than they are said to be washed or justified in 
part. So it is elsewhere said in respect to them, (1 Cor. i. 30, 31,) “But 
of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us [by imputation] 
wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification [or holiness], and redemption ;”’ 
that is, the means of redemption. Not wisdom in part, nor righteousness 
in part, nor holiness in part, or redemption in part, but wholly and entirely ; 
and this, for the reason given, that he that glorieth should glory, not in him- 
self, but in the Lord. This apparently could not be the case if the disci- 
ple’s salvation were due partly to the work of Christ wrought out for him, 
and partly to a work wrought in him; in which he might appear to be a 
co-operator with his divine Master. 

The word of Christ was sufficient to heal the centurion’s servant, and 
the same divine word or purpose which said, “ Let there be light, and there 
was light,” says of the disciple, Let him be in Christ, and he is in Christ ; 
and in Christ he is a new creature. This Divine WORD, or purpose, 
(λόγος,) the Spirit or power of God, we apprehend to be variously spoken 
of as the spirit of adoption, of sanctification, of regeneration, &c.; the 
figures differing, but the process in every respect being none other than the 
act of sovereign grace, justifying the disciple through the imputed righteous- 
ness of Christ, and cleansing the sinner through the imputed merit of his 
Redeemer’s atoning sacrifice. 

Here these two horns of the real Lamb represent (as may be said also of 
all of its seven horns) powers of salvation perfectly consistent with the work 
itself, as of grace, leaving not the shadow of a pretence for the grounding 
of any portion of the disciple’s hopes or claims of, or for, eternal life upon 
any degree whatever of merit, or righteousness, or holiness of his own. 

§ 322. We will now suppose these processes of regeneration and sanc- 
ufication, by a misinterpretation of Scripture to be represented as consisting 
in some intrinsic change in the disciple’s own character—his own improve- 
ment in goodness and virtue—a certain moral perfection and goodness 
wrought in him; admitted indeed to be so by divine operation, as he is 
also admitted to have been created by divine power, but still a change in 
him, and not in his position ; an operation in which he himself is supposed 
perhaps to perform a principal part. As if it were said, Except you pos- 
sess a certain degree of moral goodness of your own, you cannot see the 
kingdom of God; or, without a certain good quality in yourself, termed 
holiness, you cannot see God. You are to trust not to what has been 


REROSPECT. 301 


done for you, but to what you are yourself, and to what you may have 
been enabled to do yourself, for your hopes of eternal life. It must be 
easy to perceive that, under such a construction, the pretended horns of 
the lamb become the horns of a destructive animal. They confine the 
disciple to a position of dependence upon his own merits, and place him as 
much under the operation of the law as if this law had never been ful- 
filled in his behalf. They cause the means of salvation to appear to be 
partly human and partly divine ; an amalgamation, and as such they are 
the horns of an animal levitically unclean: as doctrinal powers of the false 
prophet, they are instruments of interpretation tending altogether to estab- 
lish the kingdom of self; to cause every man to erect in his own heart an 
image of his own supposed righteousness—the object thenceforth of his 
idolatrous worship ; to act from the motive only of serving and glorifying 
himself ; contemplating his own se/f as the efficient author of his eternal 
happiness, and consequently as the proper object of his gratitude, love, and 
adoration. 

ᾧ 323. Here the false prophet may be supposed to urge the plausible 
argument that, if no intrinsic holiness or goodness be required as a condition of 
salvation, there remains no motive to induce the disciple’s obedience to the 
moral law, or to incite him to the devotion of himself to the service of his 
God. 

It is just at this point that the elements of the kingdom of Christ, and 
those of the kingdom of the Beast, may be said to join issue. The false 
prophet pre-supposes the insufficiency of any motive not of a selfish charac- 
ter. He contends for the predominant principle of the love of self as the 
best and most powerful motive of conduct. The doctrine of the gospel, on 
the contrary, in this particular is, as defined by an apostle, that “ the end 


"οὗ the commandment is charity,” that is, love, (ἀγάπη), the love of God: a 


sentiment of gratitude excited and forever stimulated by the knowledge and 
recollection of his great goodness and loving-kindness; and a sentiment 
depending essentially upon the fact, that this goodness or loving-kindness 
has been entirely undeserved ; a sentiment growing out of the inference, 
from the gospel exhibition of salvation by grace alone, that the disciple’s 
entire devotion of himself to the service of his God and Redeemer is his 
reasonable service, (Rom. xii. 1.) 

The law presents the standard of right and wrong—the rule of conduct. 
It exhibits the criterion of what is, and of what must ever be, pleasing or dis- 
pleasing to God ; but in its own nature, it provides no stimulus for obedi- 
ence except the servile motive of the fear of punishment, or the mercenary 
motive of the hope of reward,—both motives of a purely selfish character. 
The gospel dispensation in the nature of the case disavows a stimulus of 


302 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


this kind—it sets these motives entirely aside—it adopts the same rule of 
moral conduct as the law, the same standard of good and evil ; but it furnishes 
anew motive of action, the pure motive of gratitude—gratitude for the benefit 
of eternal life; a benefit, the infinite value of which is rendered the more 
obvious in proportion as it is most rigidly contrasted with the infinite worth- 
lessness of the recipient. The obedience and self-devotion of the disciple 
to the God of his salvation, are thus a grateful return for the benefit of his 
new creation or regeneration in Christ, and not a part of the process: a 
gsrateful return for his sanctification, his being set apart in Christ, (the holi- 
ness of his position,) and not a part of this sanctification or holiness. 

The change of motive above described, we apprehend to be that spoken 
of by Paul, Eph. iv. 23, as a renewal of the spirit of the mind, a change 
in the moving principle of action, from one of self-love to one of love to God 
—from one of a selfish and mercenary character to a sentiment of thankful- 
ness or gratitude—a change of mental principle, not prior to conversion, or to 
the intellectual operations of repentance and faith in Christ, but a change 
of views which established disciples, such as the Ephesians are described to 
have been, (Eph. i. 3-15,) may. be called to undergo: a mental change, 
which, however imperfect in this life, cannot be otherwise than perfect with 
all the redeemed in their future state of being. 

The motives furnished by the law must necessarily cease to operate with 
our present state of existence. ‘The barrier of death once passed, hope and 
fear can no longer find room for action ; the joyful or the solemn realities of 
eternity once commenced, remain forever unchanged. The motive for serving 
God, furnished by the gospel, on the contrary, must be as lasting as endless 
duration, and as boundless as the infinite enjoyment for whieh the gratitude 
of the beneficiary is due. When millions of years of bliss have rolled away, 
and millions of millions yet remain in anticipation, the language of every indi- 
vidual redeemed must be still the same: “I am not worthy of the least of 
all thy mercies ; how much less of this great love wherewith thou hast loved 
me.’”? Surely there is here a motive of service, which may freely dispense 
with any element of a selfish or mercenary character! And is it too much to 
require that the conduct of the disciple of Jesus should be regulated, even 
in this life, by the same principle which is to direct and stimulate all his 
actions in a state of endless bliss? 

ᾧ 324. The Jegal dispensation demanded the love of Ged in the heart as 
its first and chiefest requisition ; the gospel dispensation creates this love, by 
furnishing that display of sovereign mercy so strongly appealing to all the 
best feelings of the human heart for a grateful return. In the blest fruition 
of a future state, the whole extent of the benefits set forth by the gospel 
will be realized ; but in this life the disciple’s gratitude must depend upon 


—— ναι Νὰ 


RETROSPECT. 303 


his faith and hope—his belief and trust, that the blessings thus set forth 
are his, accompanied with the conviction that on his part they are wholly 
undeserved. 

It will be perceived, that in contemplating the spiritual operations of 
regeneration and sanctification as figures of position, we consider them en- 
tirely distinct from repentance, and conversion to a belief of the gospel ; these 
last being indisputably operations of the mind. We do not enlarge upon 
them here, because the subject does not seem to call for it,* but it must be 
evident that the gratitude or love, which constitutes the only pure and last- 
ing motive of conduct, necessarily involves the mental exercise of all that is 
understood by repentance and faith. The gratitude of the disciple in this 
life for the inestimable benefit of redemption must depend not only upon his 
belief of the freeness of the salvation wrought for him, but also upon his con- 
viction of the reality of the danger from which he has escaped. If sin be 
really a matter of no moment, or if the disciple himself be not really a sin- 
ner ; if there be nothing hereafter to dread equivalent to a judgment to come, 
—nothing like a future state of punishment—no coming wrath to apprehend ; 
then there can be really no room for salvation—no call for a Saviour ; and, 
consequently, no occasion for that plan of redemption illustrated by the 
various figures we have supposed ; and if so, all that we have said, and all 
that the Scriptures imply, of the reasonableness of the disciple’s grateful de- 
votion of himself to the service of his God, must be without foundation. On 
the other hand, if there be a reality in these things, just in proportion to the 


* The Apocalypse, it is to be remembered, is represented as designed for the use 
of certain churches. ‘These assemblies are not supposed to be of the character of 
the unconverted heathen, or even of unbelieving Jews; they are supposed to have 
passed through the external processes of conversion; they are already of the house- 
hold of faith; their errors are errors of doctrine. They do not require, like the 
Roman governor, a reasoning of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come ; 
neither are they neophytes or novices, requiring to be taught, or retaught the first 
principles of the oracles of God; ta στοιχεῖα τῆς ἀρχῆς τῶν λογίων tot ϑεοῦ, (Heb. iv. 
12.) We are not therefore to look to this vision for a revelation of elementary doc- 
trines specifically, as of a laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works 
and faith towards God. With the doctrines of baptism, and of laying on of hands, 
and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment, these churches are pre- 
sumed to be already familiar: what they require is ἃ finishing or perfecting of their 
faith, and an admonishing of the tendency of erroneous principles in undermining 
this faith, and in counteracting the operation of those sentiments of gratitude by 
which the love of God is to be generated. To effect this enlightening of the mind, 
by developing the divine plan of substitution, identifying the follower with his mas- 
ter, Jesus here unveils himself in accordance with his promise, (John xiv. 20, 21,) 
“At that day ye shall know that I (am) in my Father, and ye in me, andI in 
you;” * * * * “He that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, 
and will manifest myself to him.” 


304 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET, 


disciple’s sense and conviction of this reality will be his gratitude towards 
the GOD of his salvation. 

It is for this reason we apprehend, that is, to bring home to the mind of 
the believer a realizing sense of the benefits demanding his thankfulness and 
-Jove, that the two systems of truth and falsehood are contrasted in this reve- 
Jation ;—that the disciple may be not only convinced of sin, of righteousness, 
and of judgment, as he is already supposed to be, but that he may be 
taught also his own entire insufficiency in accomplishing the work of salva- 
tion for himself, and his consequent entire dependence upon the Lord his 
righteousness. | 


THE END OF PART IL. 


PART 11. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


THE LAMB STANDING ON MOUNT ZION.—THE SIX 
HERALDS. 


V.1. And I looked, and lo, a ΟΝῚ Καὶ εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ τὸ ἀρνίον ἑστηκὸς 
Lamb stood on the mount Sion, [ZION,] ἐπὶ τὸ Ogos Σιών, καὶ per αὐτοῦ ἑκατὸν 


and with him a hundred forty (and) four ὡἰοϑυἑον μου όνε νάδε. ΜΉΝ 
thousand, having his Father’s name writ- _,, Δα δρζσς τὰ ΩΝ " aes > 
ten in their foreheads. ογομα (αὐτου χαὶ τὸ ονομαὰ του πατρὸς αυ- 


τοῦ γεγραμμένον ἐπὲ τῶν μετώπων αὑτῶν. 

ᾧ 995. ‘ Ann I looked, and lo.’—This is a continuation of the seventh 
trumpet’s sound ; or rather, what is here seen is something existing simulta- 
neously with what is related in the preceding chapter. While the two beasts 
are exercising their authority on the earth, the Lamb is standing on the 
Mount Sion ;—the succession is only in the spectator’s perception. The 
apostle had been contemplating the ten-horned beast and his coadjutor in 
the plenitude of their power; he had seen, as the Psalmist expresses it, 
“the wicked spreading himself like a green bay tree.” We may suppose 
his mind to have been almost overwhelmed by a feeling of despondency as 
well as of astonishment ; when suddenly his attention is called to behold 
the remedial provision intended to counteract the evil influence so justly 
the subject of lamentation : as, when the eyes of the servant of the prophet 
ina moment of danger were opened, he saw “ the mountain full of horses 
and chariots of fire round about Elisha,” 2 Kings vi. 14-17. 

We have, in the scene presented by the opening of this chapter, an 
exhibition of a totally different character from that immediately preceding 
it; the prominent features of the spectacle being opposites of that just 
now contemplated: a Lamb, or rather the Lamb, according to our Greek 
edition, in place of the ten-horned beast ; a mountain instead of the sea, 
and a multitude with the name of the Father of the Lamb in their foreheads, 
instead of those bearing the mark of the beast ;—the six angels or heralds 
with the voice from heaven, subsequently described as interpreters of the 
divine will, being opposites of the false prophet or two-horned beast ;—as 
the heavenly region, in the midst of which their annunciations seem to have 
been made, is an opposite of the earthly element or system from which the 
false mterpretation emanates, The mystery, the development of which is 


306 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


to be completed or finished in the days of the seventh angel, (Rev. x. 7,) 
being of this two-fold character—a mystery of truth, and a mystery of 
error ; a mystery of the system of grace and of the love of God on the one 
hand, and a mystery of the system of works and of covetousness, or of the 
love of self, on the other. The wo of this trumpet, as well as of the pre- 
ceding, whether it consist in a development of the elements of truth or of 
the elements of error, isa wo to the dwellers upon the earth, with the 
exception of those standing with the Lamb upon Mount Zion. The 
revelation of course is not a wo in any respect to the dwellers in heaven ; 
that which is a wo to one class of beings or elements, is a cause of rejoicing 
to another class. 

‘ And lo, the Lamb stood upon the Mount Zion.’-—Whether we employ 
the definite article or not, it is very evident that the allusion is to the 
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world; as it is said, Is. 
lix. 19, 20, When the enemy shall come in like a flood, (Rev. xi. 15,) the 
Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard “against him ; and Rom. xi. 26, 
‘“‘ There shall come out of Ston the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungod- 
liness from Jacob.” The two beasts were seen rising from their respective 
elements, intimating something of a transitory character, having a begin- 
ning and an end. The Lamb on the contrary is seen standing, giving a 
permanency and unchangeableness to his position ; he was and is always 
there, although not always perceptible to human apprehension. 

ᾧ 326. ‘ The Mount Zion.’—The article in this case may be intended 
to point out especially the spzritual Mount Zion ; this spiritual Zion being 
pre-eminently ‘the mount of the Lord,” and “ the mountain of the Lord’s 
house ;” see Genesis xxii. 14; Is. ii. 2,3. The literal Zion, or Sion, is 
said to be a mountain upon which the temple of the Lord was built in 
Jerusalem by Solomon, and where David built the caty of David, over 
against, and north of, the ancient Jebus, or Jerusalem, which stood on the 
hill opposite to Zion, (Calmet.) It is probably to the spiritual Zion that 
the king of Israel alludes, Ps. xlviii. 2: “ Beautiful for situation, the joy of 
the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the 
great King ;”—not the city of an earthly king, but of the King of Glory— 
the King awe of, Ps. ii. 6, and cxlix. 2. 

Zion and Jerusalem appear to be sometimes employed in Scripture, 
figuratively, as interchangeable terms or nearly equivalents ; but there is 
this difference between them, that Zion uniformly represents something 
unchangeable in its character. It is sometimes spoken of as sufferimg in a 
state of duress, but never as a thing subject to perversion ; while Jerusalem 
is at times chargeable even with abominations, Ezek. xvi. 2. Zion may be 
an equivalent of the new or true Jerusalem, or vision of peace—the covenant 
of grace ; but never a figure of the old Jerusalem, or Jerusalem in bondage, 


THE LAMB ON MOUNT SION. 801 


spoken of by Paul as an equivalent of Mount Sinai, Gal. iv. 25. If Sion 
be figuratively put for the holy city, it must be so especially with reference 
to the foundation or rock upon which the city is built; as the site of a 
city remains the same, although the city itself may be taken, or even 
destroyed by an enemy. Mount Zion is thus, we think, a figure of the 
divine purpose of grace upon which the whole plan of salvation depends, 
and from which the element of atonement or propitiatory sacrifice (the 
Lamb) emanates, or rather upon which it stands. This divine will or pur- 
pose is something immovable; it may be misrepresented, but this spiritual 
Zion is in its own nature unchangeable ; as it is said, Ps. exxv. 1, “" They 
that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, 
but abideth for ever ;” and Is. liv. 10, “The mountains shall depart, and 
the hills be removed ; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither 
shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath merey 
on thee.” 

As a mountain is an opposite of the sea, or of an abyss, so this Zion, 
or divine purpose of grace, may be taken as the opposite of a state of appre- 
hension, resulting from the position of condemnation ; corresponding with ~ 
' the contrast drawn by Paul between the two mountains, Zion and Sinai, 
Heb. xii. 18-22. The Lamb, (the Lamb of God,) as the only efficient 
cause of salvation, is the opposite of the beast: as the image of divine 
righteousness, by the imputation of which this salvation is effected, he is the 
opposite of the image of the beast; as the imputed righteousness of God 
is the opposite of the imaginary righteousness of self. The divine element 
of propitiation is sustained by the purpose of sovereign grace,—the Word, 
the Logos, the overcoming principle of perfect sovereignty. The Lamb rests 
upon a mountain or rock; he is indeed identified with it, as the Son is 
declared to be identic with the Godhead, (John x. 30,) Ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἕν 
ἐσμεν. Of both, the disciple may say with the Psalmist, ‘The Rock of 
strength and my refuge is in God. He only is the rock of my salvation.” 
The believer thus contemplating the atoning sacrifice of Jesus—the great 
element of propitiation for sin—resting as it does upon the immutable prin- 
ciple of sovereign grace, and exhibited in the manifestation of God’s love 
in Christ, may be said to see zm spirit, with the apostle, the Lamb standing 
on Mount Zion. 

* And with him an hundred and forty-four thousand, having his Father’s 
name written in their foreheads ;—or, as our Greek edition has it, Ais name 
and his Father’s name. ‘The difference is not material, as both we appre- 
hend constitute one name, which the participle γεγραμμένον, in the singular, 
also implies. This select number we presume to be that spoken of Rev. 
vii. 4; elements of doctrine peculiar to the combined testimony of the Old 
and New Testament revelations, (¢ 175.) We do not suppose them to 


308 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


represent disciples themselves, but the relation of these principles personi- 
fied is analogous with that between the disciple and the divine purpose of 
mercy. ‘The one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed, depend for the 
evidence of their truth upon the fact that, with the element of divine pro- 
pitiation, they stand or rest upon the purpose of sovereign grace as upon 
the foundation afforded by a rock ; the disciple depends for his hopes upon 
the fact, that the same element of propitiation, with all its attendant princi- 
ples of redemption, rests upon this same sovereign purpose of free unmerited 
favour. : 

These principles of the gospel truth, as we conceive them to be, carry 
with them a certain prominent characteristic, equivalent to.a name impressed 
upon the forehead of a human being. This characteristic is called a name 
of the Father, or of the Father and Son: we presume it to be the new name 
inscribed upon the pillar in the temple of God, Jehovah our righteousness, 
(δ 100 ;) every element of doctrine thus distinguished, possessing the 
prominent feature of tending to exhibit Jehovah as the only righteousness of 
his people.* 


Vs. 2, 3. And I heard a voice from Kai ἤκουσα φωνὴν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ὡς " 


heaven, as the voice of many waters, and 
as the voice of a great thunder: and I 
heard the voice of harpers harping with 
their harps: and they sung as it were a 
new song before the throne, and before 
the four beasts, [living creatures, ] and 
the elders: and no man can learn that 
song but the hundred (and) forty (and) 
four thousand, which were redeemed from 
the earth. 


φωνὴν ὑδάτων πολλῶν καὶ ὡς φωνὴν βρον- 
τῆς μεγάλης, καὶ ἢ φωνή, ἣν ἤκουσα, ὡς 
κιϑαρῳδῶν κιϑαριζόντων ἐν ταῖς κιϑάραις 
αὑτῶν" καὶ ζδουσιν ὡς ᾧδὴν καινὴν ἐνώ- 
πιον τοῦ ϑρόνγνου καὶ ἐνώπιον τῶν τεσσάρων 
ζώων καὶ τῶν πρεςοβυτέρων " καὶ οὐδεὶς ἡδύ- 
νατο μαϑεῖν τὴν ᾧδήν, εἰ μὴ αἵ ἐκατὸν τεσ- 
σαρακοντατέσσαρες χιλιάδες, οἵ ἡγορασμέ- 


γοι ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς. 

§ 327. ‘ And I heard a voice,’ &c.—The voice from heaven, as in 
contradistinction to the voice from the earth, may intimate a revelation of 
truth in its proper spiritual sense. There is some difference here in the 
Greek readings. According to our common version, we might suppose two 
voices to be heard, one the opposite of the other: the voice as of many 
waters, and as of great thander, or the language of denunciation ; and the 
voice of harpers, or the language of praise. But, according to our Greek 
edition, the reading should be, ‘ And the voice which I heard,’ that is, the 
voice from heaven, so strong and so intimidating, was as the harping of 


* Tf the seal of these select ones were described to be the impression of a mark 
only, we might suppose this characteristic feature to be that of exhibiting especially 
the love of God. as it is said God is love; or it might be the mark ofa tendency to 
the formation of the grateful sentiments peculiar to a system of salvation by grace ; 
but as the mark is stated to be a name, the name of God and also of his Son, we cannot 
apparently do otherwise than suppose it to be the name above referred to—being as 
such also an opposite of the name of the beast. 


THE LAMB ON MOUNT SION. 309 


harpers upon their harps; the same voice being the utterance of awful 
denunciation to the followers of the beast, and of praise and rejoicing to the 
followers of the Lamb. The voice of the God of Israel is said to be like 
the voice of many waters, Ezek. xliii. 2; and thunder is spoken of in 
Scripture (Job xl. 9) as the voice of God. 

We suppose both the voice and the music of the harpers to have a pros- 
pective aspect, indicative of the nature of the revelation about being made: 
something of the character of a grand overture, or musical prelude, in a 
dramatic exhibition—something indicating a pause, and marking a distinc- 
tion between the representations already made and those immediately suc- 
ceeding. 

‘ And they sung a new song,’ &c.;—or, they chanted a new ode. It. 
is not said what were the words of this song, but we may suppose it to 
comprehend in substance the glad tidings of redemption ;—perhaps the 
song of the Lamb, as distinguished from the song of Moses spoken of in the 
next chapter ; or perhaps these two constitute the same song. This song, 
however, was sung before the throne, and before the four living creatures, 
and before the twenty-four elders only. It is something taking place in the 
divine councils, but not yet supposed to be revealed on earth ;—something 
im accordance with the element of divine sovereignty, with the divine 
attributes symbolized by the four living creatures, and with the elements of 
the Old Testament dispensation, represented by the twenty-four elders. 
In effect, it may be what we commonly understand by the gospel itself, as 
revealed in the New Testament. 

‘And no man,’ or rather no one, οὐδεὶς, ‘could learn that song ;’ ‘nei- 
ther man nor angel—no created being except the one hundred and forty- 
four thousand ; that is, no one could learn the ode so as to sing it: all who 
heard it might understand it, but only a-certain class could sing it. Vir- 
tually, the song of redemption through the vicarious offerimg of the Lamb, 
can be sung only by the elements of revelation found in the ‘Old and New 
Testaments, (the one hundred and forty-four thousand,) spiritually under- 
stood ; principles of the economy of redemption drawn from the sacred 
Scriptures, diffused as they may be amongst-the mass of earthly elements, 
or found in a variety of human systems, but at last redeemed, brought out, 
and distinguished by their seal or characteristic feature. As with disciples 
none can feel the gratitude due to God for redemption but ‘those who are 
sensible that this redemption is entirely of sovereign grace, so no principle 
of doctrine can contribute to the praise:and glory of God, as the only Saviour, 
but such as is entirely unmixed with any principle of self-righteousness. 
These principles of doctrine are to be gathered only from the combination of 
Old and New Testament truths. 


310 


Vs. 4,5. These are they which were 
not defiled with women; for they are vir- 
gins. These are they which follow the 
Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These 
were redeemed from among men, (being) 
the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb. 
And in their mouth was found no guile: 


THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


Ovtol εἶσιν, of μετὰ γυναικῶν οὖκ ἐμο. 
λύνϑησαν " παρϑένοι γάρ εἰσιν" οὗτοί εἰσιν 
οἵ ἀκολουϑοῦντες τῷ ἀρνίῳ ὅπου ἂν ὑπάγη. 
οὗτοι ἠγοράσϑησαν ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων 
ἀπαρχὴ τῷ ϑεῷ καὶ τῷ ἀρνίῳ, καὶ ἐν τῷ 
στόματι αὐτῶν οὐχ εὑρέϑη ψεῦδος" ἄμωμοι 


for they are without fault before the throne 


of God. ee 


ᾧ 328. ‘These are they which were not defiled,’ contaminated, &c.— 
The word rendered defiled carries with it the idea of something spotted ; 
from μολύνα, to stain, or mark a white substance with another colour, (Done- 
gan.) ‘This appears to be a strong figurative expression of the perfect 
singleness and unmixed character of the principles represented by the one 
hundred and forty-four thousand ;—their perfect freedom from amalgama- 
tion, not being mixed even with principles otherwise harmless. These 
elements are entirely pure, not admitting of any motive of service, other 
than that of gratitude for a free salvation. The figure is very much of the 
same character as that employed Rev. ui. 4: ‘Thou hast a few names 
even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk 
with me in white, for they are worthy,” (¢ 86.) 

‘These are they which follow the Lamb,’ &c.—The Lamb is the ele- 
ment of propitiation: the way in which the Lamb goes is the way of salva- 
tion—the way of a free salvation. ‘The principles represented by the one 
hundred and forty-four thousand follow in the same path; they are all con- 
sistent with the leading principle, and all, as it were, walk in his steps—all 
conform to the same rule, and confine themselves to the same track. A 
characteristic peculiar to sheep, and to which there may be some allusion 
in the figure here adopted: as doctrines expressing and admitting nothing, 
having a tendency inconsistent with the element of propitiation, the leading 
principle of the economy of salvation. 

‘ These were redeemed from among men ;—men being a figurative ex- 
pression for the whole mass of principles in the earthly system, or in 
all human systems. Out of this mass these one hundred and forty-four 
thousand truths are redeemed—brought out and manifested to belong to the 
heavenly system. . 

‘ The first-fruits,’ &c.,—specimens ; also the first of the harvest. As prin- 
ciples of gratitude for unmerited favour may be considered the first-fruits of 
salvation by grace, so these elements of gospel truths are specimens as well 
as first-fruits of all truths peculiar to God’s plan of redemption; all having 
the same tendency to lay a foundation of love and gratitude towards the 
divine Benefactor and Giver of every good and perfect g2ft. As it is said, 
Rom. xi. 16, “ For if the first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy,” so it may be 


FIRST HERALD. 311 


said of the disciple’s faith, if its first fruits be gratitude and love to God, his 
whole subsequent conduct, springing from the same motive, will be of the 
same character. 

‘And in their mouth was found no guile.’—It was said of Nathanael, 
(John i. 47,) that he was “an Israelite, indeed, in whom there was no 
guile ;” while the Pharisees were charged with being hypocrites, because 
they justified themselves before men, (Luke xvi. 15.) Nathanael, as well 
as his fellow-countrymen, were sinners ; the difference between them con- 
sisted in the effort of the Pharisees to obtain a reptutation for righteousness 
to which they were not entitled. So the disciple wethout guile must be 
one admitting, feeling, and confessing his sinfulness—making no pretensions 
to a righteousness of his own. Corresponding with this distinction, we may 
suppose the principles or elements of doctrine, personified by the one 
hundred and forty-four thousand, to be free from any tendency of the kind 
illustrated by this self-justification of the Pharisee. They are principles in . 
which the total unworthiness of the subjects of redemption are admitted, 
and they are thus spoken of as without guile ; or, as it is expressed in the 
Greek, in their mouth was found no falsehood ;—nothing in their utterance 
countenancing a pretension on the part of man to any righteousness of his 
own. 

In this respect these elements may be considered opposites of the two- 
horned beast. He, as a false prophet, misinterprets the language of revela- 
tion, so as to establish a kingdom, system, or mystery of self-righteousness ; 
they, as elements of truth, sustain only the interpretation consistent with 
the kingdom, system, or mystery of God—salvation by grace. ὺ 

‘For they are without fault before the throne of God.’—Of created 
things, nothing can be said to be perfectly pure before God, or in the sight 
of God ;—even the heavens, it is said, are unclean in his sight, and he 
chargeth his angels (his own messengers) with folly. These elements owe 
their purity to the all-cleansing principle of propitiation. From this principle, 
as we have seen, the motive of gratitude originates; and these elements of 
truth, like the multitude clothed in white, (Rev. vil. 14,) may be said to be 
thus pure and without fault, because they have been washed and cleansed 
in the blood of the Lamb. Change this arrangement, and no motive of 
action can be pure in the sight of God; the system of redemption by grace, 
through Jesus Christ, being as indispensable for the production of purity of 
motives of οὐθάμρῃ as for the salvation of man. 


Vs. 6.7. AndI saw another angel fly Kai εἶδον ἄλλον ἄγγελον πετόμενον ie 


in the midst of heaven, having the ever- μεσουρανήματι, ἔχοντα εὐαγγέλιον αἰώνιον, 


lasting gospel to reach unto them that 
dwell on τε pe and to every nation, εὐαγγελίσαι ἐπὶ τοὺς κατοικοῦντας ἐπὶ TG 


and kindred, and tongue, and people, say- γῆς καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶν ἔϑνος καὶ φυλὴν καὶ γλῶσ- 
ing with ἃ loud voice, Fear God, and give σαν καὶ λαόν, λέγων ἐν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ" φοβ- 


29 


312 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


glory to him; for the hour of his judg- ἡϑητε τὸν Φεὸν καὶ δότε αὐτῷ δόξαν, ὅτε 
ment is come: and worship him that made 7), 9¢y ἡ ὥρα τῆς κρίσεως αὐτοῦ, καὶ προς- 
heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the r ~ , ooo ται y 

LVVY TUTE τῷ TMOLUjOKYTL TOY OVQHVOY καὺ 


fountains of waters. emis Ree Ν hiss 
τὴν γῆν καὶ ϑάλασσαν καὶ πηγὰς ὑδάτων. 


§ 329. ‘And I saw another angel fly (fying) in the midst of heaven,’ 
or, rather, in the mid-heaven, (ὃ 205.)—Not merely another angel, for there 
is none mentioned immediately in connection with this, but another mid- 
heaven messenger; the term another directing our attention to the angel 
described Rev. viii. 13, the messenger of the three woes to the dwellers upon 
the earth: thus contrasting these two annunciations, the first of wo, the 
second of glad tidings. 

The scene is here changed, a new object being contemplated by the 
apostle; and comparing the first part of the chapter with the fourteenth 
verse, we may suppose the vision of the Lamb on Mount Sion to be super- 
sseded by that of the Son of man upon the white cloud. We find im this 
chapter an account of six several angels or messengers: three, besides a 
voice from heaven, preceding, and three succeeding the appearance of the 
Son of man. ‘The action of these messengers appears to correspond with 
that sometimes assigned to the chorus in the Greek drama, or with that of 
the herald, or of heralds, in the interval of a tournament, preceding a new 
series of extraordinary representations. 

‘ Having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the 
earth ;’—or, as our edition of the Greek has it, to preach upon, or concerning 
(ἐπὶ) those dwelling upon the earth, and concerning all nations. We are 
inclined to prefer this last expression, because it accords with the eommis- 
sion spoken of as to be given to the apostle, Rev. x. 11; where, as we 
have before remarked, ἐπὶ conveys a similar meaning of about, or concern- 
ing, (δ 234.) According to either form of expression, the action of this 
angel amounts to a declaration that the gospel is now to be considered as 
being preached. The gospel is universally admitted to signify something of 
the character of glad tidings ; and the main question is, whether that which 
is being declared is glad tidings to the dwellers or inhabiters of the earth, 
for these appellations are expressed by the same term in the Greek ; or 
whether, if glad tidings to some other class, it may be so connected with 
an account of the fate of the dwellers upon the earth as to be termed some- 
thing concerning them. 

It is said in the preceding chapter (v. 4) that all the earth wondered 
after the beast, and worshipped the dragon and the beast ; and, verse 8, all 
that dwell upon the earth, whose names are not in the book of life, shall 
worship him; and, verse 12, the false prophet causeth the earth, and them 
which dwell therein, to worship the first beast; and also (v. 15) he causeth 
those who would not worship the beast to be killed ; and finally, (v. 16 and 


FIRST HERALD. 313 


17,) he causeth all, of every class, to receive in some shape the mark of the 
beast. Thus all the dwellers upon the earth are worshippers of the beast, 
and bearers of his mark, consequently they are all obnoxious to the wrath 
set forth by the third angel in the present chapter, (v. 9, 10 ;) they are all 
to be tormented or tortured with fire and brimstone, and to be without rest 
day and night. This certainly cannot be called glad tidings to the dwellers 
upon the earth, whatever they may be; but if we consider these dwellers 
on the earth, as we have done, principles or elements of an erroneous system 
tending to the establishment of an idolatrous worship in the heart, then this 
assurance of their destruction must be glad tidings to the opposite elements 
of truth, and this gospel, although not a gospel to them (the dwellers upon 
the earth) may be denominated a gospel or glad tidings concerNtNe them ; 
as the account of the defeat and destruction of the besiegers of a city would 
be considered glad tidings concerning this hostile force, by all who felt an 
interest in the welfare of the city. As the woes threatened in the seventh 
chapter were woes only to one class of objects, so the message of this angel is 
a gospel only to another class. The action of these two mid-heaven mes- 
sengers is also to be considered, not successive but contemporaneous ; these 
gospel messengers being opposites of the beast and false prophet, and their 
messages being intended to counteract the mischievous influence of the two 
beasts from the beginning to the end of their course. 

ᾧ 330. ‘Saying with a loud voice,’ &c.—It is not said that the angel 
flying in the mid-heaven actually preaches the gospel at the time he is 
seen ;—he has it to preach, and preparatory to his annunciation of it he 
utters the requisite admonition. 

‘Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is 
come.’—This is not the language of the gospel of peace, but it is the ad- 
monition of a preliminary qualification for hearing and receiving the gospel. 
“Come, (and) hear, all ye that fear God,” says David, “and I will de- 
clare what he hath done for my soul,” (Ps. Ixvi. 16.) He does not call upon 
those who have no fear of God, either because they esteem themselves 
sufficiently righteous to have nothing to fear, or because they do not believe 
in the existence of God, or in the certainty of a future state of rewards and 
punishments. It would be useless to set before these persons a way of salva- 
tion, of which they neither see the necessity nor the desirableness: to preach 
the glad tidings of redemption to such as these, would be casting pearls before 
swine, Matt. vii. 6. It is only to those fearing the justly merited vengeance 
of Him who has declared that he will by no means clear the guilty, that the 
revelation of what has been done for their souls is a message of glad tidings ; 
it is not till the disciple experiences this fear, that he is prepared to receive 
this truth in the love of it. The worshipper of the beast, of course, so long 
as he is such, cannot have this fear, for his self-righteousness is, as he ima- 


314 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


gines, his ample protection. So the elements or principles of the beast 
system of self-deification, are wholly inconsistent with this preliminary 
qualification required by the gospel plan. 

‘And give glory to him,’—that is, give glory to God, and fear him, as 
the opposite of fearing and giving glory to the beast: seek the glory of 
God, instead of seeking that of self. This also is a necessary preliminary for 
a reception of the gospel. ‘There are two systems of salvation, we may 
say, presented to the mind of the sinner already convinced of sin. One way 
by which the glory of his salvation appears to redound to himself; in which 
he may be contemplated literally as having worked out his own salvation, 
and must therefore be entitled to the glory of it. The other way is that in 
which God the Redeemer has wrought the work, and in which the glory 
must of necessity belong entirely to God. ‘The disciple is not prepared to 
receive the gospel till he can deny himself in this particular; till he can 
place himself in his own mind in the position of the condemned malefactor ; 
not only, as it were, crucified with Christ,—being in the same condemnation, 
—hbut feeling and confessing that he is so justly, as the reward of his own 
deeds ; and such being the case, whatever glory may ensue from his deliver- 
ance, it cannot belong to himself. He can then feel no otherwise disposed 
than to give all glory to him to whom it belongs. When this is the case, he 
hears the gospel of salvation, through the merits of Christ, with joy ; re- 
joicing that the glory of the work is God’s, and not his own. So, apocalyp- 
tically, every principle of doctrine belonging to the true plan of redemption 
must be manifested to be possessed of these characteristics : they must pre- 
suppose the fear of God, and premise that the glory of the sinner’s deliver- 
ance belongs entirely to his divine Redeemer ; as also that every work, and 
every device of the creature, is to be performed from the motive of giving 
this glory to God alone. 

‘For the hour of his judgment is come.’—The fear of God in the heart 
of man in its own nature depends upon the belief of a judgment to come ; 
where there is no such belief, there can be no such fear. It is the belief of 
this that prompts the sinner to fly for refuge, while there is yet time, to the 
hope set before him in the gospel; and which implants in his mind the 
sentiment of gratitude for his escape, in proportion to his faith and hope. 
Here, however, we suppose the reference of coming judgment to be more 
especially to the divine discrimination between true principles and false ; 
between those principles upon which God is served, strictly speaking, in 
purpose and motive, and those in which se(f, or some other idol, is the real 
object of service. ‘The time of manifestation is now at hand, when this dis- 
crimination will be made, or rather exhibited to have been always made, by 
Him who searcheth the heart and trieth the rems. The difference between 
these two classes of motives (these different counsels of the heart) will then 


SECOND HERALD. 315 


be perceived by all ; as it is said, Mal. iii. 18, “Then shall ye return and 
discern between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth 
God, and him that serveth him not.” 

‘And worship him that made,’ &c.—As if it had been said, instead of 
worshipping an object of adoration, risen from the sea, worship him who 
made the sea itself. The sea is his, and he made it, and his hands formed 
the dry land: consequently, whatever emanates from the sea, or land, or 
from any other portion of creation, is but the creature of his will, as he 
created, it is said, even the wicked for the day of evil. To worship or serve 
the beast, is directly worshipping and serving the creature, instead of the 
Creator. Instead of worshipping the beast, rising as he does from a vindic- 
tive element, affording no foundation for hope, worship him who is as able 
to save, as he has shown himself able to create. 

Such we may suppose to be virtually the language of the gospel 
message during the whole period of the reign of the beast. We do not, how- 
ever, confine this admonition to any particular place or time ; but wherever 
and whenever the beast is worshipped, there, or then, this warning voice is 
intended to be heard. The action of the angel is something going on in 
the mid-heaven. ‘The admonition may be supposed not yet to have 
reached the earth, or not to be found in any part of the earthly system. 
If we view the mid-heaven, or second heaven, however, as the Levitical 
economy, or revelation of the Jewish people, this admonition of the angel 
may be said to be all found in that dispensation expressed in the first and 
great commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy strength,” &c., (Deut. vi. 5.) In this respect the 
old economy may be said, like this angel, to have the gospel to preach, at 
the proper period of its development ; andin the meantime, to prepare the way 
for it by inculcating the disposition of mind necessary for its reception. 


V.8. And there followed another an- Καὶ ἄλλος ἄγγελος δεύτερος ἠκολούϑησε 
gel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, λέγων ἔπεσεν, ἔπεσε Βαβυλὼν ἡ μεγάλη, 
that great city, because she made all πᾶ- «", ἈΦ ΠΣ ΣΤΡ πέραν 1: 
tions drink of the wine of the wrath of her Ἶ ὁ Του οἴνου Tou Νὰ sty gs 
ra et τῆς πεπότιχε πάντα τὰ EDV. 


ᾧ 331. “Απά there followed another angel,’ or, according to the Greek we 
copy, there followed another angel, a second.—This is probably the most 
correct, as the next heavenly message appears to be uniformly denominated 
the third. We may presume this angel followed in the track of the other; the 
element or medium of his revelation, like that of the other, being the mid- 
heaven. The revelation is not yet made on earth, neither is it something 
entirely confined to the highest heaven, as in the secret purpose of the Most 
High. It may be partially revealed in a series of symbols equivalent to the 


middle heaven. 


316 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


‘Saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city.—This fall of 
Babylon is to be understood as having been revealed as yet only in the 
mid-heaven. It is an annunciation of the purpose of God. The words 
that great city are not found in all editions of the Greek; the reading of 
ours, it will be perceived, is, verbatim, Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great. 

It seems somewhat extraordinary that the first mention made of Babylon 
by name, in the Apocalypse, should be the annunciation of her fall, and 
this in a manner as if presuming her existence and her greatness to be 
familiarly known to the reader. The only great city previously men- 
tioned is that in the street of which the bodies of the two witnesses remained 
unburied three and a half days, and of which the tenth part was destroyed 
by the earthquake, Rev. xi. 8, 13. We suppose this great city to be that 
which is now said to have fallen, and the term great to be applied in 
reference to its lofty pretensions. 

Babylon was not only a great city, but it also gave its name to a king- 
dom or empire, and in this respect we may suppose the apocalyptic Baby- 
lon to be an equivalent for the kingdom of the ten-horned beast ;—the an- 
nunciation of the fall of Babylon being equal to announcing the overthrow 
of the kingdom of the beast. We have already noticed some correspond- 
ence between the blasphemous character of the beast and the lofty preten- 
sions of the monarch of Babylon, prior to his temporary expulsion ; as also 
a correspondence between the image of his erecting, and the image of the 
beast. If we suppose the false prophet to discharge the functions of the 
astrologers, magicians, and principal advisers of Nebuchadnezzar, the iden- 
tity of the kingdom of Babylon, as a figure, with the kingdom of the beast, 
and consequently with the great city Babylon of this revelation, will be 
perhaps sufficiently made out. 

The apostle had been contemplating Babylon (the Babylonish kingdom) 
in her prosperity—the ten-horned beast in full power. Impatient at this 
prosperity of the wicked, he may be supposed to have exclaimed, with the 
souls under the altar, Lord, how long? In answer to this interrogatory, the 
heavenly vision shows him that the fate of this idolatrous system is already 
decided. In the divine counsels Babylon—the kingdom of the beast—has 
already fallen, but the account of the manner of her fall is reserved for a 
subsequent part of the narrative. 

The name Babylon signifies confusion, mixture, as universally admitted. 
The Asiatic city of this name derived its appellation from the tower and city 
in its vicinity, the building of which was defeated by the confusion of tongues ; 
on which account the yet unfinished city received the name Babel, b=3, Greek 
σύγχυσις, (Trom. Index. Heb. and Chald.,) Latin, confusto sive commistio, 
(Leusden.) We may suppose the great city afterwards built to have 
grown out of the scattered materials of this abortive enterprise. 


SECOND HERALD. 317 


The account we have of the motive for erecting the immense building 
contemplated in the first instance, throws some light upon the character of 
the system represented by the figurative Babylon: “ Come,” said they, “let 
us build a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven ; and let us 
make us a mame, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth,” 
(Gen. xi. 4-6.) Their design was that of perpetuating their own name ; 
—their only end in view was their own glory: one of the earliest typical 
illustrations of the folly and impiety of that blasphemous principle of self- 
exaltation in man, which prompts him to go about to promote his own 
honour and glory, instead of seeking to glorify the name of Jehovah. This 
folly and impiety was manifested too by a people just saved from destruc- 
tion—a people owing their existence entirely to a gracious act of divine 
mercy,—the ark by which their ancestors had been preserved amidst an 
overwhelming deluge; as if the Christian, snatched as a brand from the 
burning, and scarcely saved by the merit of his Redeemer’s atonement, 
should ascribe the glory of his salvation to his own works, and should 
thenceforth be occupied with exalting the reputation of his own name. 

The ancient Babylon, although erected in a plain, was especially 
remarkable, according to Herodotus and others, for its immense walls and 
artificial mounds, its hanging gardens or paradises, and imitation hills ; 
(v. Calmet ;) so extraordinary, that even the account of them, as handed 
down by ancient heathen historians and geographers, appears to be fabu- 
lous. ‘The whole structure of the city was an opposite of that of the city 
of David upon Mount Zion. The defences of Babylon were entirely the 
work of men’s hands: a combination of brick and slime, the foundations of 
which were in the dust, or upon the sand; the whole figure being an 
opposite of Zion, a rock, the material and the formation of which was im- 
mediately the work of a divine Creator. Such we suppose to be the 
composition of the doctrinal system spiritually called Babylon—a system of 
works ; a confused mixture of the supposed merits of man with the merits 
of Christ; a city, the opposite of that of which it is said, her walls are 
salvation, and her gates are praise ; a system emanating from the self-right- 
eousness and selfishness of the human heart, having no end in view but 
that of making a name for man, or in other words, that of glorifying self; 
and yet nominally a Christian system, with an admixture of some portion of 
the elements of Christian faith ;—all its elements, however, so confused and 
heterogenous, as, when carried out, to prove eventually the instruments of 
their own dissolution: every one, like the builders of Babel, speaking 
a different language ; agreeing in nothing but the purpose of self-exaltation, 
of promoting the glorification of man. ‘The system symbolized by Babylon 
being identic with that represented by the kingdom of the beast, we 
may consider the two symbols convertible; the mystery heretofore con- 


318 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


templated as the reign of the beast being now, by a change of figure, about 
to be exhibited as a city. 

ᾧ 332. ‘Because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath’ 
(or rather of the rage) ‘of her fornication.’—Babylon, as a figure, is an 
opposite, as we shall find, of the Bride or Lamb’s wife—the new Jerusalem. 
The system represented by Babylon, we suppose to be an opposite of that 
represented by the marriage union—the great mystery, alluded to by Paul, 
Eph. v. 32. . The mixed character of this Babylonish system is accordingly 
symbolized by the promiscuous and adulterous intercourse of an abandoned 
harlot—a criminal indulgence carried to such an extreme as to be appro- 
priately termed a madness or rage; the original ϑὸμυς bemg a term 
applicable to a vehemence of passion, whether of desire or anger, (Donne- 
gan Lex.) ‘The figure appears to be that of a harlot seducing her followers 
by means of an intoxicating drink; the nations having drunk the wine, 
become the victims of the artifices of Babylon. The true wine we suppose 
to be the atonement of Christ—the water of purification converted by the 
power of the Redeemer into the wine of joy—the good wine of the marriage 
feast, (John ii. 10.) The cup of Babylon is an opposite of this—her wine 
is adulterated ; her cup is a cup of mixture. Bearing the name of wine, 
it has its pretensions to the exhilarating qualities of a provision for the pardon 
of the sinner; but, as a mixture of abominations, (Rev. xvil. 4,) we may 
suppose it to represent an atoning provision, composed principally, if not 
altogether, of pretended human means of propitiation. 

The nations we take to represent supposed powers or subordinate sys- 
tems of salvation—nations of the earth, being such powers or elements of 
the earthly system. 'These powers or elements adopt the means-of atone- 
ment proposed by the system of Babylon, being led away by the plausibility 
of her propitiatory scheme, and are thus represented as participating in her cup, 
and consequently, as a matter of course, becoming the victims of her delu- 
sive errors. Systems of salvation, perhaps of various sects and denomina- 
tions adopting the pretended means of atonement peculiar to the harlot sys- 
tem, become in effect identified with that system; the atoning provision 
of any doctrinal system being perhaps that leading feature which charac- 
terizes its whole tendency. 

“ The cup of blessing which we bless,” says Paul, (1 Cor. x. 16,)' is 
it not the communion of the blood of Christ ?”? In other words, “ The real, 
the spiritual cup of blessing—the atonement of Jesus, represented by the 
sacramental cup—ts this not the element of eternal life, identifying us in 
God’s account with his beloved Son?” So we may say of the opposite 
cup of abomination of Babylon, Is it not the pretended element of propitia- 
tion furnished by the blasphemous principle of self ; and is not its tendency 
that of destroying our only hope of salvation, by identifying every system 


THIRD HERALD. : 319 


of faith adopting it with a spiritually adulterous system; thus causing the 
members of Christ, in a spiritual sense, to become the members of an har- 
lot? (1 Cor. vi. 15.) 

The effects of the fall of Babylon may represent those of the destruction 
of this mischievous system of error, especially in reference to the element of 
atonement. ‘This system once destroyed, and its peculiar error exposed, 
the other systems represented by the nations may be supposed susceptible 
of being brought back, as it were, to a renewal of their allegiance to God and 
the Lamb. As the reason given, that Babylon is destroyed because she had 
thus led the nations astray, implies that after her fall this will no more be 
the case, so we suppose it to be with the doctrinal systems of professing 
Christians generally. However erroneous in some respects, the correction of 
their views on the subject of the atonement may result in a correction of every 
other error of a kindred nature. A very slight acquaintance with the religious 
views of a variety of denominations must be sufficient to convince any one 
that the error of Babylon, such as we have supposed it to be, is not confined 
to the system of a single sect, or even to the doctrinal views of a limited 
number of churches, in the ordinary acceptation of that term. — 


Vs. 9, 10, 11. And the third angel fol- 
lowed them, saying with a loud voice, If 
any man worship the beast and his image, 
and receive (his) mark in his forehead, or 
in his hand, the same shall drink of the 
wine of the wrath of God, which is poured 
out without mixture into the cup of his 


Kot ἄλλος ἄγγελος τρίτος ἠκολούϑησεν 
αὐτοῖς, λέγων ἐν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ" et τις says 
πκυνεῖ, τὸ ϑηρίον noe τὴν εἰκόνα αὐτοῦ καὶ 
λαμβάν ει χάραγμα ἐπὶ τοῦ μετώπου αὑτοῦ 
ἢ ἐπὶ τὴν χεῖρα αὑτοῦ" χαὶ αὐτὸς πίεται 
ἐκ τοῦ οἴνου τοῦ ϑυμοῦ τοῦ ϑεοῖ, τοῦ κε- 


indignation; and he shall be tormented 
with fire and brimstone in the presence of 
the holy angels, and in the presence of 
the Lamb. And the smoke of their tor- 
ment ascendeth up for ever and ever : and 
they have no rest day nor night, who 


κερασμένου ἀκράτου ἐν TH ποτηρίῳ τῆς ὃρ- 
γῆς αὐτοῦ, καὶ βασανιϑήσεται ἐν πυρὶ καὶ 
ϑείῳ ἐνώπιον τῶν ἁγίων ἀγγέλων καὶ ἐνώ- 
πίον τοῦ ἀρνίου. Καὶ ὃ καπνὸς τοῦ βα- 
σανισμοῦ αὐτῶν εἰς αἰῶνας αἰώνων ἀναβαί- 


worship the beast and his image, and 


ΝΥ 2 » ae c r . 
- ᾿ VEl, καὶ ουκ ἐχουσιν αΥνασχυσιν Ui E0US χαν 
whosoever receiveth the mark of his Bes 


‘ ~ ‘ ‘ 
γυχτὸς Ob προςπκυγοῦντες TO ϑηρίον καὶ THY 


name. hd ne V7 , f ORR 
εἰκόνα αὑτοῦ, καὶ εἴ τις λαμβάνει τὸ χάραγ- 
μα τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ. 
ᾧ 333. ‘And the third angel followed them.’—This third angel followed 


in the track of the other two—that is, in the mid-heaven. 'The revelation 
is of the same character, in this respect, as the others. 

We have put the contents of these verses together, because they are all 
the language of the same third angel—the publication of the same decree ; 
this decree pointing out, as we conceive, the virtual operation of the sys- 
tem of the beast; which operation we find exhibited in the subsequent 
chapters. 

‘Saying with a loud voice. —The second angel or herald declares only 


a fact, and accordingly there is no particular stress laid upon the tone of his 


320 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


voice. The first and third heralds proclaim a command or a decree: the first 
enjoining the fear and worship of God, the last proclaiming the penalty of 
the opposite worship of the beast. Both of these, therefore, speak with a 
loud voice, as announcing admonitions requiring special attention. 

‘If any man worship the beast,’ &c.—Here we perceive two influences 
in operation simultaneously : one, as described in the last chapter, insisting 
upon the worship of the beast, and actually causing all to receive his mark ; 
the other prohibiting this worship, and denouncing those who are guilty of it, 
&c. Apparently all the dwellers upon the earth, excepting only the sealed 
ones, are obnoxious to the penalty. 

‘ The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath (rage) of God, which is 
poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.’ —Here the wine 
of God’s fury or vehemence, appears to be contrasted with that of Babylon, 
implying that the worshippers of the beast, and bearers of his mark, are 
also participators in the wine of the harlot. ‘The wine of God, we suppose 
to be the good wine, the unadulterated cup of divine atonement ; but the 
wine of the wrath or fury of God, must be the whole vengeance of divine 
justice: the wrath treasured up against the day of wrath—the indignation 
and wrath, tribulation and anguish—the righteous judgment of God spoken 
of, Romans ii. 83-9. This also is said to be an unmixed cup, and as such, it 
is an opposite of the mixed cup or adulterated wine of the harlot more par- 
ticularly described in the seventeenth chapter, where also the intimate rela- 
tion between Babylon and the seven-headed monster is fully set forth. 

‘Poured out without mixture.’—That is, undiluted. The cup of the har- 
lot, like the philtres of ancient times, is made strong by a deleterious mixture 
of drugs. The cup of divine wrath is the stronger from the absence of any 
element capable of moderating the vehemence of its action. The antithesis 
is minutely complete, showing the consequence of a participation in the ele- 
ments of the mixed system of self-righteousness to be an exposure to the 
unmixed visitation of divine justice—the unmitigated vengeance of legal 
requirement. 

The word translated poured out, κεχερασμένου from Κεράννυμι, signifies 
to pour out for the purpose of mingling, (Rob. Lex. 371.) Thus the wine 
of divine vehemence is represented as poured out untempered into the cup 
of judicial indignation ; a figure corresponding with that which we meet 
with, Ps. xxv. 8: “For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine 
is red; it is full of mixture, and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs 
thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.” 
The two elements of vehemence and indignation render the cup a cup of 
mixture, although the vehemence itself is unmingled. 

This latter mixed cup of indignation is evidently an opposite of the good 
wine above alluded to—the atonement of Christ making glad the heart of 


~— 


THIRD HERALD. 321 


man. Christ suffered—the just for the wyust. He took the cup of divine 
indignation, mingled with the undiluted vehemence of offended justice. It 
was not till he had taken the wine mingled with gall, that he said of the 
great work which he came to accomplish, Jt is finished, (John xix. 30.) His 
followers drink of the cup which he was called to drink, (Mark x. 39,) by 
being identified with him in God’s account, and thus participating by ¢pu- 
tation in the merit of his satisfaction of the claims of infinite justice; by 
grace the mixed cup of the Saviour’s sufferings—the water of purification— 
becoming to the disciple the pure wine of the marriage feast. 

Such was the cup alluded to by Jesus himself, when he “ prayed, say- 
ing, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless 
not my will, but thine be done,” (Matt. xxvi. 39.) The vicarious sufferings 
of the Lamb have saved his followers from participating directly in this mix- 
ture of divine vehemence and indignation ; but to those who reject his prof- 
fered salvation—who rely on a propitiation of their own, or upon works of 
righteousness of their own doing, the cup of wrath remains, upon their own 
principles, to be drunk unmingled. Analogous with this necessary conse- 
quence of rejecting the blood of the covenant, the wrath of God is repre- 
sented, apocalyptically, as administered to the self-righteous elements of the 
kingdom of the beast—principles serving to elevate the beast, to exalt his 
name, and to give him (se/f) the glory due to Jehovah. 

§ 334. ‘And he shall be tormented [tortured] with fire and brimstone ;’— 
fire representing the revealed word, (Jer. xxiii. 29,) and sulphur the element 
of perpetual action, (ᾧ 224, note.) The worshippers or principles of the 
beast are figuratively spoken of as undergoing an unceasing and eternal 
trial or torture; as slaves amongst the ancients were sometimes put to the 
rack, when their evidence was required, to extort from them the truth. 

‘In the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb ;’ 
—that is, in their sight, (ὃ 310,) as contradistinguished from a thing done 
in the sight or estimation of man. The false prophet performed great mira- 
cles, even causing fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men, and 
deceived the dwellers upon the earth by means of the miracles which he 
had power to do in the sight of the beast, Rev. xiii. 13, 14. To human 
apprehension, and in the estimation of self, the power of this false interpre- 
tation is very great, and its trial as by the fire of the revealed word very 
wonderful ; but not so in the estimation of Him who “seeth not as man 
seeth : (1 Sam. xvi. 7;) * for that which is highly esteemed amongst men 
is abomination in the sight of God,’ (Luke xvi. 15.) Opposite to this is the 
wonder-working power of the Most High—the principles of the beast’s 
kingdom, or followers of the harlot, are to be tried as by fire in the sight of 
the holy angels and of the Lamb, although this trial may not be simulta- 
neously submitted to human contemplation. 


322 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. . 


‘ And the smoke of their torment [torture] ascendeth up for ever and 
ever. —As smoke is the evidence of the existence of fire, so the smoke here 
alluded to is the evidence of the trial actually being undergone by these false 
principles. The smoke ascendeth up ; the verb is in the present tense, and 
in fact this trial is ever gomg on in the sight of God and the Lamb. So 
we may say, ever since the Scriptures were first given to men, this trial has 
been conducted in the sight of those attending to the subject, just in propor- 
tion as the law and the testimony have been applied to the imaginations of 
man. The operation of the revealed word, in decomposing (analyzing) and 
exhibiting the vanity of human aspirations, as well as of the earthly basis of 
man’s pretensions, founded in the dust, may be compared to this smoke or 
evidence of the trial in contemplation. 

‘ And they [the worshippers of the beast] have no rest day nor night.’— 
It is a remarkable characteristic of the principles of self-exaltation and self- 
dependence, that they are incompatible with the nature of rest. As he 
who has his own righteousness to establish—whose eternal life depends upon 
his own works—should literally give neither sleep to his eyes nor slumber 
to his eyelids, till he has accomplished this all-important enterprise. Even 
if his right hand, or his right eye, or any other member of his body were 
the occasion of his offending against the law, consistently with his own 
views, he should deprive himself even of the power of committing sin. The 
worshipper of self can have no rest, no respite in this respect, unless he 
deceive himself by bringing the requisitions of infinite justice down to the 
standard of his own imperfect performance of duty. 

ᾧ 335. Employment is not always labour : 


“ Absence of occupation is not rest ; 
A mind quite idle is a mind distressed.” 


That which characterizes labour is the motive of action. A slave in cer- 
tain countries labours six days in the week under the galling lash of a task- 
master; on the seventh, he is allowed to employ himself for his own 
benefit, as he pleases. ‘This, perhaps, is all he knows of a Sabbath ; on 
this day he may perform voluntarily double the amount of work required 
of him on any other day of the week ; still the seventh day is with him a 
day of rest. While acting under the taskmaster, he is stimulated to the 
performance of what is required of him by the motive of fear: when enjoy- 
ing comparative liberty, he acts voluntarily ; although more than equally 
diligent, he rests. The hired man, serving for wages, labours ; he is actuated 
by the mercenary motive of expectation of recompense, or the fear of losing 
it. The adopted son, serving his father and benefactor from a motive of 
gratitude alone—a thankful return for benefits received—rests : however 


THIRD HERALD. 523 


assiduous his service, this service is happiness; he is neither in the position 
of a slave, nor in that of the mercenary expectant of wages. 

Under the law, man labours ; he is stimulated to the performance of 
his duty by the motive of fear, the fear of eternal punishment ; or, he is 
actuated by the mercenary motive of wages, expecting to be compensated 
by the Almighty for whatever he may be enabled, even by the same 
almighty power, to perform: eternal happiness is with him something to be 
received in payment for his works. In either case, the position is one of 
labour ; the element of rest cannot find a place in it. 

Under the gospel, the disciple of Jesus trusts for eternal life to the 
redemption wrought out for him—the atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God— 
the justifying power of the imputed righteousness of God himself. He con- 
templates his future happiness as the reward of his Saviour’s merits, not of 
his own ; these merits of Jesus constituting an inheritance of which endless 
bliss is the reward ; confiding in his possession of that which will secure to 
him this benefit, he is stimulated to action in the service of his divine Bene- 
factor by the voluntary motive of gratitude. He rests; however active his 
engagements, his position is that of rest; there is no room here for the 
operation either of the servile motive of fear,* or of the mercenary motive 
of desire of gain. It is evident that one who depends upon his own works, 
cannot enjoy this position of rest; it is as wholly inconsistent with the 
service of se/f, as the principle of this rest is incompatible with the nature 
of the principles represented by the worshippers or subjects of the beast. 
The exhibition of the want of this element in the principles of the beast’s 
kingdom, may be contemplated as a result of the fiery trial previously 
spoken of, to which they are exposed. These principles, in their own 
nature, are devoid of rest; but this does not appear till they are tried by 
being subjected to the test of the revealed word. Thus far, too, the nature 
of these erroneous principles is announced only in the mid-heaven ; the 
same development is not yet supposed to be made upon the earth. 


Vs. 12, 13. Here is the patience of the 
wnat Gar anne τον θμε gems φοῖρτις tis okie τοῦ ϑεοῦ καὶ τὶν le 
; ιν . ~ \ Lf 7 ~ > ~ ia 

And I heard a voice from heaven, saying *” Phi cod ed th ρων 


ws c ‘ ~ c > 
de ὑπομονὴ τῶν ἁγίων ἐστίν, ot τη- 


* “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” (Ps. cxi. 10.) Perhaps 
we may say it is only the beginning, as we have already noticed that this fear is a 
necessary preparation for a favourable reception of the gospel, (ὃ 330;) the true 
wisdom consisting in the exercise of faith in God’s plan of salvation, and the end of 
the commandment, as also the end of wisdom, being charity, (love or gratitude 
towards God the Saviour.) We are assured, 1 John iv. 18, “ There is no fear in love ; 
but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not 
made perfect in love.” Wherefore, as it is stated Heb. ii. 15, it was the purpose of 
Christ in suffering, that he might “deliver them, who, through fear of death, were 
all tneir lifetime subject to bondage.” 


324 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


unto me, Write, Blessed (are) the dead ρανοῦ λεγούσης" γράψον" μακάριοι ob νεκροὶ 
which die in the Lord from henceforth: οἱ gy κυρίῳ ἀποθνήσκοντες ἀπάρτι" vai, 
Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest F 
from their labours; and their works do 
follow them. 


~ 2 "Α͂ - 
λέγει τὸ πνεῦμα, ἵνα ἀναπαύσωνται ἐκ τῶν 
/ c ~ ‘ 1, > ~ 2 ~ 
χόπων αὑτῶν " τὰ δὲ ἔργα αὐτῶν ἀκολουϑεῖ 
2 > ~ 
eT αὑτῶν. 


§ 336. ‘ Here is the patience,’ &c.—This is an exclamation similar to 
that in the preceding chapter, both in the tenth and eighteenth verses :— 
“ς Here is the patience and the faith of the saints ;”’ and “ Here is wisdom.” 
That is, we may suppose, herein is matter for the exercise of faith and 
patience. This we are to consider the conclusion of the third angel’s 
annunciation ; but it may have a prospective as well as a retrospective allu- 
sion ; as the angel may be supposed to know what the “ voice from heaven” 
is about to declare. Apparently the saznts, like the souls under the altar, 
($ 162,) are still supposed to be waiting the final manifestation of the truth, 
For the encouragement of their patience, they have the assurance that the 
elements of falsehood are destined to destruction, while on the other hand 
they are about to be assured of the blessedness of dying in the Lord: the 
certain privation of rest with one of class of objects, and the certain enjoy- 
ment of it by another. 

‘ Here are they that keep the commandments of God.’—“ All these,” 
said the young man, (Matt. xix. 20,) “have I kept from my youth ;” and 
yet he went away sorrowful, when called upon to part with his abundance 
for the benefit of others. It is doubtful whether he really had the love of 
God, and certainly he could not be said to have loved his neighbour as him- 
self; he was probably, however, as near being perfect as the most self- 
righteous of the present day, who value themselves upon keeping the com- 
mandments. We do not suppose those contemplated in this passage to be 
literally human beings, who themselves fulfil every jot and tittle of the law, 
and on that account may be said to “ keep the commandments.” 

The word «de (here) is not repeated in all editions after the word 
saints ; with it, there would appear to be two classes spoken of: the saints, 
and those that keep the commandments ;—without it, the last term may be 
used as in apposition to the first. Here is the patience of the saints, that 
is, of those that keep, &c. The saints or holy ones we have before sup- 
posed to be (apocalyptically) elements or principles, holy, set apart, or as 
we may say, consecrated to that system of the worship of God, and of the 
salvation of man, which is the opposite of the system of the beast. These 
principles keep the commandments and the faith of Jesus, because they are 
strictly in conformity with the purport of the law and of the gospel. ‘They 
constitute the same class of principles (personified) as those spoken of, Rev. 
xii, 17—the remnant of the woman’s seed, against which the dragon went to 
make war; the remnant keeping the commandments of God, and having 


THE VOICE FROM HEAVEN. 325 


the testimony of Jesus, (Ὁ 291 ;) the war made upon these saints or this 
remnant, and the flood from the accuser’s mouth, intended to carry away 
the woman, (the true covenant,) being both exhibited in the power given 
to the ten-horned beast, and the influence possessed by the two-horned 
beast. Both of these have their period of action, but this action is declared 
to be limited, and the end of these evil influences is proclaimed by the third 
herald: which limitation and end appear to be assigned as reasons for a 
patient waiting for Christ ; corresponding with the admonition of Paul to 
the Thessalonians, that the day of Christ must be preceded by a falling 
away, but that this falling away is to result in the development of the mys- 
tery of iniquity ; which mystery, or that wicked, as he terms it, is to be 
consumed by the spirit of the mouth of the Lord, or brought to an end by 
the word of revelation as by fire, 2 Thes. ii. 3 and 8. 

§ 337. ‘And 1 heard a voice from heaven.’—A revelation from the 
heavenly display ; virtually, the language of the divine plan of redemption : 
something not found in the earthly exhibition of that plan. 

‘ Write.’-—A direction, the opposite of that given when the seven thun- 
ders uttered their voices. Those thunders, indicative as they were of a 
judicial denunciation, were not intended apparently to be permanent in their 
utterance ; the apostle was therefore forbidden to write what was announced 
by them (¢ 229.) Here, however, as in all that: pertains to the covenant 
of grace, there is a permanency in what may be termed the general 
proposition laid down ; it is therefore to be written, recorded, never to 
be forgotten. As it was expressed of old by the patriarch, in allusion 
to the same purpose of divine mercy, and. as if offering a reason for his 
own faith and patience: “Ὁ that my words were now written! O that 
they were printed in a book! ‘That they were graven with an iron pen 
and lead in the rock for ever! For I know that my Redeemer’ liveth, and 
that he shall stand at the latter day upon:the earth: and though after my 
skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall see God: whom I 
shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another ; though 
now my reins be consumed within me,” (Job. xix. 23-27.) So also it is said, 
Is. xlix. 13-16, “Sing, Ocheavens; and. be joyful, O» earth; and break 
forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted his people, 
and will have mercy upon his afflicted. But: Zion said, The LORD hath 
forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not 
have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, she may forget, yet will I 
not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee [written thee] upon the palms 
of my hands.” 

‘Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth ;’—or, 
verbatim, Happy the dead, those in the Lord dying, henceforth. This 
happiness does not consist merely in being dead, but in dying in the Lord. 


326 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


The difference of position, whether living or dying, being all-important—in 
Christ or out of Christ. “Know ye not,” says Paul, “that so many of 
us, as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death?’ And 
again, “ For if we be planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall 
be also in the likeness of his resurrection,’ (Rom. vi. 3, 5.) And again, 
Rom. vii. 4, ““ Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law 
by the body of Christ ;” and Gal. i. 19, 20, “ For I through the law am 
dead to the law, that I might live unto God; I am crucified with Christ.” 
So, Col. ἢ. 20, “ Wherefore, if ye are dead with Christ from the rudiments 
of the world, [the elements of the legal system,] why, as though living in 
the world, [as still under a dispensation of works,] are ye subject to ordi- 
nances ?” 

There is a baptism in a natural sense, and a baptism in a spiritual sense ; 
the first being a figure or symbol of the last. So there is a death and a 
burial in a natural sense, and a death and a burial in a spiritual sense ; the 
first being here also a figure of the last. In divine estimation, the disciple 
is accounted to be identified with his Saviour; to have participated in his 
death, sufferings, and crucifixion ; which operation in the mind of God seems 
to be contemplated by the apostle as a baptism into the death of Christ ;* 
a being dead with him—a being crucified with him. So those who die in 
the Lord may be those who, while they are yet living in a natural sense, are 
accounted, in divine estimation, to have been crucified with Christ ; in him, 
having paid the penalty of the law, and being now i him delivered from 
the law. In this then consists the blessedness of being dead in Christ ; 
that it is a position in the sight of God resulting from his own act of grace, 
in which the disciple is exempt from the curse or penalty of the law ; not 
that he is thenceforth without a rule of conduct, but that his motive of con- 
duct, as we have already described, (¢ 324,) is changed ; for as in Christ 
he is dead to the law, so in Christ he is raised to a new position of life—. 
a position of freedom ; at the same time, one of grateful obedience. 

There are, it is true, in a spiritual sense, those who are dead in trespasses 
and sins, even while they live in a natural sense, but these are not the dead in 
Christ ; they are out of Christ, whether living or dying; and in that posi- 
tion they must be subject to all the curse and penalty of legal condemna- 
tion ; but the lamentable character of their case renders the blessedness of 
the opposite class the more striking. “ Blessed,” says the Psalmist, “is he 
whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sins are covered ;” a blessed- 


* To this spiritual baptism allusion is made 1 Peter iii. 21, not, {85 the apostle 
apparently intends to be understood,) the cleansing of the flesh in a natural sense, 
but that spiritual cleansing, through the imputed identity of the disciple with Christ, 
in his death, burial, and resurrection, which results in the cleansing of the conscience 
towards God, συνειδήσεως ἀγαϑῆς ἐπερώτημα εἰς Pedr. 


THE REST OF FAITH. 327 


ness which would hardly call for notice, if those were equally favoured whose 
transgressions were not forgiven, and whose sins were not covered. 

‘From henceforth. —This seems to have a reference to what had been 
just before declared of the destruction of the elements of the beast’s kingdom, 
or rather of the manifestation of their torture, and want of rest; the conse- 
quence of which exhibition is the contrary blessedness of the elements of 
the kingdom of the Lamb, those that die in the Lord ; the exposure of error 
being a means of developing the truth. The voice from heaven utters a 
general proposition, applicable to all who die in the Lord, (whether princi- 
ples or human beings.) Apocalyptically, it may apply to the elements of the 
gospel, personified as.disciples, and taken as opposites of the worshippers of 
the beast and hisimage. Thus the manifestation of the torture and want of 
rest, peculiar to one class of doctrinal elements, is the means of bringing to 
light the characteristics of blessedness and rest peculiar to the other class. 

ᾧ 338. ‘ Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours.’— 
This language of the Spirit seems to be uttered as a response to that of the 
voice from heaven; perhaps we may say, the voice from heaven is the 
written revelation, which shows, as in the writings of Paul, from which we 
have been quoting, the blessedness of being dead in Christ; while the 
language of the Spirit is the spiritual construction to be put upon the written 
revelation, showing that the blessedness of those that die in the Lord con- 
sists in the change of position before adverted to. They are happy in being 
taken out of a position of labour, and being placed in a position of rest— 
not in a state of inactivity, as in the grave, but by this death itself being 
translated to a new state or position of life, or of being—as the apostle says, 
Rom. vi. 8, “ Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall 
also live with him : to be dead with or in Christ implying this conse- 
quent life with or in him—dead indeed unto sin, or as to the transgression 
of the law, but alive unto God—that is, living unto God, as those devoting 
themselves from a sentiment of gratitude to his service. 'This we suppose 
to be the rest of the dead in Christ; for the rest of mere inaction could 
hardly be termed blessed. A state of happiness or blessedness, implies a 
state of life capable of enjoying such happiness ; so, if to be dead in Christ is 
to be blessed or happy, to be dead in Christ is also to be alive with him ; 
as it is said, (Col. iii. 3,) Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in 
God. In fine, to be dead in Christ is to be brought into the position of 
rest ; and to be brought into the position of rest, is to be brought into that of 
grateful devotion to the service of our heavenly Benefactor.* 

‘And [but] their works they follow with them.’—The position of 


* To this position of rest we suppose allusion to be made, Heb. iv. 9: There 
remaineth, therefore, a rest, (σαββατισμὸς,) ἃ sabbatism, (a Sabbath, ina spiritual sense,) 
for the people of God ;—a position of exemption from the labour of fulfilling the law, 

30 


328 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


spiritual rest in Christ is illustrated by the condition of natural rest enjoyed 
by the Israelites in the promised land, which however was only a type or 
symbol of that which we have been contemplating ; “For if,” says Paul, 
(Heb. iv. 8-11,) “ Joshua had given them rest, (spiritual rest,) then he (God) 
would not have spoken concerning ‘another day (of rest) after those things ; 
consequently, there remaineth a sabbatism (a spiritual position of rest) to the 
people of God: for he (Christ) entering into his rest, rested from his works, 
(of redemption,) as God also rested from his works, (of creation ;) let us 
therefore (as followers of Jesus, the spiritual Joshua) hasten (by faith) to 
enter into that rest, (of Christ,) that no one fall, in or by an unbelief :”* cor- 
responding with the typical want of faith of the ancient Hebrews—a type or 
example just before enlarged upon. Such we believe to be the proper con- 
struction of the original; the labour or striving contemplated by the apostle 
being an act of faith, enabling the disciple to apprehend his true position, 
Otherwise than this, he is exhorted to cease from his own work ; that is, to 
cease from going about to establish his own righteousness,—to cease, not from 
action, but from acting from servile and mercenary motives. Accordingly, 
in the passage before us, the works of those dying in Christ, and resting 
from their labours, follow them, instead of gomg, as it were, before them. 
They do not constitute a condition precedent of their enjoyment of this privi- 
lege of identity with Christ ; they are the thank-offerings resulting from it. 
The subjects of this rest are not slothful or unfruitful : they thus judge, that 
if one died for all, “he died for all, that they which live should not hence- 
forth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose 
again,” (2 Cor. v. 15.) Their works evince their gratitude, and this 
evidence of their gratitude is the evidence of their faith, corresponding with 
symbolized by the Levitical Sabbath—symbolized also, we may say, by the setting 
apart of the seventh day from the creation of the world. So, as the Israelites could not 
enter into the rest of the promised Jand because of unbelief, the disciple cannot enjoy 
the rest we have described in Christ, without faith in him, (trust in his imputed merits,) 
as the only means of salvation, As the Israelite was prohibited even the gathering of 
sticks on the Sabbath, so the follower of Christ is required to renounce even the least 
dependence upon any work of his own, as a means of entering into the spiritual rest, 
(the position of rest,) provided by the work of the Redeemer. A mixture of preten- 
sions in this respect, is of the same character as that symbolized by the mixture of 
abominations in the harlot’s cup; the mixed composition of garments of different 
materials, the spotted skin of the leopard, &c., &c. 

Jehovah will not divide with another the glory of man’s salvation ; and to this point 
the symbolic representations of Scripture appear especially intended to direct our 
attention. 

* Heb. iv. 8-11. Ei γὰρ αὐτοὺς ᾿Ιησοῦς κατέπαυσεν, οὐκ ἂν περὶ ᾿ἄλλης ἐλάλει 
μετὰ ταῦτα ἡμέρας. Ἄρα ἀπολείπεται “σαββατισμὸς τῷ λαῷ τοῦ ϑεοῦ. “O γὰρ εἰσέλ- 
ϑὼν εἰς τὴν χατάπατσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ αὐτὸς κατέπαυσεν ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων αὑτοῦ, ὥςπερ, ἀπὸ 
τῶν ἰδίων ὃ ο ϑεύς. Σπουδάσωμεν οὖν εἰςελϑεὶν εἰς ἐκείγην τὴν κατάπαυσιν, ἵνα μὴ ἐν τῷ 
αὐτῷ τις ὑποδείγματι πέσῃ τῆς ἀπεϑείας. 


THE SON OF MAN ON THE WHITE CLOUD. 329 


the proof of faith alluded to by the apostle, James ii. 18: “Show me thy 
faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.” 
Such we suppose to be the operation of faith with enlightened followers of 
Christ ; and, apocalyptically, we take the elements of doctrine opposed to 
those of the beast’s kingdom to be of a corresponding character. 


V. 14. And I looked, and behold, a = Katt εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ γεφέλη λευκή, καὶ ἐπὶ 
white cloud, and upon the cloud (one) sat τὴν γερέλην καϑήμενον ὅμοιον υἱῷ ἀνϑρώ- 
like unto the Son of man, having on his που, ἔχων ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς αὑτοῦ στέφανον 
head a golden crown, and in his hand ἃ wy the tne ary Ue eile ων 
sharp sickle. Zouvoory καὶ ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὑτοῦ δρέπανον osu. 

ᾧ 339. * And I looked, and behold ;’ or, I saw, and lo!—This turn of 
expression is the same as that used at the commencment of the chapter ; it 
appears to indicate a new scene, or a certain change of scene. The apostle 
had been contemplating the action, and had heard the messages of three 
angels or heralds, uttering their respective annunciations,—the approaching 
development of the gospel mystery, the fall of Babylon, and the final trial of 
the worshippers and servants of the beast. That vision had closed with a 
didactic enunciation of a general proposition, an inference from what had 
just before been revealed ; something in the manner of an epilogue or com 
mentary—the moral of the narratives and descriptions just finished. In which 
view, perhaps, it may be taken out of the general rule as applicable to prin- 
ciples, so as to apply it directly to the circumstances of disciples ; as if it 
were said, ‘ Hear the sum of the whole matter: Blessed are the dead that 
die in the Lord, δε. A new spectacle now presents itself. 

‘A white cloud.’—A very different exhibition from that which engaged 
the apostle’s attention, when he stood upon the sand of the sea. Clouds 
we have supposed to be symbolic of the figurative language and illustrations 
of Scripture revelation, (¢ 18.) Dark clouds are such as scarcely in- 
dicate the Saviour; the rays of the Sun of righteousness being hardly 
perceptible in the picture presented. The legal dispensation itself may be 
considered a cloud of this description. A bright cloud, however, we may 
consider such a symbolical exhibition as admits of strong indications of the 
light of divine righteousness ; indications of the approaching manifestation 
of him who is a sun and shield. ‘The gospel, so far as it is expressed in 
figurative language, may be considered a bright cloud. This Apocalypse, 
misunderstood, or but imperfectly understood, may appear a dark cloud ; 
whereas, whenever it is properly and spiritually understood, it will appear 
indeed a white cloud. 

‘And upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man.’—One appear- 
ing in the form of a man; as he who, although so identic with God that he 
thought it not robbery to profess himself equal with the Father, took upon 
himself the form of a servant, and became in fashion as a man, (Phil. ii. 8.) 


330 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


The same form was seen, Rev. i. 13, in the midst of the golden candle- 
sticks. It was seen too in the fiery furnace by the king of Babylon, Dan. 
iii. 25. The same form was also seen by Daniel in the night visions ; one 
like the Son of man, to whom was given dominion and glory, and a kingdom— 
an everlasting dominion not to pass away, and a kingdom never to be 
destroyed, Dan. vii. 13 and 14. This form also was seen by the prophet 
to come with the clouds of heaven. Of the same it is said, Rev. i. 7, 
‘ Behold, he cometh with clouds ; and every eye shall see him, and they also 
which pierced him: and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of 
him.” So Jesus himself speaks of his own coming, Matt. xxiv. 30: “ And 
then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall 
all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming 
in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory ;” and Luke xxi. 27, 
“ And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and 
great glory.” So it was said of the same Son of man, Acts i. 11, when @ 
cloud received him out of the sight of his apostles, “This same Jesus, which 
taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner (that is, in ὦ 
cloud) as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Perhaps we may say, as in a 
natural sense he was taken up from his followers in a material cloud, so ina 
spiritual sense he is to manifest himself in the cloud of symbolic revelation : 
being manifest the second time to the eye of faith without sin unto salvation, 
as the Lord our righteousness, the overcoming prmciple—the principle of 
sovereign grace. The apostle may be said to have seen in vision this 
second coming of the Son of man, as he unveils himself in effect in this 
Apocalypse from amidst a cloud of figurative representation. 

§ 340. ‘Having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp 
sickle..—T his crown, it will be observed, is of the kind allotted to con- 
querors at the games, as a token of victory. ‘The crown is of gold, as the 
composition of the spiritual crown is of truth. The truth, as it is in Jesus, 
wherever it is seen, manifests him to be the victor, having led captivity 
captive, Eph. iv. 8; as in the great contest between Michael and the 
dragon, or between the element of propitiation and that of accusation. 
That contest in heaven has terminated, but the corresponding contest on 
earth, between the elements of truth and falsehood, remains to be brought 
toaclose. The termination of this latter contest is now about to be 
exhibited under the figure of a harvest and vintage ; the destruction of the 
kingdom of the beast, the fall of Babylon, and this harvest and vintage, 
being figures nearly equivalent in their results. 

The portion of the vision in this and the subsequent verses of this 
chapter, appears to correspond with the description given of the end of the 
world, Matt. xiii. 37-43, except that, in that account, the Son of man is said 
to send forth his angels to reap ; while here, he is exhibited as coming himself 


THE HARVEST. 331 


as a reaper to the work. We suppose the allusion to be the same in both 
cases, although represented under different figures. The Son of man is the 
efficient power in this harvest, although he may act through the instru- 
mentality of his angels or messengers. ‘The manifestation of the truth, as 
before remarked, wherever and whenever it takes place, must be the efficient 
cause of the destruction of opposite errors, (tares,) although a variety of 
instrumentalities must be engaged in operating the destruction. 

The instrument (the sickle) shows the nature of the work for which it 
is to be employed. The sharpness of the sickle, like the sharpness of the 
sword out of the mouth of him who stood amidst the golden candlesticks, 
shows the material of the instrument to be the same; the sword of the 
Spirit, and the sickle of the Spirit, being alike the instruments of destroying 
error ; the sickle of the Spirit having the further quality of reaping truth. 
The whole appears to be a figure of the action of the spiritual understand- 
ing of revelation, in discriminating between truth and error ; this figure being 
equivalent to that of the trial by fire, by which the pure gold of truth is to 
be separated from the wood, hay, stubble, and dross of error. 

One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as 
oneday. Weare not obliged to suppose the process of this harvest confined 
literally to a single day. As we suppose it to be effected by the application 
of the spiritual sense of the written word to every element of doctrine ; so it 
may have been already in operation wherever the revealed word has been cir- 
culated, in proportion as that revealed word has been rightly understood. 


V. 15, 16. And another angel came out 
of the temple, crying with a loud voice to 
him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy 
sickle, and reap: for the time is come for 
thee to reap; tor the harvest of the earth 
is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud 
thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the 
earth was reaped. 


ae ἫΝ a] ~ τ τ 
Kat ἄλλος ἄγγελος ἐξῆλϑεν ἐκ τοῦ ναοῦ, 
le οὖ ΄ - 

κράζων ἐν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ τῷ καϑημένῳ ἐπὶ 

~ ’ 

τῆς νεφέλης" πέμψον τὸ δρέπανόν σου καὶ 
ἢ « 5 

ϑέρισον, ὅτι ἤλϑεν ἡ ὥρα ϑερίσαι, ὅτι ἐξη- 
΄ c ‘ ~ ~ rN c 

ράνϑη ὁ ϑερισμὸος τῆς γῆς. Καὶ ἔβαλεν ὃ 

, ‘ ' 

καϑήμενος ἐπὶ τὴν νεφέλην τὸ δρέπανον av- 
- N ‘ ~ ~ 

τοῦ ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν, καὶ ἐϑερίσϑη ἢ γῆ. 


§ 341. ‘And another angel came out of the temple,’ &c.—We have 
already contemplated the temple as that disposition or arrangement of the 
principles of religious truth, in which the worshipper is enabled to come to 
God; this temple arrangement affording a position in Christ in which, and 
in which only, God can be acceptably served ;—coming unto God in Christ, 
and coming unto God in his temple, being nearly equivalent terms. An. 
angel or messenger coming out of this temple, as here described, may indi- 
cate a virtual call of this arrangement (a voice from the temple, Is. Ixvi. 6) 
for a separation of truth from error ; as if, in the language of the Psalmist, It 
is time for thee, O Lord, to work ; for they have made void thy law, (Ps. exix. 
26.) The true worship of God renders the development about being made 
especially requisite ; and the call for it is made upon Him (the Son of 


332 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


man) who, while sojourning on the earth, declared the time to be coming 
when men should no more worship God in certain localities, or in certain 
structures of man’s erection, but in spirit and im truth; who also himself 
purged the earthly temple of those by whom it was occupied for mercenary 
purposes. 

‘ Thrust in thy sickle,’ or rather, send forth thy sickle, πεμψον τὸ δρέπανόν 
cov ;—sending forth the sickle being an equivalent for sending forth the 
reapers. Whatever the instrument, the occasion calls for immediate action. 
The outer court of the temple may be supposed to be at this time in 
possession of the Gentiles, as also the city ; the beast and the false prophet 
are in full power ; the fall of Babylon is determined upon in heaven, but on 
earth she is still, as represented in the first part of the seventeenth chapter, 
sustained by the ten-horned beast. ‘ 

‘'The time is come for thee to reap ; for the harvest of the earth is ripe ;* 
the tares of error, and the good wheat of truth, have reached their maturity. 
It is time to gather out of the kingdom of Christ “all things that offend,” 
or that cause to offend, (πάντα τὰ σκάνδαλα, stumbling-blocks in the way of 
believers.) This call was made in vision eighteen hundred years ago, and 
. would seem hardly yet to have been attended to, unless, as we apprehend, the 
process be continually in operation. With those who leave this world, the 
change wrought by the harvest no doubt is immediate and entire, as they 
enter a state of existence where they are to know as they are known, 
(1 Cor. xiii. 12;) but on earth the process is gradual. It began with the 
first preaching of the gospel, and the separation of the tares from the wheat 
has ever since been being made. 

‘ And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the 
earth was reaped.’—The peculiar propriety of this figure of a harvest may 
be illustrated by considering that wheat is the principal material of bread, 
and that bread, as the chief aliment of life, is a symbol of the righteousness 
or merit necessary to secure the disciple’s eternal life. The bread of life is 
the righteousnesss of Christ, and the spiritual wheat may be considered 
elements of truth, representing this righteousness of Christ to be, as it is, the 
bread of eternal life. The opposite of this is to be found in all those 
elements of false doctrine which represent the means of eternal life as con- 
sisting in some other merits than those of Christ. 'The manifestation of the 
Son of man as the Conqueror—the Overcomer—together with the spiritual 
sense of revelation acting as the sharp sickle, is in its nature the means of 


* Dry ripe, fully ripe, ἐξηράνϑη. The erroneous system, represented by the earth, 
with all its variety of errors, has reached its utmost extreme of abomination: 
as it is said, (Jer. iii. 33,) “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor; 
it is time to thresh her. Yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall 
come.” 


THE VINTAGE. 333 


exhibiting the folly of any dependence upon pretensions of human merit. 
Thus, by an exhibition of the truth as it is in Jesus, the sharp sickle of the 
Son of man is sent forth, and the earth is reaped. There is something 
instantaneous in the operation as here described, and so there is in effect ; 
as God said, “Let there be light, and there was light: no sooner is the 
truth fully manifested than the tares of error are reaped, and ready for 
destruction. Perhaps in this particular a peculiar stress may be laid upon 
the word thee, in the 15th verse—the time is come for thee (the Son of 
man) to reap—although this form of expression is not found in all editions 
of the Greek : it appears however in keeping with the circumstance, that 
the Son of man, the Lamb on Mount Zion, has now manifested himself: it 
is for this reason that the time has come especially for him to reap. 


Vs. 17,18. And another angel came = Katt ἄλλος ἄγγελος ἐξῆλϑεν ἐκ τοῦ ναοῦ 
out of the temple which is in heaven, he τὸν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ἔχων καὶ αὐτὸς δρέπανον 
also having ἃ sharp sickle. And another 22% καὶ ἄλλος ἄγγελος ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ τοῦ 
angel came out from the altar, which had 5 * gs poe tag ibaa shade. : 
power over fire; and cried with a loud Sue Re κοῦ din etecenhtininlid iby tudes τ 
ery to him that had the sharp sickle, say- καὶ ἐφώνησε κραυγῇ μεγάλῃ τῷ ἕχοντι τὸ 
ing, Thrust in thy sharp sickle,and gather δρέπανον τὸ ὀξύ, λέγων: πέμψον σου τὸ 
the clusters of the vine of the earth; for δρέπανον τὸ ὀξὺ καὶ τρύγησον τοὺς βότ- 
her grapes are fully ripe. aes δὶ f ia a ταν 

θρυας τῆς ἀμπέλου τῆς γῆς, OTe ἤχμασαν 
αἵ σταφυλαὶ αὐτῆς. 


§ 342. ‘And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven,’ 
&c.—There seems to be here a distinction between this temple and that 
mentioned in the fifteenth verse; as if one were the temple on earth, and 
the other that in heaven. Perhaps we may say, that the first is in a state of 
duress ; its angels or messengers cry, as it were, for help. The other is the 
heavenly temple, corresponding with the Jerusalem from heaven, and con- 
sequently is able to send aid, instead of asking for it. In any case, however, 
they are both temples in a spiritual sense, and as such they constitute some- 
thing relating immediately to the worship of God. 

The angel or messenger from the heavenly temple, we may presume 
to be charged with all that pertains particularly to this worship “in spirit 
and in truth.’ His weapon is also a sharp sickle; an instrument of the 
Spirit, or a spiritual interpretation. 

‘And another angel came out from the altar..—This altar apparently 
corresponds with the temple mentioned in the fifteenth verse, that of which 
the court is in possession of the Gentiles; like Jerusalem in bondage 
calling for deliverance. 

‘Which had power over fire ;’ or, according to the Greek, had: power over 
the fire, that is, over the fire of the altar ;—fire being the instrument of trial, 
and the fire of the altar trying in effect every thing consumed upon the 
altar, as in the case of the burnt offerings under the law :—the fire of the 


334 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


altar being on this account especially under the care of Aaron and his sons— 
a perpetual fire, symbolic of the perpetual trial to which the services and the 
sacrifices of the worshipper are subjected. The functions of this angel may 
be supposed to consist in trying the propitiatory sacrifices ; in other words, 
he is charged particularly with watching over the element of atonement. 
The loud cry of this angel may, accordingly, be considered as occasioned by 
the erroneous views which have crept into the earthly system on the subject 
of the atonement, or propitiation of Christ. 

The worship of the temple may be divided into two parts: that which 
belongs to the actual service of God without reference to the past, typified 
perhaps by the daily sacrifice, and that which belongs to atoning for past 
transgressions ; as under the Levitical arrangement the worshipper bring- 
ing his atoning offering had, besides, his daily sacrifice to attend to; and as 
he who attended to his daily sacrifice might still have neglected to bring his 
offering of atonement for some previous transgression. 

The first of these, the actual service of God, is characterized by the 
motive ; an act of worship arising from an impure motive, as of a desire to 
serve self, resembling the offering of an unclean animal—the cutting off a dog’s 
neck, (Is. xvi. 3.) Here the impure service, or abomination, corresponds 
with that self-righteousness which is the opposite of the true bread of life ; 
accordingly, the angel having charge of this part of the temple service 
calls for the harvest of the earth—a harvest resulting in the destruction of ᾿ 
these self-righteous elements. 

The atoning sacrifice demands the offering of that which ts prescribed, 
as the only acceptable propitiation. ‘The Israelite was required to offer a 
male lamb, on certain occasions, as such a sacrifice. The propitiatory offer- 
ing of the Christian is the Lamb of God; the blood of this Lamb, the 
atonement of Christ, being the only propitiation acceptable to God. He 
who professes to propitiate divine favour by any other atonement than this, 
is as if he offered swine’s blood, (Is. lxvi. 3,)—the blood of Christ repre- 
senting the true atonement, the blood of swine that of an entirely opposite 
character. Blood is typically represented by the juice, or blood, of the 
grape; and by metonymy, in the present passage the grape itself is put for 
the juice of the grape. As wine, or the blood of the grape, represents the 
element of atonement, the grapes of the vine of the earth are put for the 
atonement professed to be offered by the earthly system. The vine of the 
earth producing these grapes, or this earthly pretension of atonement, is thus 
an opposite of Christ, who declares himself to be the true vine. The 
earthly vine, with its grapes, like swine’s blood, represents an element of 
propitiation, the opposite of that prescribed ; it is abomination in the sight 
of God. In this respect it may be considered a symbol parallel with that of 
the beast, aiming as it does to occupy the place of the Saviour in a propi- 


THE WINE-PRESS OF WRATH. 335° 


tiatory system of redemption. This error on the subject of propitiation has 
now reached its extreme; this vine of the earth is fully ripe; and as it 
is the part of the angel having charge of the fire of the altar to attend to 
the purity of the sacrifice, (whether this sacrifice consists in the burnt offer- 
ing, or the shedding of blood represented by juice of the grape,) so it is by 
this angel that the cry is made, as from the altar, for an immediate exercise 
of the sharp sickle in the hands of the angel issuing from the heavenly 
temple. ‘The action of this last sickle corresponds in natural things with 
the process of the vintage, which is well known always to succeed the 
wheat harvest. Apparently, there is a similar order of succession in the 
growth and in the correction of errors upon the subject of divine worship : 
the self-righteous man first esteeming his daily ordinary performance of 
duty to his God perfect and acceptable ; and next, when convinced of sin 
in this respect, supposing himself capable of working out an atonement for 
his past deficiency by some propitiation of his own. This last error is now 
also described as having reached its maturity: the grapes of the vine of the 
earth are fully ripe. Not that they are fit for use, for the vine of the earth is 
the vine of Sodom; its grapes are grapes of gall; its clusters are bitter’; 
its wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. 


Vs. 19, 20. And the angel thrust in his 
sickle into the earth, and gathered the 
vine of the earth, and cast (it) into the 
great wine-press of the wrath of God. 
And the wine-press was trodden without 


Kai ἔβαλεν ὃ ἄγγελος τὸ δρέπανον av. 
τοῦ εἰς τὴ» γῆν, καὶ ἐτρύ 7ησε τὴν ἄμπελον 
τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἔβαλεν εἰς τὴν ληνὸν τοῦ ϑεοῦ 
τὸν μέγαν. Καὶ ἐπατήϑη, ἢ ληνὸς ξξωϑεν 


the city, and blood came out of the wine- 
press, even unto the horse-bridles, by the 
space of a thousand (and) six hundred 


τῆς πόλεως. καὶ ἐξῆλϑεν αἷμα &% τῆς ληνοῦ 
Pl ~ ~ ~ U > ‘ 
ἄχρι τῶν χαλινῶν τῶν ἵππων, ἀπὸ σταδίων 
χιλίων ἑξξακοσίων. 


furlongs, 

§ 343. ‘ And the angel thrust in his sickle,’ &c.—The call for the 
sharp sickle was to gather the clusters of grapes. Vintagers are careful, in 
gathering the grapes of a good vine, not to injure the plant itself. Accord- 
ing to the law of Moses, even the clusters of grapes were not to be entirely 
stripped from the vine ; some were to be left for the poor, the fatherless, 
and the widow. But here is a vine, the fruit of which is not fit to be given 
away ; a plant yielding such fruit that it is not to be suffered to grow again ; 
it is entirely cut up, root and branch, (Matt. iv. 1.) The whole vine is 
gathered and cast altogether into the great wine-press. The figure is a 
strong one, showing the entire destruction awaiting the fallacious system of 
propitiation, represented by this vine. 

‘And cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of God.’—The 
wrath of God must be that element of divine justice which requires the 
infliction upon the offender of a punishment coextensive with the magnitude 
of the transgression. ‘Transgression of the law of God is a crime of infinite 
magnitude ; the retribution which it calls for, must be infinite—the punish- 


336 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


ment must be eternal. This punishment is usually spoken of in Scripture 
as the loss of eternal life, and life in Scripture is spoken of as blood ; blood 
being termed the life of the animal. Divine Justice is thus represented as 
requiring the blood—the eternal life—of the transgressor ; a shedding of 
blood, equal to the magnitude of the sins committed, (Heb. ix. 22.) The 
blood of the animal is also represented by wine, the blood of the grape; 
and we may, accordingly, take the wine-press of divine wrath to be a figure 
of the power of the law in requiring satisfaction for the transgressions of the 
sinner, (a penalty equal to the crime.) The vine of the earth, on the other 
hand, may be supposed to represent the proposed means of atonement, 
peculiar to the earthly system. ‘The clusters may be characterized by 
some variety, but they are all the growth of the same plant; all proposed 
human means of atonement originating from the same self-dependent spirit 
of error. The moment of trial has now come: divine justice, with the law 
as its instrument, exacts the penalty of sin—the forfeiture of eternal life. 
The earthly system, on the other hand, offers all that it can produce— 
every device of earthly means of atonement entering into the heart of man. 
The whole of these are brought to the test: the wine-press of divine justice 
must be satisfied. ‘To show that it requires all, and more than all, that the 
earth can furnish, not merely the clusters, but the whole Vine is cast into 
the press. But the wine-press still remains unsatisfied ; it is as capable of 
exercising its power over another vine, or over any number of vines, of the 
same character, as it was before. The exaction of infinite justice is 
infinite. 

The wine-press is sometimes supposed to be put for the vat or receptacle 
of the liquor. But we do not think this to be the figure here intended, as 
it would then seem that the vat or press was overflowed, and, of course, 
more than satisfied. We suppose the term press to be confined here strictly 
to the power by which the juice is expressed from the grape, and the whole 
country round to be contemplated as one vast receptable or vat for the pro- 
duct of the vine. As if it were said, So infinite is the penalty to be paid 
for the transgressions of a world of sinners, that the whole earth would 
scarcely be sufficient to receive the blood (life) exacted by the law. 

‘ And the wine-press was trodden without the city..—The city we sup- 
pose to be the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem ; for the vision is in heaven, 
or in the mid-heaven, where Babylon, that great city, is already contemplated 
as fallen. In the heavenly Jerusalem, or weston of peace, there is no wine- 
press of wrath. This is not an element of the holy city ; “her walls are 
salvation, and her gates are praise.”’ Within the city, that is, within the 
covenant of grace, all is peace and reconciliation: justice has there been 
satisfied. Out of it there is no peace,—and out of it, accordingly, the wine- 
press of wrath is trodden. 


THE WINE-PRESS OF WRATH. 337 


ᾧ 344. ‘ And blood came out of the wine-press, even unto the horses’ 
bridles ;’—or, rather, unto the bits of the horses’ bridles ; the term χαλινός 
signifying the mouth-piece, or that part of the bridle where the bit is placed, 
(Donnegan.) Wine-presses in Eastern countries were usually trodden by 
men ; but as cattle and horses were also in those countries frequently em- 
ployed in treading out the grain, it is easy to imagine, that in an immense 
wine-press, such as is here contemplated, horses rather than men would be 
employed : it is to the bits or mouth-pieces of these horses that the blood 
of the grape of this earthly vine is represented as reaching. 

‘ By the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs ;}—about equal 
to two hundred English miles, if the furlong (στάδιος) be the Roman sta- 
dium : if it be the Greek, somewhat less. It is not said, whether the press 
be equal to an area of sixteen hundred square furlongs, or whether it be a 
square of sixteen hundred furlongs on each side. In either case, the extent 
is immense for a wine-press ; and the whole description may be taken as 
hyperbolical, representing in fact the infinity of satisfaction required by the 
law as a propitiation for sin. A liquid like the juice of the grape, reaching 
to the mouths of the horses, and covering a space equal to two hundred 
square miles, or perhaps forty thousand square miles, capable of seeking 
everywhere its own level, can be considered only as a figure of some 
immense indefinite quantity, showing the immensity of the requisition which 
may be said to absorb it. Besides this, whatever the quantity be, the vine 
is still the vine of the earth ; its wine is not the good wine of a Saviour’s 
atoning blood. On the other hand, we may notice that however immense 
the dimensions of this wine-press, they are but small in comparison with 
those of the heavenly city, as given at the close of this book, (Rev. xxi. 
16,) covering an area of one hundred and forty-four millions of square fur- 
longs, or two million two hundred and fifty thousand square miles. Besides 
which, the depth of the blood extorted by the wine-press of wrath, although 
reaching to the horses’ bridles, is far exceeded by the altitude of the holy 
city—twelve thousand furlongs !—its height as well as its length and breadth 
being equal ; affording the assurance that, whatever be the magnitude of the 
retribution demanded by the attribute of divine justice, the provision of 
infinite mercy in the covenant of grace, affording the means of propitiation, 
far exceeds it: the breadth and length, and depth and height of the love 
of Christ passing knowledge, (Eph. ii. 18, 19.) 

Still we suppose there is some further significance to be attached to the 
numerical sign of sixteen hundred. ‘There must be some reason why the 
initial number sixteen should be selected rather than any other. We do 
not find any thing of a typical or symbolic character to compare with it 
directly ; but if we suppose, as above, the area of the wine-press to be six- 
teen hundred square furlongs, and of a quadrangular figure, the sides of this 


338 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


square must be equal to forty furlongs each ; the number sixteen hundred 
being the result of forty multiplied into forty, affording us a key to the 
allusion ; as we have, some time since, noticed the number one hundred and 
forty-four to be the product of twelve multiplied by twelve, indicating 
something resulting from the joint operation of the twelve patriarchs and 
twelve apostles, or from the Old and New Testament revelations. 

The most remarkable uses of the sign forty in the Scriptures, are asso- 
ciated with something of a penal import, although this cannot be said to be 
uniformly the case. Forty kine composed a part of the propitiatory offering 
selected by Jacob to appease his justly offended brother, Gen. xxxu. 15 ; 
forty stripes constituted the punishment required by law, to be inflicted 
upon the man worthy to be beaten, Deut. xxv. 2.3; Moses was forty 
years old before he was permitted to go to the deliverance of his brethren, 
Acts vil. 25; the Israelites bore their iniquities forty years in the wilder- 
ness, Num. xiv. 34. So the Israelites are said to have been afllicted in 
bondage four hundred years, Gen. xv. 13, and Acts vi.6; and Esau came to 
be avenged of his brother Jacob with a force of four hundred men, Gen. xxxii. 
6. So, apparently, there were with David four hundred men when the oppor- 
tunity was offered him of taking vengeance upon Saul ; but David, the type of 
him that was to come, withheld them. ‘The deluge, the visitation of divine 
wrath, was brought upon the earth by a rain of forty days and forty nights’ 
continuance, Gen. vil. 12. Moses was forty days and forty nights in the 
mount, on the occasion of receiving the legal code, the first tables of the 
legal covenants written on stone, Deut. ix. 9; and after the destruction of 
these first tables, he again fell down before the Lord forty days and forty 
nights, during which time he did neither eat nor drink, on account of the 
sins of the people, Deut. ix. 9,18, 25. So we find in the New Testament 
that Jesus himself fasted forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, 
where he was with the wild beasts, and where he endured the temptation 
of Satan, before commencing his earthly ministry ; and after his resurrection 
he was again forty days and forty nights with his disciples, prior to his 
ascension and glorification. We do not attach importance to these terms of 
time, merely as such, but we think there is peculiarity enough in this use of 
the numerical sign forty, and its cognate four hundred, to suppose it to be, 
wherever we find it mystically employed, (even as the root of its square,) 
indicative of something of a judicial character, directing our minds to the 
requisitions of the law; and thus, when applied to the dimensions of the 
wine-press, exhibiting this vintage process of the Apocalypse as a repre- 
sentation of the action of divine justice upon all the elements of human 
systems of propitiation ; showing the utter inadequacy of every earthly 
means of atonement, and pointing to the necessity of an infinite provision. 


RETROSPECT, 339 


RETROSPECT. 


ᾧ 345. The whole of this chapter appears to be of an imtroductory 
character, affording us a view of what may be said to be seen and known 
in heaven, before it is seen to operate in the earth. 

The Lamb on Mount Sion, with his hundred and forty and four thousand 
attendants, is the Lamb seen amidst the throne, (Rev. v.6,) with his seven 
horns and seven eyes, undertaking the opening of the sealed book—an 
undertaking of which he alone was worthy. He has accomplished the 
work, the last seal having been opened when the seven angels received their 
seven trumpets, Rev. vill. 1, 2; and the last trumpet has already sounded, 
Rey. xi. 15. He may now be contemplated as receiving the glory, and 
exercising the power resulting from his own work. 

The consequences we may say of the opening of the sealed book are, 
the exhibition of the character and power of the spirit of error pervading 
the earthly system on the one hand; and on the other, the manifestation of 
the true position, power, an@glory of the Redeemer ; the Lamb, once seen as 
it had been slain, being now contemplated as on the Mount Zion, victorious 
in heaven, although this victory is not yet developed in the earthly view of the 
same mystery. ‘The disciple, in the midst of the discouragements to which 
his faith may be subjected, while he witnesses the temporary triumph of the 
beast and the false prophet, with this portion of the Apocalypse before him, 
may say in the words of the patriarch, “‘ I know that my Redeemer liveth, 
and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth,” Mount Zion. 

A consequence of the appearance of the Lamb upon Zion, is a convic- 
tion of the necessity of a preparation of mind for receiving the glad tidings 
of salvation. The time for developing the true means of safety has arrived. 
Now, therefore, is also the time for exercising that fear of God, and that 
disposition to ascribe all glory to him, which will prompt the sinner to fly to 
the stronghold provided ; and to receive with ready acquiescence, and with 
joy and gratitude, the word of truth ; that his hope and his refuge is in God 
alone, the Rock of his strength, and the God of his salvation. A conse- 
quence of these developments is the further manifestation that the reign of 
error is at an end. With the preparative fear of God in the heart, and the 
disposition to give to Him the glory of the work of redemption, (as of the 
Lamb now contemplated,) the influence of the mercenary system of self- 
righteousness ceases: Babylon is fallen, and the iniquitous tendency of her 
principles is fully perceived. A consequence of all, thus far developed, 
must be the conviction that the elements of the kingdom of the beast, (the 
principles upon which his power is exercised, and by which it is sustained,) 


840 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


must necessarily be exposed to an eternal trial in the presence of Him who 
searcheth the heart, and trieth the motives of action ; and that they are, fur- 
ther, principles of servile labour wholly inconsistent with the element of 
rest : consequently, those who depend upon them, and act upon them, must 
be themselves without rest ; all their conduct, their inward thoughts, or 
their outward actions, being characterized by the slavish principle of fear. 

Hence the inference, (in the nature of things,) pronounced as by the 
voice of God, the creator of all things, is, that the only true blessedness’or 
happiness, for time and for eternity, consists in being found in Christ, 
(Phil. ii. 9,)—identified with him, partaking with him, by imputation, of 
the full satisfaction made to the law ; with him, also, rising to a new position 
of being and of action—a position of active service, but the service of a 
grateful heart, as of the Lord’s freedman. 

§ 346. The developments of the last three angels or messengers may 
be said to be directed especially to matters concerning the welfare of the 
disciple,—demonstrating his only true ground of hope, by exhibitmg the 
fallacy of expectations of an opposite character. His doctrinal views are 
now supposed to have reached the position of rest a» Christ—a position in 
which he casts his care, even for eternity, upon Him who careth for him; 
trusting for the bread—the means of eternal life—to him who supplieth 
the fowl of the air and the beast of the forest with food ; and looking for a 
robe of righteousness and a garment of salvation to Him who clotheth the 
lily of the valley and the grass of the earth with all their varieties of beauty. 
The believer is now supposed to have no interest of his own in contem- 
plation, so far as pertains to anxiety for the future ; but his views still need 
correction in respect to the mode in which he is to serve or worship his 
heavenly Benefactor. He has learned the true way of salvation; he has 
now to learn the true way of worshipping God. Fr this end, the develop- 
ments of the next three messengers are directed especially to an exhibition 
of the certain destruction awaiting the errors insinuating themselves into the 
earthly scheme of Christian doctrine upon the subject of this worship. The 
salvation of the sinner called for the previous revelations ; the temple wor- 
ship (the service of God) now calls for similar revelations. 

The Lamb once slain now appears in a different character: instead of 
standing upon Mount Zion he reveals himself in, or upon, a white cloud 
from heaven. He is seen in all the glory of his own divine righteousness, 
white as the light; or, if we prefer it, sustained by the glory, or by the 
righteousness itself which constitutes this glory. He appears as a con- 
queror, and the first exercise of his power is to purify the temple service: 
to purge away, and to eradicate or destroy, the mercenary principles of 
the earthly system pretending to the worship of God, but really tending 
to the worship of the beast. For this work he appears armed with the 


REROSPECT. 341 


sharp sickle, the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, (the revealed word, 
in its proper spiritual sense.) This work is divided into two parts, as the 
errors to be destroyed are divided into two classes: the first, is that which 
pertains to the principle upon which God is to be served ; the last, that 
which belongs to a just view of the only propitiatory offering acceptable to 
a Being of infinite justice, and sovereign in the exercise of his mercy. The 
eradication of the first class of errors is illustrated by the harvest of a field 
equal to the whole earth, of which the yield is supposed to be a mixture of 
wheat and tares. ‘The earth is said to be reaped; the result of this reaping 
is not stated. We are left to judge of it by inference ; comparing the per- 
formance of the operation with what was predicted of it, apparently, by the 
Son of man himself when manifest in the flesh, (Matt. xiii. 37-42.) The 
result of the vintage, however, which was not there alluded to, is here 
given. In the errors of the earthly system on the subject of the atonement, 
there does not appear to be even a mixture of good with the bad; the 
whole vine is cut up, and, with all its clusters and branches, is subjected to 
the judicial action of the wine-press of wrath. 

Such seems at least to be the heavenly scheme of the revelation about 
to be pursued ; the announcement of these six heralds or messengers being 
somewhat in the nature of a prologue, bearing, to the remainder of the 
Apocalypse, the relation of that portion of a dramatic composition to the 
subsequent representation.* 

§ 347. The worshipper of the beast, the deluded subject of the false 
prophet’s influence, if permitted to contemplate the developments of this 
chapter in their spiritual sense, may exclaim, at the conclusion, with the 
prophet of Israel—< The harvest is past, the summer is ended, even the 
vintage is gathered, and we are not saved.’ The earthly system has exhib- 


* The everlasting gospel in possession of the first angel, is not directly preached. 
The glad tidings are not fully made known till we reach the last two chapters of the 
Apocalypse, where they are set forth under the figures of the Lamb’s wife, and of the 
new Jerusalem. The particulars of the fall of Babylon are not given till we reach 
the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters, where this mercenary system is set forth 
under the figures of an abandoned harlot, and of a great commercial city; and the 
relation of the final destruction of the power of the beast and the influence of the false 
prophet, is delayed till the close of the nineteenth chapter. The proclamations of the 
three first angels may be considered therefore as so many predictions, of the fulfil- 
ment of which, the subsequent narratives furnish an account. The purification of the 
temple service, shadowed forth in the latter part of this chapter, appears to be repre- 
sented more particularly in the figure of the operation of the seven vials of wrath—the 
account of which we are to commence upon in the next chapter—the order of the 
fulfilment of these angelic predictions being thus exactly inverted: the relation cor- 
responding with the first action is given last, and that corresponding with the action 
of the three last angels is given first. 


342 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


ited all that it is capable of performing, and has been manifested to be 
entirely insufficient. 

An operation analogous to these agricultural processes may be said to 
take place in the mind of every disciple of Christ, in proportion as he is 
brought to the knowledge of the truth: convinced of the exceeding sinful- 
ness of his sins, of his own entire destitution of righteousness, and of the 
certainty of condemnation in the sight of God, he sees the whole products 
of his pretended merits cut up, as by the sharp sickle of the Holy Spirit. 
The harvest indeed is gathered; but it proves to be a harvest of tares—a 
crop of thorns and thistles, (Gen. iii. 18.) 

So with respect to the vintage, when the eyes of the convinced sinner 
are once opened to the insufficiency of any efforts of his own in_ providing 
an atonement, his grapes, like those of the vineyard described by the pro- 
phet, (Is. v. 2-7,) appear, even in his own estimation, to be wild grapes— 
without avail in satisfying the requisitions of the wine-press of infinite jus- 
tice: his only hope is now in the work of him who has trodden the wine- 
press alone, (Is. xii. 3.) 

As it is said in the prophets, in allusion apparently to the same process 
of conviction—the same manifestation of truth—<I will water thee with 
my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits 
and for thy harvest is fallen. And gladness is taken away, and joy out of 
the plentiful field ; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither 
shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their 
presses ; I have made their vintage-shouting to cease.” (Is. xvi. 9, 10.) 
‘Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been 
mindful of the Rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant 
plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: in the day shalt thou make 
thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flou- 
rish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of des- 
perate sorrow.” (Is. xvii. 10, 11.) ‘The earth mourneth and fadeth 
away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of 
the earth do languish.” ‘“'The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, 
all the merry-hearted do sigh.” “They shall not drink wine with a song ; 
strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it. ‘The city of confusion 
[Babylon] is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come 
in. ‘There is a crying for wine in the streets ; [the vintage having failed ;] 
all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone. In the city is left deso- 
lation, and the gate is smitten with destruction:’—Is. xxiv. 4, 7, 9-12. 
“ For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, [the ele- 
ments of vindictive justice,] whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath 
the cheek teeth [the grinders] of a great lion. He hath laid my vine waste, 


RETROSPECT. 343 


and barked my fig-tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away ; the 
branches thereof are made white.’ * * * * “The vine is dried up, 
the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the 
apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is 
withered away from the sons of men,” Joel i. 6, 7, 12. 

The opposite of this picture of desolation and despair, resulting from a 
position of self-dependence, is to be found in that faith of the disciple who, 
trusting in the justifying righteousness of a divine Redeemer, (the finest of 
the wheat, Ps. Ixxxi. 16,) and the atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God, 
(the wine of Lebanon, Hosea xiv. 7,) is able to exclaim with the prophet, 
even under the conviction of his own infinite unworthiness, ‘‘ Although the 
fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour 
of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat ; the flock shall be 
cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will 
rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation,” Hab. iii. 17, 18. 


91 


344 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


“CHAPTER XV. 


THE LAST PLAGUE'S.—THE SONG OF THE VICTORS .—~ 
THE TEMPLE SCENE.—THE COMMISSION OF WRATH 
TO THE SEVEN ANGELS. 


V.1. AndIsawanothersigninheaven, «Καὶ εἶδον ἄλλο σημεῖον ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ 


great and marvellous, seven angels hav- μέχα καὶ ϑαυμαστόν, ὰ ἀγγέλους ἑπτὰ ἔχον- 
ing the seven last plagues; for in them is 


filled up the wrath of God τας πληγὰς ἕ ἑπτὰ τὰς ἐσχάτας, ὅτι ἐν αὐταῖς 
: ἐτελέσθη: ὃ ϑυμὸς tov ϑεοῦ. 


§ 347. ‘Ann I saw another sign in heaven,’ &c.—There are three 
signs (σημεῖα) in heaven, mentioned in this book of Revelation, of which that 
now before us is the last :—first, the great sign of the woman bringing forth 
the man-child ; second, the sign of the great red dragon ; and third, the 
great and wonderful sign of these seven angels having the seven last 
plagues. 

The scene is still laid in heaven, and what we behold is to be con- 
sidered something occurring in the counsels of the Most High ; the results of 
which on earth we are subsequently to be made acquainted with. There is 
some change, however, in the’ scenery presented. In place of the wine- 
press of the wrath of God, we have seven angels or messengers commis~ 
sioned, as we shall see, to administer this wrath by seven different exhibi- 
tions ; the pouring out,of the vials of wrath, about to be described, being 
equivalent to the operations of the harvest and vintage, with the spectacle 
of which we were presented at the close of the preceding chapter; as, in 
a dream or vision of the night, one image unaccountably merges itself into 
another, and yet not without some traces of connection in the chain of ideas. 
This sign is denominated great and marvellous, as if to afford us the assur- 
ance that if the power at work on the side of falsehood, (the great red 
dragon,) were a sign of something of extraordinary import, the exhibition 
of the powers in operation on the side of truth—the truth of salvation by 
srace—is something still more worthy of our astonishment. 

‘Seven angels having the seven last plagues; for,’ &c. ;—or, according 
to the order of the Greek, with a little difference in the punctuation, Seven 
angels having seven plagues, the last, because in them, or by them, is com- 


CHORUS OF VICTORS. 345 


pleted or brought to an end (ἐτελέσϑη) the vehiemence of divine indigna- 
tion. That is, in accordance with our general rule of interpretation, these 
plagues are called the ast, because they are the last dlustrations afforded 
by this book of the wrath or yehemence in contemplation ; not that the 
action of the wine-press is the visitation of one wrath, or of one degree of 
wrath, and that of the seven angels of another, or of seven others ; but they 
are all different modes of exhibiting the same truth. So the fearful picture 
presented at the close of the sixth chapter, is not that of a prior visitation of 
the wrath of God ; for it is there said that the great day of his wrath is 
come. We apprehend the commotions there described correspond as illus- 
trations with the actions of the harvest, wine-press, and these seven plagues.* 


V.2. AndI saw as it were a sea of Kat εἶδον ὡς ϑάλασσαν ὑαλίνην μεμιγ- 
glass mingled with fire: and them that μένην πυρί, χαὶ τοὺς γικῶντας ἐκ τοῦ ϑη- 
had gotten the victory over the beast, and lou καὶ ἐκ τῆς εἰκόνος αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐκ τοῦ 
over his image and over his mark, (and) > hs Bi. oe Sg Ὁ nae 
over the number of his name, stand on the ἀθιϑμοῦ τοῦ SERRE AG ΠΌΡΟΣ UR Ate 
sea of glass, having the harps of God. τὴν ϑάλασσαν τὴν ναλίνην, ἔχοντας κιϑάρας 

τοῦ ϑεοῦ. 


§ 348. ‘ And I saw,’ &c.—Here again we have a scene similar to that 
of the intervention of a dramatic chorus ; an exhibition furnishing a most 
striking contrast with those immediately preceding and succeeding it. As 
if to remind us that amidst all this awful display of divine indignation 
(judicial wrath) there is a class of objects which, like the family of the 
patriarch, and all that were with him in the ark, are preserved in perfect 
peace and security amidst the tumultuous and destructive elements around 
them ; preserved too, essentially, not by any worthiness of their own, but by 
the position in which they are placed ; as the believer, adopted in Christ, 
preserved by the covenant of grace, contemplates without alarm the denun- 
ciations of the law ; exemplifying in his faith a fulfilment of the promise, 
(Is. xxvi. 3,) “ Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed 
on thee, because he trusteth in thee.” 

‘ As it were a sea of glass mingled with fire ;/—or, rather, a sea of crys- 
tal. We associate with glass the idea of something brittle, fragile, not to 
be depended upon : but ἃ sea of crystal, with all the smoothness and trans- 
parency of glass, has also in its solidity the essential quality of a rock: the 
sea of crystal here representing apparently a foundation, a basis of faith, 
corresponding with that before exhibited as the Mount Sion. As the sea, 
which never rests, became calm at the command of Jesus, so the element of 
divine wrath, terrible as it is to the sinner, becomes, through the propitiatory 
intervention of the Lamb of God, to the disciple not only a ground of hope 


* The word translated plagues, implies something of the character of wounds or 
bruises, as by the stroke or blow of a stick or cudgel: πληγὴ; from πλήσσω, to strike, 
wound, or hit; πλήγανον, a stick or cudgel.—(Donnegan. ) 


346 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPEY. 


and an instrument of peace, but also a foundation for ascriptions of praise 
and thanksgiving. 

Besides its other qualities, however, this sea was mingled with fire. As 
we suppose fire (the revealed word of God) to be the element of trying 
the character of doctrines submitted to its test, so we may suppose this 
crystal sea, mingled with fire, to represent the doctrine of atonement, either 
as having undergone this fest, or as co-operating with the revealed word, in 
furnishing the basis of praise and thanksgiving alluded to. We are inclined 
to adopt the latter interpretation. The sea with its waves roaring, is changed 
by the power of the sin-atoning: Lamb to a body of crystal. This body 
thus changed, in unison with the action of the revealed word, constitutes 
the basis upon which, as we shall see, the overcomers of the beast offer 
these songs of praise. 

‘ And them that had gotten the victory over the beast,’ &c.—To obtain 
the victory over the beast, is something which might be understood in a 
temporal or literal sense ; but to obtain the victory over his image, and over 
his mark, and over the number of his name, can be conceived of in no other 
than a spiritual and doctrinal sense. Doctrinal errors may be supposed to 
possess characteristics equivalent to these marks. ‘These errors are over- 
come by the power of countervailing truths: these truths are gathered from 
the joint and interchangeable action of the Old and New Testament reve- 
lations ; for which reason they are represented by the one hundred and 
forty-four thousand elements, bearig the seal of the living God ;—the same 
elements having been described in the last chapter, as standing with the 
Lamb upon Mount Sion—a position, as we have just now remarked, equiva- 
lent to that of standing upon a sea of crystal. We are still unable to point 
out definitively what is to be understood by the beast and his various charac- 
teristics; but we may form some idea of them, by knowing more of those 
which have obtained the victory over them. As yet, however, it has only 
been intimated to us that such a victory has been obtained. We have not 
had the particulars of it. It is something already past in the divine counsels ; 
but it remains yet to be exhibited to the sight of mortals ;—the account of 
the battle and the victors being deferred for the present, (vid. Rev. xix. 
19, 20.) 

Our last account from the earth (Rev. xiii.) left the beast in full power: 
a power to continue forty and two months, the term assigned for the reign 
of the beast ; this exhibition of the chorus in heaven leaving us to take it for 
granted that the time has elapsed, and that the reign of the beast has ceased. 

The earthly account, which gives us the particulars of these things, 
being resumed in the sixteenth and following chapters, we must here con- 
sider ourselves as having advanced beyond the period of the great battle ; 
enjoying in prophetic anticipation a view of the rejoicing of the victors. 


ee Oe Ee 


eo 


SONG OF MOSES AND OF THE LAMB. 347 


These victors are represented as having “ the harps of God,” (not the harps 
of man.) As the harp was the instrument amongst the Hebrews especially 
for singing the praises of God, we suppose these harps:of God to be elements 
of divine truth pertaining especially to his praise, as the God of our salva- 
tion—truths virtually resulting from the action of the doctrinal elements 
represented by the one hundred and forty-four thousand; for we assume 
these victors to be identic with the chosen number, bearing the Father’s 
name in their foreheads. 


Vs. 3,4. And they sing the song of Kat ᾷδουσι τὴν φδὴν Muiicéag τοῦ δού- 
Moses the servant of God, and the song joy rot Seod ἥοὺ τὴν δὴν τοῦ ἀρνίου, 
of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvel- λέγοντες" μεγάλα καὶ ϑαυμαστὰ τὰ ἔργα 
lous (are) thy works, Lord God Almighty; “7 "τὸς ad vith is: or 
just and true (are) thy ways, thou King σοῦ, κυφιξ Ὁ eee ὑεοντοχ στοῦ» δίκαιαι 
of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O καὶ ἀληϑιναὶ ai dob σου, ὃ βασιλεὺς τῶν 
pate and glorify thy name? for (thou) ἐθνῶν - tig ov μὴ φοβηϑῇ, κύριε, καὶ δοξά- 

eer) holy: for all nations shall come on TO ὄνομά σου; ὅτι μόνος ὅσιος ὅτι 

worship’ before thee ; for thy jadg- "ra τὰ ἔθ᾽ ἥξουσι καὶ προςκυνήσουσιν 
arith are made manifest. Ate hee dees ddl 
ἐνώπιόν σου" OTL τὰ δικαιώματά σου ἐφα- 
νερώϑησαν. 


ᾧ 349. “ And they sing the song of Moses,’ &c.—Here there is a marked 
distinction between Moses and the Lamb—the servant as in contradistinction 
to the Son: as it is said, John vill. 35,36, ‘‘ The servant abideth not in the 
house for ever, but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make 
you free, ye shall be free indeed ;”’—corresponding with the difference 
between the temporary character of the Mosaical dispensation, and the per- 
manent and enduring character of that of the gospel. 

These are also two different songs; although they are both sung by the 
same elements of truth, accompanied with the same instruments of praise. 
There are two songs of Moses particularly mentioned in the Old Testa- 
ment: the song of praise for deliverance from Egyptian bondage, Ex. xv. 
1-19; and the song of remembrance, contrasting the mercies of God with 
the hardness of the hearts of the people, Deut. xxxii. 1-43. The songs of 
Moses were songs of judgment as well as of deliverance, setting forth, as 
they did, the dealings of divine justice in the first instance with Pharaoh, 
and subsequently with the children of Israel. The song of the Lamb, we 
may presume to be the new song referred to Rev. v. 9, showing the worthi- 
ness of the Lamb to develope the mystery of salvation, (the sealed book,) 
especially on account of the redemption wrought out by his atoning blood. 
This new song, then, sung by the living creatures and the elders, being 
perhaps 1 in substance the same song as that afterwards said to be sung by the 
one hundred and forty-four thousand upon the mount; the latter being so 
much a new version of what was before termed a new song, that it appeared 
to be entirely new, and is therefore styled, as it were a new song, (ὡς φδὴν 


348 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


καινὴν,) Rev. xiv. 3;—this latter version being also of that character that 
it can be learnt or sung only by the conjoint action of the Old and New 
Testament revelations. 

These elements are here represented as singing both of these songs 5 
the sum of both consisting in an ascription of praise to the Lord God 
Almighty ; setting forth the greatness of his works, the justice and truth of 
his ways, and his sovereignty as King of saints, (or, as our edition of the 
Greek has it, King of nations ;) showing Him also to be the only object of 
fear, the only holy Being, (μόνος ὅσιος,) and the Being to whom all nations 
are to be manifested as in subjection; and this because his judgments 
(δικαιώματα, justifications, or righteousnesses) are manifested ; that is, are 
made manifest by the victory represented as just now gained over the beast. 
Not that God would not be holy and powerful, if the manifestation were not 
made, but that He is now manifested to be so. 

ᾧ 350. ‘ Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty ;’—or, 
as the Greek might be rendered, O Lord, the Almighty God. The allu- 
sion is here, in the first place, to the power of God; especially, we think, 
with reference to his power as a Saviour. When we speak of the works of 
God we are apt to associate with this term ideas only of his works of crea- 
tion and providence ; but it is undeniable that the work of redemption is as 
much the work of God as those of the creation and preservation of the 
world in which we dwell. Taking into view the whole tenor and subject of 
the Apocalypse, we think the purpose of this portion of the song or songs 
is, to ascribe to God the glory of all of his works, including particularly that 
of salvation by grace; or rather, taking into view what we believe to be the 
case, that this world was created to be redeemed, the works of creation 
and of providence are included as parts of the great and marvellous work 
of salvation. In heaven, that period is now reached when the Son gives up 
the kingdom unto the Father, and God is all in all ; corresponding with a 
similar stage of doctrinal development, which according to Paul is to take 
place on earth, (1 Cor. xv. 28;) the elements of both the Old and New 
Testament revelations tending to this end,—that of showing all saving, as 
well as all creating and preserving power, to be in God alone. 

‘Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints ;’—or rather, accord- 
ing to most Greek editions, thou King of nations ; which we are inclined to 
think correct, as it corresponds with what is afterwards said of the coming 
of all nations to worship, and with the prediction of the power of him who 
is to rule all nations as with a rod of iron, to whom all things, are to be 
made subject, for the purpose of his transferring this subjection to the Father. 
Besides, the term nations is more comprehensive than the other; as nations 
may include saints, although saints would not include nations. God is the 


SONG OF MOSES AND OF THE LAMB. 349 


Sovereign, not merely of a select portion of creation, but also of the whole 


universe, in every sense, natural, temporal, and spiritual. 

With the term ways we are apt also to associate only the ways of God’s 
providence—his dealings with men, especially in judgment. But the way 
of salvation is indisputably one of God’s ways, and one not to be omitted 
in the enumeration of those in which the justice and the truth of God are 
exhibited. The justice of God is manifested in the way in which he has 
magnified the law, and made it honourable, (Is. xlii. 21 ;) while his truth is 
exhibited in the way in which all his promises and covenants of mercy have 
been fulfilled. This also we suppose to be the language both of the Old 
and New ‘Testament revelations: “the way of truth,” “the right way,” 
or “the way of righteousness,’ 2 Pet. ii. 2, 15, 21, must be one of the 
ways of the Lord; so also “ the way into the holiest,” “ the living way,” 
Heb. ix. 8, and x. 20; “the way of God,” Acts xviii. 26. There can 
be but one way of salvation, but this way may be variously illustrated ; as it 
was predicted of John the Baptist, Luke i. 76, that he should go before the 
face of the Lord to prepare his ways. So David is represented, Acts ii. 28, 
as speaking of the way of salvation in the plural: “Thou hast made known 
to me the ways of life ;” and the prophet, in reference to the same one way, 
Lam. i. 4, declares that the ways of Zion mourn. So it is predicted, Is. ii. 
3, “ And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the 
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach 
us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” This way, or these ways 
of God, (the means of salvation,) we suppose to be especially declared by 
these elements of revelation to be just and true. 

So. we suppose the term King of nations to apply, apocalyptically, not 
merely to political bodies, but to all those human elements, or pretended 
elements of salvation, which Paul speaks of as principalities, powers, &c., 
Col. ii. 15 ; legal elements, perhaps, having power in a certain respect, but 
this power being subordinate to that of sovereign grace. 

§ 351. ‘Who shall not fear thee, O Lord ?}—Fear thee, that is, fear 
God, in contradistinction to fearing any other being, or acting from the fear 
of any other being ; as it is said, Luke xii. 5, “ Fear him, which after he 
hath killed, hath power to cast into hell, (eg τὴν γέενναν 1) yea, 1 say 
unto you, Fear him.” The fear of the Lord, as we have before noticed, 
($ 330,) being the beginning of wisdom, although it is designed to end in 
that perfect love (charity) which is to cast out fear; so also the intima- 
tion is given, Luke 1. 74, that the end of the gospel dispensation is, that 
the disciple, delivered from the powers opposed to his salvation, should 
thenceforth serve God without fear. The fear above alluded to being (as the 
beginning of wisdom) a necessary preparation for the reception of the gospel, 
such a preparation may be considered the purport of the instructions of Moses 


350 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


and the prophets, and of Christ and his apostles; all setting forth those 
terrors of the law by which men are to be persuaded to seek the refuge 
provided for them, (2 Cor. v. 11.) 

‘ And glorify thy name. —The element self, represented by the beast, 
being now overcome, the principle is manifest that the motive of every 
action of the creature should be to promote the glory of God; not partly 
to glorify the name of God, and partly to glorify the name of man, or one’s 
own name. ‘The creature is now manifestly in that position in which the 
glory of his salvation, as well of his subsequent works, is ascribed to his 
divine Redeemer alone. 

‘For thou only art holy,’ (6c10g.)—The term in the original expresses a 
holiness of quality, as distinguished from ἅγιος, Which we suppose to apply 
only to a holiness of position, (ἢ 321.) God only is holy in the sense of 
perfect moral purity and goodness ; corresponding with the declaration of 
Jesus, Matt. xix. 17, “ Why callest thou me good? There is none good 
(ἀγαϑός) but one, that is, God.” ‘This, we may say, is a fundamental prin- 
ciple of the gospel dispensation ; for if there were any being good, in this 
strict sense of the term, beside God, that being would be independent of 
God—having a right to an eternal life and happiness on the ground of his 
own merits. The legal and gospel dispensations, (the song of Moses and 
that of the Lamb,) accordingly, both coincide in establishing the position 
that God alone is holy. 

‘For all nations shall come and worship before thee.—As before ob- 
served, we suppose these nations to represent all things; as it is said of 
Christ, whom God “ exalted far above all principalities, and powers, and 
might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, 
but also in that which is to come,” (Eph. i. 21.) The sign of the future 
tense, shall, applies to the manifestation, and not to the fact. All things were 
created by God and for God, Col. i. 16: “The nations are but as a drop 
of a bucket, and as the small dust of the balance before him,” (Is. xl. 
15 ;) and this has been the case from the begmning. ‘The subordination and 
subserviency of every thing and principle to the, element of divine sove- 
reignty, yet remains, however, to be manifested. This is spoken of as a 
thing known and admitted in the divine counsels, although not yet developed 
on earth. When it is manifested that the Son, as Paul expresses it, has 
delivered up the kingdom unto the Father, and God is all in all, then ap- 
parently, in the apocalyptic sense of the phrase, the nations may be said to 
come and worship before God.* 


* It is said, in the preceding chapter, of Babylon, that “she made all nations 
(πάντα τὰ 290) drink of her wine ;” and in the thirteenth chapter, of the beast, that 
“ power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations ;” and Rev. xiv. 


SONG OF MOSES AND OF THE LAMB. 351 


ᾧ 352. ‘For thy judgments are made manifest..—The word δικαιώματα, 
translated judgments in this place, is rendered, Rom. ii. 26, by righteous- 
ness, although, being in the plural, it should be rendered by righteousnesses ; 
the righteousnesses of the law, in this chapter of Romans, being contrasted 
with what is said of the righteousness of God without the law in the next 
chapter. The same term precisely is rendered by the word righteous- 
nesses, in speaking of that which constitutes the fine linen of the saints, Rev. 
xix. 8. ‘The term in the singular is rendered also by righteousness, Rom. 
v. 18, and viii. 4. Rom. v. 16, it is translated justification ; Rom. i. 32, 
it is rendered by judgment; Luke i. 6, by commandment ; and Heb. ix. 1 
and 10, by ordinances. There is a similar diversity in the Latin versions of 
Leusden and Beza, the same Greek noun being variously rendered by jus, 
Justitia, and justificatio. In the present case, therefore, we are to select 
such rendering as appears most in conformity with the whole passage. 

The beast system was a system of self-justification, or of self-righteous- 
ness. This system having been overthrown, it is natural to suppose this 
song of the victors to apply to the opposite system of justification by God’s 
tighteousness: accordingly, the better rendering here apparently would be, 
“For thy justifications (thy righteousnesses) are made manifest.” The 
plural δικαιώματα is used by Heliodorus, (according to Donnegan,) to 
express means of defence, pleadings, justificatory documents. Something 
like this, we suppose to be the idea in contemplation. The elements con- 
tending with the beast have overcome in the legal contest, and they owe 
their victory to the prevalence of the means of defence found in the justify- 
ing power of God’s righteousness imputed to the disciple. This power is 
now manifest by the result of thé contest: God is praised, not merely 
because he is just in punishing the delinquent, but because his power of 
justification is made apparent in the salvation of the sinner. 

Here are three reasons given for fearing God and glorifying his name :— 
first, because he is the only Being intrinsically holy ; second, because all 
things, (nations,) principles, &c., are to be manifestly subordinate to him ; 
and thirdly, because his means of justification are proven to predominate 
over every opposing element. 


9, 10, the decree is published, apparently, that all these nations shall drink of the wine 
of the wrath of God, and be tormented for ever; and yet we find in this passage, 
(Rev. xv. 4,) “that all nations (πάντα τὼ ἔϑνη) shall come and worship before God.” 
This appears to presuppose a change in these elements, termed the nations ; as if we 
were to say, No sooner is the element of self, or the principle of self-service, removed 
from the human heart, (by the victory over the beast,) than the same services or 
works, proceeding from a different motive, will become acts of worship towards God, 
and strictly elements of his service. Princip'es thus changed, however, may be 
the nations of the new earth, spoken of Rev. xxi. 24. 


352 


TEMPLE 


Vs. 5,6. And after that I looked, and 
behold, the temple of the tabernacle of 
the testimony in heaven was opened: and 
the seven angels came out of the temple, 
having the seven plagues, clothed in pure 
and white linen, and having their breasts 
girded with golden girdles. 


THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


SCENE. 


ἘΑΡῚ ‘ "ἢ - ς (ΟΣ 1 c « 
Kat μετὰ ταῦτα εἶδον, καὶ ἡγοίγη ὁ ναὸς 
- - ~ 2 ~ oe ~ 
τῆς σκηνῆς TOU μαρτυρίου ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, 
» 2e2 Εἰς Ἀ} of co ‘ 
καὶ ἐξῆλθον οἵ ἑπτὰ ἄγγελοι οἱ ἔχοντες τὰς 
ἑπτὰ πληγὰς ἐκ τοῦ ναοῦ, ἐνδεδυμένοι λίνον 
‘ εἰ “ ' 
καϑαρὸν λαμπρὸν καὶ περιεζωσμένοι περὶ 
, , ~ 
τὰ στήϑη ζώνας χρυσᾶς. 


ᾧ 353. “ And after that,’ &c.—The action of the chorus has closed. 
The ode of Moses and the ode of the Lamb, sung by those having obtained 
the victory over the beast, seems intended to show us the nature of this 
victory as a triumph of doctrinal truth over error; at the same time indi- 
cating the subject of the narrative in the subsequent part of the narration 
to be something already determined upon in heaven ;—the singing of 
these odes being equivalent to the narrations of the Old and New Testa- 
ments; as it was a custom of ancient times to hand down historical tradi- 
tions from age to age by songs or odes. 

There is now an additional object presented in the scenery ; or, at least, 
the object appears now first to attract the attention of the apostle. ‘The first 
verse of the chapter seems to have been an anticipation of what is said in 
this and the subsequent verses. The apostle began with speaking of a 
great sion that he saw in heaven,—seven angels having, &c. His narra- 
tive was here interrupted by the song of the chorus, and he now goes 
back to describe the manner in which these seven angels made their appear- 
ance, and the source whence the seven plagues was derived. 

‘ And lo, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was 
opened.’*—This is no doubt the temple of God described as opened, Rev. 
xi. 19. The consequence of the opening of this temple then was an exhibition 
of the woman—the covenant of redemption—and her child ; and also the 
appearance of the adversary of both woman and child—(the dragon or 
accuser.) 

The consequence of the opening of the temple at this time is the ap- 


* The temple may be considered as forming part of the scenery throughout; but 
what particularly attracts the spectator’s attention at this time is, that the temple is 
opened. It was opened ona former occasion, but it may be considered as having been 
shut during the reign of the beast, and the possession of its outer court by the Gentiles. 
It is now reopened, and the consequence of its reopening is the going forth of the 
elements calculated to destroy the errors prevailing in the worship of God. So Christ 
is the spiritual temple, and as he reveals or unveils his true character and offices, this 
spiritual temple is opened ; while the truths, emanating from this development, become 
the means of destroying the errors of self-righteousness, self-justification, self-de- 
pendence, &c. ᾿ 


THE SEVEN PLAGUES. 353 


pearance of the seven angels with the wrath of God. The temple we 
suppose to be put for that arrangement of principles upon which the wor- 
shipper is enabled to come to God in an acceptable manner; the tabernacle 
is the shelter provided for the disciple in Christ, and the testimony must 
be the witness borne by the revealed word to these particulars. Christ is 
the minister of the true tabernacle: he is the tabernacle itself, affording the 
‘shelter of righteousness with which the disciple is clothed upon, as with a 
house from heaven. He is also the temple; in him alone the worshipper 
having “access as by one Spirit unto the Father,” (Eph. ii. 18.) To behold 
the temple opened, is therefore especially to perceive a development of the 
mystery of this access unto God. 

‘And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven 
plagues.’—As the temple represents especially the access to God provided in 
Christ, we may suppose the exhibition about to’be made to pertain espe- 
cially to the worship of God; the plagues of the angels being elements of 
correction, by which errors on the subject of this worship are to be removed, 
that the disciple may be enabled to worship (serve) his God in spirit and 
in truth. The angel calling for the harvest came out of the temple; the 
angel having the sharp sickle also came from the temple, and the angel 
calling for the exercise of the sharp sickle upon the vine of the earth must 
have come from the temple, as he is said to come out from the altar, and 
the altar was ina court of the temple. These seven angels are therefore, like 
the last three of the preceding chapters, messengers especially from the 
temple, and their commissions pertain especially to the temple service. 

‘Clothed in pure and white linen,’ &c.—Fine linen is declared to be the 
righteousness of the saints, and we suppose this pure and white linen to be 
of the same texture. These messengers from the temple appear arrayed in 
the imputed righteousness of Jesus—they wear his livery—they are the min- 
isters of this righteousness, holding it forth as the only means of justification 
in the sight of God. This raiment of divine purity is also girt about them 
by the girdle of truth,—the exhibition of the righteousness of Christ, as the 
only garment of salvation, depending for its support upon the truth of reve- 
lation. The difference between a girdle about the breasts, and a girdle about 
the loins, we have already noticed, (ᾧ 29.) 


Vs. ὦ 8. Απᾶοπο of the four beasts Καὶ ἑν ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων ζώων ἔδωκε τοῖς 
gave unto the seven angels seven golden ἑπτὰ ἀγγέλοις ἑπτὰ φιάλας χρυσᾶς, γεμού- 
vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth : 
for ever and ever. And the temple was 
filled with smoke from the glory of God, ᾿ πόνος 3 
and from his power; and no man was γαὺς χαπγοῦ ἐκ τῆς δόξης τοῦ ϑεοῦ καὶ ἐκ 
able το enter into the temple, till the seven τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ" καὶ οὐδεὶς ἠδύνατο 
plagues of the seven angels were ful- εἰςελϑεῖν εἰς τον γαόν, ἄχρι τελεσϑῶσιν αἵ 
filled. ἑπτὰ πληγαὶ τῶν ἑπτὰ ἀγγέλων. 


σας τοῦ ϑυμοῦ τοῦ ϑεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος εἰς 
‘ - ~ “ = 
τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Καὶ ἐγεμίσϑη 6 


354 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


ᾧ 354. * And one of the four living creatures,’ &c.—The apostle now 
goes back to relate how the seven plagues were obtained by the angels.— 
They were first described to be seen having the plagues; next, seen com- 
ing out of the temple having the plagues ; and lastly, seen coming out of 
the temple after having received from one of the four beasts the vials con- 
taining the plagues. ‘The order of development is thus an inversion of the 
natural order of narrative ; for in the natural order the apostle would have 
commenced by stating in the first place that he saw the plagues given to 
the angels prior to their coming out, or at the time of their coming out of 
the temple. This inversed order, however, may be termed the natural order 
of revelation, because in the revelation of a mystery the most minute par- 
ticulars are the last to be given. 

The numeral one, (ἕν,) as we have before had occasion to remark, 5 145,) 
is sometimes employed in the Greek for an ordinal.* So applying it here, 
the rendering would be, ‘‘ And the first of the four living creatures gave,” 
&c. This we think the correct reading, as the action corresponds with the 
lion-like attribute of the first living creature, (Rev. iv. 7,)—the attribute, as 
we have supposed, of divine justice ; the seven exhibitions of wrath now 
about to be made being the last illustrations of the action of divine 
justice upon the elements of the system of self-righteousness: for we sup- 
pose the action of the last or seventh vial to cover the subsequent revela- 
tion as far as the close of the twentieth chapter, if not as far as the eighth 
verse of the twenty-first chapter inclusive. 

‘Seven golden vials,’ &c.—The word properly signifies a vessel with a 
broad bottom, or bowl, (Donnegan)—a drinking cup. These seven cups 
probably constituting seven illustrations of the cup (goblet) of indignation, 
spoken of Rev. xiv. 9, 10, to be participated in by the worshippers of the 
beast. 

These cups or bowls are golden, being developments of truth—their 
composition, their material, is truth ;—the pouring out of these golden vessels 
representing the action of certain portions of revealed truth upon certain erro- 
neous principles, elements of a system of error; the wrath, fury, or vehe- 
mence (ϑυμός) in contemplation, being a fury against principles opposed in 
effect to the salvation of man, and not against men themselves. Such at 
least we suppose to be the apocalyptic meaning of this wrath. 

ᾧ 855. ‘And the temple was filled with smoke,’ &c.—Smoke is of 
course an indication of fire. Fire we take to be uniformly the figure of 
the revealed word of God, as the instrument of testing and trying the 
character of all doctrines and principles—truth, like pure gold, being alone 


* As Gen. i. 5, καὶ ἐγένετο ἑσπέρα καὶ ἐγένετο πρωὶ ἡμέρα μέα, (Sept.,.) And the 
morning and the evening became the first day. 


THE SEVEN PLAGUES. 355 


capable of abiding such a test. The idea to be associated with this smoke 
seems to be that of the operation of something like a great process by fire, the 
result of which is to be the detection and destruction of error, and the devel- 
opment of truth. 

‘From [out of, ἐκ] the glory of God, and from [out of] his power,’ or 
strength.—The glory and power of God are the two elements by which the 
instrument of trial is put into operation: two final causes, from which the 
revealed word draws, as by inference, the truth of salvation by grace ; these 
two final causes evolving this truth, through the instrumentality of the 
revealed word ;—showing that, without a salvation of this kind, God cannot 
be glorified, nor his redeeming power manifested ;—the glory of God 
requiring the salvation of the sinner to be a matter of sovereign grace, as 
distinguished from a matter of human works or merits ; and the manifesta- 
tion of God’s strength, as a Saviour, requiring an exhibition of the same 
truth. 

‘And no man [no one] was able to enter the temple,’ &c.—The devel- 
opment of these two elements may be said to be in operation.in that arrange- 
ment of principles which enables the worshipper to come to God, giving him 
access in Christ to the throne of grace. At the same time we may consider 
the deductions from these two elements as constituting the ingredients of the 
cup of wrath ; that is, constituting the means by which the erroneous prin- 
ciples, the objects of this wrath, are to be destroyed. This operation is 
gradual ; the eradication of errors and the development of truths, are gradu- 
ally effected. During the process, the disciple sees through a glass darkly ; 
he is unable to discern his true position in the temple. The smoke of Sinai 
occupies the attention of those who are yet under the influence of the beast 
and false prophet, and on account of this smoke they are unable to discern 
the light of the blessed gospel of peace. ‘The combustion in the temple, 
which causes the smoke, is the necessary process for filling the vials or 
golden vessels ; and it is not till this work is accomplished that the temple 
position can be discerned. 

The whole figure is apparently taken from the operations of alchemists 
in ancient times, whose great object was to search for gold, and if possible, 
as they supposed it to be possible, by a transmutation of metals, to make it. 
The Greek term καπρός, (smoke,) is said (Jones’s Lex.) to be compounded of 
the words καίω πνοὴ; signifying the breath of fire, reminding us of what is said 
of the destruction of the man of sin, 2 Thes. ii. 8, “ whom the Lord shall con- 
sume with the spirit of his mouth ;” indicating a parity of action between these 
seven vials and of that power of truth described by Paul ; the destruction of 
the man of sin, and the victory over the beast being, as we apprehend, 
equivalent figures, 


356 THE SEVENTH SEAL._THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


This chapter is introductory to the narrative of the subsequent chapter. 
Exclusive of the action of the chorus, which looks even beyond the next 
chapter, the purport of what we have gone over is to inform us whence the 
seven angels came, viz., from the temple ; how they obtain their seven vials 
from the first living creature ; with what these seven vials are filled—the 
wrath of God; and from what elements the contents of these vials have 
originated, or from what elements this wrath is a necessary result—viz., 
from the glory of God and from his power. 

With this prefatory information we shall be enabled to appreciate, and 
in some degree to understand, the narrative about to be given us of the 
pouring out of these seven vials. It is to be regretted that there is any 
division of the chapters here, for there is no pause supposed, or to be sup- 
posed, between the conclusion of this and the commencement of the next 
chapter. 


FIRST VIAL. 357 


rare ah avr 


THE POURING OUT OF THE SEVEN VIALS OF WRATH, 


V.1. And [heard a great voice out of 
the temple, saying to the seven angels, 
Go your ways, and pour out the vials of 
the wrath of God upon the earth. 


Καὶ ἤκουσα μεγάλης φωνῆς ἐκ τοῦ ναοῦ 
λεγούσης τοῖς ἑπτὰ ἀγγέλοις" ὑπάχετε καὶ 
ἐκχέατε τὰς ἑπτὰ φιάλας τοῦ ϑυμοῦ τοῦ 
ϑεοῦ εἰς τὴν γῆν. 


ᾧ 356. ‘ Ann I heard a great voice,’ &c.—The seven angels, having 
the seven vials of wrath, were seen coming out of the temple; the wrath 
itself appears to have been prepared in the temple, and now the command 
to pour out this wrath comes as by a great voice from the temple. The 
temple cannot be entered, as we are informed at the close of the last 
chapter, till these seven plagues are fulfilled, or till the pouring out of these 
vials is accomplished. This command we may presume therefore to be 
given for the ultimate purpose that the temple may be entered ; that every 
obstacle (error) being removed, the access to God, by faith in Christ, may 
be fully laid open. 

There is virtually a loud call from the temple arrangement for this effu- 
sion of wrath, in order that the worshipper may be enabled to avail himself 
of the privileges of the temple. The ebject of wrath, of course, is not the 
worshipper, but it is that accumulation of errors in matters of faith which 
renders the purification of the temple service indispensable. 

‘Saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out,’ &c.—It 
could hardly be supposed that the temple of God called in a literal sense 
for the destruction of the earth, but we may easily conceive of the case in 
which a system of divine worship, represented by the temple, calls for the 
destruction of an erroneous opposite system, inconsistent with such worship ; 
and this we suppose to be what is represented in the vision. 


FIRST 


V.2. And the first went, and poured 
out his vial upon the earth [land aj; and 
there fell a noisome and grievous sore 
upon the men which had the mark of the 
beast, and (upon) them which worshipped 
his image. 


VIAL. 


Kai ἀπῆλϑεν ὃ πρῶτος, καὶ ἐξέχεε τὺν 
φιάλην αὑτοῦ εἰς τὴν viv καὶ ἐγένετο ἕλκος 
κακὸν καὶ πονηρὸν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀνϑρώπους τοὺς 
ἔχοντας τὸ χάραγμα. τοῦ ϑηρίου καὶ τοὺς 
προςκυνοῦντας τῇ εἰκόνι αὐτοῦ, 


358 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


‘ And the first poured out,’ &c.—The term earth (# γῆ) is used in two 
senses, in judging of which we must be regulated by the context. Go pour 
your vials upon the earth, is equivalent to an instruction to pour upon the 
whole sphere of earth, land and water ; while the action of the first angel, 
in pouring out his vial upon the earth, is evidently restricted to pouring it 
upon the land, in contradistinction to the sea, or other watery elements, 
upon which the two next vials are effused. 

This first vial is poured upon the land, the element whence the two- 
horned beast was seen to rise, (Rev. xii. 11 :) the system, as we have sup- 
posed of self-dependence, originating a certain misinterpretation of revealed 
truth—a system which, in a spiritual sense, yields only thorns and thistles, 
as the result of man’s works ; or will be proved so to do when the truth is 
manifested. 

‘And there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men,’ &c.— 
These men are inhabiters of the earth—those subject to the woes denounced 
Rev. vili. 13; the pouring out of these vials being a part of the third wo. 
From what was said of the power of the beast and of the false prophet in 
the thirteenth chapter, all the znhabiters of the earth, except the one hundred 
and forty-four thousand, may be supposed to have received the mark of the 
beast, and to have worshipped his image ; and, consequently, to have become 
infected with this pestilential ulcer. Ulcers or sores in the natural body are 
indications of the bad state of the system ; what is commonly called a bad 
habit, (καχεξία, cachexy.) This bad habit may exist before the ulcer makes 
its appearance: some exciting cause brings out the sore, and thus serves as 
a test, showing the real condition of the patient ; the eruption on the sur- 
face of the body being an effect of the inward disease. Sores too having 
their varieties, the character of the irruption corresponds with that of the 
disease. The test accordingly, whatever it may be, becomes the means of 
indicating the latent ailment. 

ᾧ 357. The pouring out of these vials may be viewed as the application 
of so many tests. ‘The effusion of this first vial upon the earth or land is 
not the cause of the ulcer, for the cause is in the bad habit—the con- 
stitution of the men; but it is the means of betraying and manifesting 
their real condition—showing their real character ; the condition of man 
by nature (his earthly position) corresponding with the description of the 
prophet, Is. 1. 5,6: “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 
From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; 
but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, 
neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” So David, under a 
conviction of his “ iniquities,” exclaims, ‘‘ My wounds stink and are cor- 
rupt, because of my foolishness,” Ps. xxxviii. 5. 


rey APO ORR Sr head, ἕως 359 


© Our English term there fell seems to imply that the sore came from 
above, or from some external source. The expression in the original, how- 
ever, is there was, or there was generated ;—the same Greek term, ἐγένετο, 
being rendered in the next two verses by the word became,—that is, so soon 
as the vial was poured upon the earth, the sore made its appearance. As 
soon as the self-righteous disciple is so far brought to the knowledge of the 
truth as to be convinced of sin, and of the sinfulness of sin, and of the fool- 
ishness of his own pretensions, he perceives himself to be but a leper in the 
sight of his God. He is no more unelean now than he was before, but the 
sore of his leprosy now shows itself. Analogous with this we suppose to be 
the operation of the pouring out of the first vial upon the earth—an exhibi- 
tion of the wrath of God against every element inconsistent with his glory, 
and with the manifestation of his saving power, being brought home as a test 
to the earthly and self-righteous system, exhibits the elements of that system 
in the light of lepers, covered with their ulcerous and putrefying sores. 

The angel pouring forth the vial comes from the temple. It is from that 
view of the economy of redemption in which Christ is contemplated as the 
temple, that the proof is produced, showing the impurity of a system, the 
principles of which are, in effect, so many motives of selfishness, wholly in- 
consistent with the true worship of God—a selfishness like the leprosy of old, 
spreading itself over the whole surface, contaminating every action, work or 
doctrine with which’ it comes in contact: a little leaven of this selfishness 
leavening the whole lump—characterizing the whole conduct of the individ- 
ual. The mark of the beast itself, we may say, becomes in the nature of the 
case, when its true tendency is exhibited, a noisome and grievous sore. 

A period is spoken of, 2 Tim. ni. 2, as the last days, “when men shall 
be lovers of their own selves,” (φίλαυτοι.) Literally speaking we do not 
know a period when men have not been lovers of their own selves ; nor do 
we know a time when men have not professed to love themselves, or have 
not been known to love themselves, in the ordinary sense of the expression. 
The peculiarity in the apostle’s contemplation appears to be this: that a time 
is coming when men shall be manifested, in matters of religion, (doctrines,) to 
be lovers of their own selves, as distinguished from being lovers of God.— 
Their motives of conduct, (not merely the motives of those who are with- 
out, but also of those that are within,) will be manifested to be selfish. 
Disciples will be manifested to be influenced by the desire of serving them- 
selves, rather than of serving God—professing, perhaps, to be actuated by 
love to God, as they profess indeed to keep the first and great command- 
ment; but in reality having no motive of conduct other than that of regard 
to their own interests, and a desire to promote their own glory. The fact 
has been always the same, but the exhibition of this fact may be reserved for 
the period denominated the last days,—*“ the perilous times ;” more properly 

32 


. re, δι νι 
ἥ 
‘ 4 Ἶ 


360 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


perhaps difficult, trying times, καιροὶ χαλεποί, when the true character of 
actions and motives will be tested.* 

The self-righteous disciple, depending upon the merit of his works, upon 
his zeal in the performance of his duties, leans especially upon what he terms 
his worship of God—his acts, particularly, of religious service ; but it is as 
one, who “ leans against a wall anda serpent bit him,” (Amos ν. 19.) The 
trying time comes—the test is administered—the first and great command- 
ment is brought to bear upon the motive of his conduct. He is actuated + 
wholly by the love of self; he has not the love of God in him; the merce- 
nary nature of his service is exhibited—the unclean ulcer appears ; and like 
the servant of the prophet, he goes out, even in his own estimation, “a leper 
white as snow.” ‘The temple service requires a worship dictated by the pure 
motive of the love of God, and zeal for His glory alone. As it is with the 
individual, so we suppose it to be with the principle of doctrine: the one 
serving as an illustration of the other. 


SECOND VIAL. 


V. 3. And the second angel poured out Καὶ ὃ δεύτερος ἄγγελος ἐξέχεε τὴν φιά- 
his vial upon the sea; and it became as λὴγν αὑτοῦ εἰς τὴν ϑάλασσαν" καὶ ἐγένετο 
the blood of a dead (man;) and every |= 


τ c τῷ Ν a ‘ ω 30. in 
living soul died in the sea. igus | 01S ENGR Ge LPR COMET Eien 


Suvev ἐν τῇ ϑαλάσσῃ. 

ᾧ 358. ‘And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea.’—The 
earth, as a whole, is something upon which all of the seven vials are to be 
poured out. But in this sense the earth has its parts, each of which is sub- 
ject to the action of a separate vial.—One of these parts (the land) we have 
justnoticed. ‘The sea is another part. So in the earthly system, as a whole, 
there are certain parts—the land represents not only the basis of works, the 
supposed means of eternal life, but also a supposed position of safety—an 
element the opposite of the sea: the sea being a figure of that legal view of 
the action of divine justice peculiar to the earthly system. [{ is admitted to 
be a fearful element, but its action is supposed to be restrained within certain 
limits—as if the wrath of divine justice could not overcome the boundary of 
man’s fancied security upon the position of his own works ; or as if the merit 
of man’s works opposed a sufficient obstacle to the incursion of retributive 
justice. 

The earthly system has its legal element of wrath, but of such a charac- 
ter as that human means are supposed to be sufficient to cope with it. It 
offers a view of the retributive action of divine justice, no more to be com- 
pared to the reality than an inland lake is to the universal deluge. The 


* Xalexos Difficilis, gui magno cum labore jit.—(Suiceri Lex.) 


THIRD VIAL. | 9501. 


element appears to be comparatively harmless, and even itself the means of 
eternal life ; as when the deluded disciple goes about to meet the requisites 
of divine justice by means of his own providing. ‘There go the ships,” 
Ps. civ. 20.—Through the instrumentality of human works, it is supposed 
to become, like the sea, the instrument of enriching those depending upon 
its resources. ΤῈΣ 

The test, however, of the second vial is applied to it—The real charac- 
ter of judicial wrath is exhibited—every soul of man that doeth evil is seen 
to be subject to its action. Obedience to the whole law is required; the 
neglect of one commandment is a breach of the whole: the want of a love 
of God, is a breach of the first and great commandment. Self-examination 
opens the eyes to the character of this exhibition, and the sea now becomes 
a sea of blood; or, according to the Greek, blood is generated. Without 
shedding of blood, or loss of life, there is no remission of sin: the transgres~ 
sions of the sinner legally call for the loss of his eternal life. 

‘ And it became as the blood of a dead body,’ (carcase.)—The blood of 
a living animal is the element of life ; but that there may be no misappre- 
hension in this respect, this blood of the sea is represented as that of a dead 
body—blood in which putrefaction is just about commencing. 

‘ And every living soul died in the sea;’ or rather, ‘all soul of life.’— 
The deadly, putrefying quality of this sea of blood, is communicated to every 
thing in it, or dependent upon it. Soa just development of divine truth 
applied to the element of judicial wrath, in the earthly system, shows it to 
be not only incapable of giving eternal life, but to be actually such, in its 
own nature, as to destroy all tendency to life in every principle connected 
with it. 

We have thus, in the exhibition of the effusion of these two vials, on the 
one hand an illustration of the noisome, unclean and offensive character of 
all pretensions of man to a righteousness of his own; and on the other hand 
an illustration of the unremitting character of judicial wrath. The disciple, 
in the first picture, sees the folly of his dependence upon his own merits ; 
and in the other he sees, even upon his own legal principles, the necessity 
of looking for some means of escape from impending danger. In this ex- 
tremity he falls, as we shall perceive, into another error, the subject of cor- 
rection by the test next administered. 


THIRD VIAL. 


Vs. 4-7. And the third angel poured Kat 6 τρίτος ἐξέχεε τὴν φιάλην αὑτοῦ 
out his vial upon the rivers and fountains εἰ. τοὺς ποταμοὺς καὶ εἰς τὰς πηγὰς τῶν 
of waters: and they became blood. And ὡς ee 7 uc 

VOUTEV" “καὶ ἐγένετο MUL. Ku WAOUTH 
I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou την" οὐ Addtov δί 
art righteous, O Lord, which art, and *0U σγδλονυ Tam τ ΤΩΡ. ΔΕΜΟΣΤΟΟΙ CUNctes 
wast, and shalt be, because thou hast εἰ, 0 ὧν καὶ ὁ ἣν ὑσιος, OTL ταῦτα ἕχρινας. 


362 THE SEVENTH SEAL._THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


judged thus. For they have shed the ὅτι αἷμα ἁγίων καὶ προφητῶν ἐξέχεαν, καὶ 
blood of saints and prophets, and thou αἷμα αὐτοῖς ἔδωκας πιεῖν" ἀξιοῖ. stot καὶ 


hast given them blood to drink; for they » Ξ ' i ; 
are worthy. And I heard another out of ἤκουσα τοῦ ϑυσιαστηρίου λέγοντος " vat, 


the altar say, Even so, Lord God Al- "ἴριξ ὃ ϑεὸς ὃ παντοκράτωρ, ἀληϑιναὶ καὶ 
mighty, true and righteous (are) thy δίκαιαι αἵ κρίσεις σου. 
judgements. 


§ 359. ‘And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers,’ &¢.— 
The disciple, convinced of his defilement in the sight of God, as illustrated 
by the ulcerous sore produced by the first vial, and having his eyes opened 
to the impending danger, figured by the sea of blood, seeks some means of 
cleansing himself from the guilt of sin, by atoning sacrifices of his own pro- 
viding. With the more ignorant part of mankind, these means of ablution 
are supposed to consist in corporeal sufferings and privations. With the 
more intellectual portion they consist in mental sufferings, or mental acts of 
humiliation and penitence. In all they constitute what we suppose to be 
represented by the rivers and fountains of the earth, as in contradistinction 
to the one means of atonement: the pure river of the water of life, Rev. 
xxl. 1, and the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, Zech. xiii. 1. 

᾿ We have had something like this under contemplation before, Rev. viii. 
11, when the third part of the rivers and fountains became wormwood, 
(Ὁ 200.) The present picture appears to be a further development of the 
same truth: showing that any atonement of man’s providing, equal to his 
guilt in the sight of God, must involve the loss of eternal life—not only 
being incapable of giving life, (as bitter water, or sea water, is unfit for the 
purposes of natural life,) but still more, absolutely demanding the eternal 
death of the sinner. The pouring out of the third vial appears to be figura- 
tive of the exhibition of the nature of divine wrath. As a test trying the 
validity of these human means of purification—this third element of the 
earthly system—and showing the entire inconsistency of such pretended 
provisions of self-redemption with the salvation of the sinner. 

‘ And they became blood.’—A principle of doctrine exacting from the 
sinner himself an expiatory suffering equal to his guilt, must be im effect a 
principle denouncing vengeance, instead of proclaiming pardon; no one 
being able, by supererogatory performances to atone for actual omissions 
of duty. As it is not possible to atone fora past transgression by the 
subsequent performance of that which it is only one’s duty to perform, 
and which would be a duty to perform if there had been no previous trans- 
eression. Nor can we suppose it possible to expiate a neglect of duty by 
the performance of something which is not a duty. Even if this were possi- 
ble, the penalty of sin being equal to its guilt, and this guilt being infinite, 
the proposed atonement must result in the loss of eternal life. Whether the 
blood of these rivers be, like that of the sea, the blood as of a dead body or 
otherwise, the element is equally inconsistent with the salvation of the soul. 


= 


THIRD VIAL. 363 


ἣν ᾧ 360. ‘ And I heard the angel of the waters say,’ &c.—The minister- 


ing spirit of the element of propitiation, is here represented as speaking ; a 


figure equivalent to the expression, that such is the nature of the case. The 


nature of perfect justice is exemplified in the peculiarities just now set forth ; 


any earthly means of atonement, as soon as the truth is exhibited, being 
manifestly means of vengeance. | 

‘ For they have shed,’ &c., or, they have poured out.—The verb trans- 
lated shed is the same as that rendered poured out when applied ‘to the 
action of the vials, indicating an exactness in the correspondence of retribu- 
tion. They have poured out the blood of the saints and prophets, there- 
fore thou hast justly poured out blood to them to drink. As it might be 
said of one who, rejecting the blood of the covenant, preferred trusting to 
an atonement of his own working out. Upon his own principles it is but just 
for him to suffer the loss of eternal life, since, as a matter of faith, he 
receives thereby the fruit of his own doings. Avpocalyptically, however, 
we suppose elements of doctrine to be referred to here, as elsewhere. The 
inhabiters of the earth are those making use of the fountains and rivers of 
the earth: these are said to have poured out the blood of the saints and 
prophets ;—and, comparing this passage with Rev. vi. 9-11, we find the 
time now to have come for executing the vengeance there alluded to, upon 
those that dwell on the earth. We accordingly suppose these prophets and 
saints, like the souls under the altar, to represent elements of truth, ($$ 
161, 162 ;) elements of the testimony furnished both by the Old and New 
Testaments, of which the spiritual sense is now to be vindicated ; these 
elements being figuratively spoken of as human beings, (martyrs ;) as other 
elements are spoken of as rivers, fountains, blood, &c. In a literal sense; 
it was only the inhabitants of Palestine and its vicinity that had ever been 
favoured with the presence of the prophets; and even the martyrs of Jesus, 
in the apostle’s time, had suffered persecution only in a small part, com- 
paratively, of the Roman empire. Blood representing life, and life being 
put for spirit, the earthly elements are said to have shed blood, &c., because 
the earthly system is sustained by depriving the elements of Scripture testi- 
mony of their proper spiritual sense. The earthly system of doctrine is 
built upon the Jetter of revelation; this privation, therefore, falls back even- 
tually upon the elements of the earth, showing their inconsistency with 
God’s plan of salvation, and their incompatibility with his way of eternal 
life. The letter killeth—the earthly system adopts the letter—abides the 
results of the literal interpretation ; and thus, when the truth is manifested, 
shows itself to be a ministration of death unto death; a ministration of con- 
demnation, as the opposite of that of justification, (2 Cor. iii. 9.) 

‘And I heard another out of, &c., (ἄλλου ἐκ tov.) —These words are 
not in all editions of the Greek. The passage might be rendered, And I 


364 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


heard from the altar, saying—virtually, a message from the altar. As the 
principle of atonement, (the angel of the waters,) called for the destruction 
of the errors in the earthly system pertaining to that portion of the mystery 
of salvation ; so the principle of sacrifice, (the voice from the altar,) calls 
for the same destruction of error, or pronounces it to be just and right. 


. Christ is represented by the altar, as well as by the temple, by the sacrifice, 


and by the priest or sacrificator. In Christ, any offering of the disciple is 
sanctified, set apart, and made holy and acceptable to God ; and it may be 
said that Christ himself requires the destruction of errors opposed to the true 
principle upon which alone sacrifices are to be offered to the Most High. 

We suppose this voice or message from the altar also to be put for 
something in the nature of the case. Every sacrifice, it is said, must be 
salted with salt, (Lev. ii. 13 ; Mark ix. 49;) that is, every sacrifice, to be 
acceptable to God, must possess a preservative principle. He that offers 
his own merits to God, offers a corrupt thing. 'The merits of man have no 
preserving principle in them. He who offers to God the merits of Christ, 
or who pleads the merits of Christ as an offering in his behalf, offers an 
incorruptible sacrifice. Such we suppose to be the requisition of the altar 
service. This service calls for the destruction of all errors of doctrine 
incompatible with this principle of sacrifice ; consequently, it virtually lauds 
that divine justice which, by a due exhibition of its wrath, destroys all pre- 
tensions of man to an atonement of his own making. We admit our 
analysis of this passage to be very imperfect, but we think the general 
purport of these exclamations corresponds with the ideas here suggested. 


FOURTH VIAL. 


Vs. 8,9. And the fourth angel poured Kat ὃ τέταρτος ἐξέχεε τὴν φιάλην αὑτοῦ 
out his gat apan the aut and Ἐς ΤῊΝ ἐπὶ τὸν ἥλιον" καὶ ἐδόύϑη αὐτῷ καυματίσαι 
‘| i scorch men with fire. > Rado 
ΤΕ Ot ΠΣ Museen Ὁ Ὁ τοὺς ἀνϑρώπους ἐν πυρί. Καὶ ἐκαυματίσ- 
And men were scorched with great heat, 


and blasphemed the name of God, which ϑησαν οἱ ἄνϑρωποι καῦμα μέγα, καὶ ἐβλας- 
hath power over these plagues: and they φημησαν τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ «“)εοῦ τοῦ ἔχοντος 
repented not to give him glory. ἐξουσίαν ἐπὶ τὰς πληγὰς ταύτας, καὶ ov 

; μετενόησαν δοῦναι αὐτῷ δόξαν. 

ᾧ 361. “Απά the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun ;’—or, 
concerning or about the sun. ‘The general direction was to pour the seven 
vials wpon the earth, as our translators have it; but the Greek preposition _ 
employed on this occasion and in relating the pouring out of the three first 
vials is εἰς, with an accusative, signifying wnto rather than upon; correspond- 
ing with our idea of applying a chemical test to the object to be tried. On 
the other hand, in relating the pouring out of the four last vials, the Greek 
preposition is ἐπὶ, which primarily signifies upon; but which, as we have 
seen, ($ 234,) is frequently used to express about, concerning. We are 


FOURTH VIAL. 365 


inclined to think the term upon carries with it too literal an association of 
ideas in the first case, and in the last it does not comport with the sense of 
the text. The fourth vial was poured out about the sun ; that is, figura- 
tively, upon the medium of vision through which the sun is perceived: the 
sun itself may be supposed to be unchanged or unaffected, but its action 
after the pouring out of the vial is very different, or appears very differently 
from what it was before ; the development is therefore something about, or 
concerning, the sun. 

We do not suppose the erroneous system spoken of as the earth to be 
a heathen, a pagan, or infidel system; we take it to be something in the 
visible church of Christ—professedly a Christian system—and as such, pos- 
sessing features corresponding apparently or nominally with certain promi- 
nent features of the gospel plan of salvation. The earthly system, indeed, 
is formed from a certain construction of scriptural revelation ; it is not a 
scheme of what is commonly called natural religion; we must expect 
therefore to find in it characteristics resembling those of revelation. It has 
its supposed position of safety, the land ; it has its element of apprehension, 
the sea; it has its means or supposed means of atonement, its rivers and 
fountains ; and it has also, as we now find, its sun of righteousness, or 
rather its mistaken view of the Sun of righteousness. 

‘ And power was given to him to scorch,’ &c.—We have supposed, at 
the pouring of the last, or third vial, the inhabiters of the earth to have been 
trusting to their means of atonement, such as the earth afforded ; these 
means proving to be those of blood, we contemplate these inhabitants as 
still trusting to some other earthly resources, one of which we may imagine 
to be their sun of righteousness ; or what they suppose to be the action of 
such a sun. ‘The development of truth, or a just exposition of the wrath of 
God, is now brought to bear upon the erroneous views heretofore prevailing 
upon this subject. Men have supposed this action to consist in its com- 
municating to them an intrinsic goodness or righteousness ; making them 
literally as righteous, or morally perfect, as the source whence that righteous- 
ness or perfection is imparted. In forming this erroneous conception, they 
have deluded themselves by their estimate of the sun, in the same manner 
as they have done in their estimate of the sea. In order to cope with the 
element of divine justice, they have brought down their views of that justice 
to their own standard of imperfect obedience ; so, in order to countenance 
their misapprehended intrinsic participation in the perfection of the Sun of 
righteousness, they have brought down that perfection in an equal degree to 
the standard of their own imperfect moral attainments. The test being 
administered, the truth is exhibited, that this righteousness of the spiritual 
Sun is a perfect righteousness, that there is nothing in human attainments at 
all corresponding with it. The murky exhalations from the earth are chased 


366 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


away ; the infinite difference between the righteousness required and the 
imperfect righteousness of man is exhibited. Human pretensions to perfec- 
tion, like plants without root, are scorched and withered away. 

The Sun of righteousness, (the Lord our righteousness,) rises with heal- 
ing in his wings, to the humble disciple looking to the protection of that 
imputed righteousness, which, like the wings of the parent bird, are as a 
shield and buckler to those trusting under their shadow. But to those trust- 
ing in a righteousness of their own, although they may esteem or term it an 
imparted righteousness, the manifestation of the character of this Sun must 
be as the coming of the day which shall burn as an oven, when all these 
pretensions of human pride and self-dependence shall be as stubble; for 
the day that cometh shall burn them up, leaving them neither root nox 
branch, (Mal. iv. 1.) Corresponding with this imagery, both of the prophet 
and of the apostle, we suppose the administration of the fourth test to be the 
means of dissipating this fourth error pervading the earthly system. As the 
preceding delusion was one concerning the doctrine of the atonement, so 
the present may be said to be one concerning the doctrine of justification. 

ᾧ 362. ‘And men were scorched,’ &c.—We are to bear in mind that 
this term men is to be considered throughout the Apocalypse as a figurative 
appellation of doctrinal principles, dependent upon the earthly system.— 
These principles are described as exposed to a trial corresponding with that 
of the fire spoken of by Paul, 1 Cor. iii. 13, which is to try every man’s work. 
The subject of the Apocalypse is a development of truths to be made man- 
ifest in this life—something distinct from the particulars of a future state of 
rewards and punishments, which are to be made known only in another 
state of existence. We cannot suppose it to be the intention of this book to 
show that these rewards and punishments are to be administered in this life ; 
which would be the case if we were to understand the action of these vials 
in a literal sense, and the men spoken of as literally human beings. 

‘And blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these 
plagues.’—Blasphemy against God we have already noticed as a pretension 
tending to place one’s self upon an equality with God, (ὃ 303.) This tal 
by heat, or this action of the sun, causes the blasphemous character of the 
pretensions in contemplation to appear—the blasphemy being a consequence 
of the scorching. The tendency of any doctrinal principle to rob God’s 

ame of the glory due in the work of salvation, may be considered blasphe- ’ 
mous. Τὸ maintain the doctrine that the disciple, by a certain infusion of 
righteousness, or perfection, becomes righteous or perfect as God is righteous 
or perfect, is something of this blasphemous tendency. A just exhibition of 
the action of the Sun of righteousness in justifying the sinner by imputed right- 
eousness (not by imparted or infused righteousness,) while it scorches or dries 
up the false pretensions adverted to, tends to show also their real character. 


reue Tr 


FOURTH VIAL. Ὁ 367 


The name of God, we suppose to have particular reference to his great, 
his mystic name—Jehovah our righteousness, or the Lord our righteous- 
ness. ‘The blasphemy of this name must consist in something opposed to 
its exaltation above every other name that is named—something, in fine, 
showing the righteousness of the creature to be equal with that of the Crea- 
tor, and consequently denying this name of God (the Lord our righteousness) 
to be of the glorious and sovereign character represented in the Scriptures. 
Here we may say the manifestation of the Sun of righteousness, in his un- 
clouded majesty, has the power of exhibiting the folly and wickedness of the 
earthly pretensions designated as the men. 

‘Which hath power over these plagues ;’—according to the Greek the 
men spoken of blasphemed the name of the God having power over these 
plagues. ‘The plagues are tests calculated to detect the falsehood and 
wickedness of the pretensions to which they are applied ;—God has power 
to withhold these tests, and to delay their application ; but, what is more, 
he has power, in the exercise of his grace as a sovereign, to forgive and to 
purge away even the iniquity of these false pretensions. These men, in 
the hardness of their hearts, instead of humbling themselves before him who 
has this power over the instrument, appear to be excited only to blasphemy 
by the tortures they undergo ;—as if the sinner, when convinced of his 
transgressions, and awakened to a view of the coming wrath, should blas- 
pheme the God he had offended, instead of seeking to obtain his mercy and 
forgiveness. 

‘ And repented not to give him glory.’—The word translated repented, 
μετενόησαν, is applicable to a change of mind, or a change of views, and, 
especially in Scripture, to that mental change which constitutes a convic- 
tion of sin, of unworthiness, and of the need of mercy. This figure, with 
the preceding, appropriately exhibits the unchangeableness of the false prin- 
ciples in contemplation ; especially in respect to the glory to be ascribed to 
God as the God of salvation. It is not in the nature, we may say, of the 
elements of self-righteousness, to change in this respect ; their tendency is 
to ascribe that glory to the redeemed which belongs solely to the Re- 


deemer.* 


* The action of this fourth vial corresponds with that of the fourth trumpet, the 
development being the same in kind, but differing in degree. Darkness was then the 
result; the plague was negative ; the raysof the sun were not then perceived: here on the 
contrary they are perceived, and act in a destructive manner upon the objects against 
which they are directed. So at the opening of the sixth seal, the sun became black 
as sackcloth of hair; its light was not exhibited—its plague was negative only. To 
the convinced sinner, ignorant of the gospel plan, the Sun of righteousness affords no 
ray of light; but to the self-righteous, who rejects the offer of salvation by imputed 
righteousness, who goes about to establish a righteousness of his own, the same Sun 
may be said to be manifested as a fire that is to try his every work. 


368 


FiFrT 


Vs.10,11. And the fifth angel poured out 
his vial upon the seat of the beast; and 
his kingdom was full of darkness; and 
they gnawed their tongues for pain, and 
blasphemed the God of heaven, because 


THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


VIAL. 


NTE. ' jet A ΄ ς - 

Kai ὁ πέμπτος ἐξέχεε τὴν φιάλην αὐτοῦ 

3. τ ἢ , ’ - Ψ i: ee ' c 

ἐπὶ Toy Foovoy τοῦ ϑηρίου" καὶ eyEveto ἢ 

> ~ ~ 

βασιλεία αὐτοῦ ἐσκοτωμένη, καὶ ἐμασσῶντο 
A [4 c ~ ~ 2 

τὰς γλώσσας αὐτῶν ἐκ τοῦ πόνου, καὶ ἐβ- 


of their pains and their sores, and repent- 


λαςφήμησαν τὸν ϑεὸν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐκ τῶν 
ed not of their deeds. 7 


πονῶν αὑτῶν καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἑλκῶν αὑτῶν, καὶ 
OU μετενόησαν ἐκ τῶν ἔργων αὑτῶν. 

ᾧ 363. “ And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat (throne) 
of the beast.—Our common version renders the word ϑρόνον here, by a 
word which does not give a full idea of the meaning. ‘The beast, as ap- 
pears from the account before given of him, assumes all the attributes of 
sovereignty ;—with these he has a throne, and this throne is that given him 
by the dragon, or accuser, (Rev. xiii. 2.) The throne is that which ex- 
hibits the individual occupying it as a sovereign. As such, we suppose the 
throne of the beast to be that principle which places self in the light of a 
sovereign. The test, the vial of wrath, being brought to act upon this prin- 
ciple, shows the kingdom peculiar to such a principle of sovereign power 
to be a kingdom of darkness. 

The beast derives his pretensions to sovereignty from the accuser, and 
the accuser’s power depends upon the false assumption, that the law still 
remains to be fulfilled by the disciple, (ᾧ 297.) This false assumption, 
therefore, we may consider the principle of sovereignty in question—the 
throne of the beast—for if man be not amenable to the law the power of 
the accuser ceases, and the beast no longer enjoys the possession of a 
throne ;—so the*claims of the self-righteous errorist to the glory of his own 
salvation, can be sustained only upon this supposition of the continuance of 
the legal economy. 

God’s throne is a throne of grace, Heb. iv. 16; and grace is the oppo- 
site of works—so the throne of the beast, as the opposite of that of God, 
may be denominated a throne of works. ‘The principle upon which God 
exhibits his sovereignty, is that of giving freely—giving where there is no 
claim of merit. The principle of the beast’s claim to sovereignty, on the 
contrary, is that of enjoying even eternal life as a right—a reward of merit— 
Against this principle a true and just exhibition of the 
wrath of God is brought to bear ;—love to God, as the motive of every 
action, is shown to be an indispensable requisite of the law ; and the absence 
of this motive is proved to be an overt transgression of the law. 


a matter of wages. 


The subject 
of the law is thus demonstrated in all things to have come short of his duty. 
The existence of the element of righteousness, or merit, is proved to be 
wholly incompatible with the reign of the beast, (self,) and consequently 


FIFTH VIAL. 369 


his kingdom is full of darkness—for, as we have supposed (ᾧ 192) light 
in a spiritual sense to be put in this revelation for righteousness, so we sup- 
pose darkness in the same spiritual sense to be put for the absence of 
righteousness ; our views of natural, intellectual and spiritual darkness cor- 
responding with those we have already expressed of a similar classification 
of the term light. 

As the throne of God is a throne of grace, so the kingdom of God is a 
kingdom of light, or of righteousness ; because his imputed moral perfection 
is the pervading element of the position of grace, constituting this kingdom : 
a position of marvellous light, indeed, as it is well called by an apostle.— 
So, as the throne of the beast is a throne of works, (works of darkness, 
Rom. xiii. 12,) his kingdom must be one in which an entire absence of 
this element is manifested as soon as the truth is duly exhibited ; for, as 
it is said, “ By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified ;” “If 
righteousness come by the law, Christ is dead in vain,” Gal. ii. 16-21. Un- 
til this exhibition of truth be made, the kingdom of the beast may be sup- 
posed to have appeared as a position of light—its inhabitants walked “in 
the light of the sparks of their own kindling.” The vial of divine wrath 
being now poured out, the light that is in them proves to be darkness ; their 
fancied righteousness proves to be iniquity ; and having no other resource, 
it may be said of them, “ Darkness covers their land, and gross darkness the 
people,’’—a condition to which allusion appears 'to be made in the admoni- 
tion of the prophet, Jer. xii. 15, 16: “ Hear ye and give ear, be not proud, 
for the Lord hath spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause 
darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains ; and while 
ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross 
darkness.” ¢ 

‘And they gnawed their tongues for pain,’ (pre labore, Leusden.)— 
The elements of the system of the beast are here personified as subjects 
of the kingdom—inhabiters of the earth; they bite their tongues in the 
anguish of labour, or according to Beza, pre dolore; an equally strong 
figure of vexation and disappointment ; as the persecutors of Stephen were 
cut to the heart, and gnashed upon him with their teeth when they could 
not gainsay his statements. 

‘ And blasphemed the God of heaven, because: of their pains and sores ;’ 
or, more strictly, ou¢ of their labours and out of their ulcerous sores. These 
vain pretensions of works and of self-righteousness being themselves acts of 
blasphemy, or the immediate causes of that blasphemy, their true character 
is exhibited by the application of the test, (the effusion of the vial.) 

‘And repented not of their deeds.—As we remarked of the men 
scorched with fire, these elements of the beast’s kingdom, like the elements 
of the earthly system, are unchangeable in the nature of the case; the only 


yy ΝΥ ee yes ae 


370 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET, 


remedy to be administered is the destruction of the whole kingdom, by 
destroying its ruling principles. 

Thus far, however, the kingdom of the beast is not supposed to be over- 
thrown :—the blasphemous, mercenary, and vainglorious system of self still 
continues to be wondered after by the inhabiters of the world. It is proved 
to be a kingdom of darkness, devoid of the element of righteousness ; but its 
final destruction is yet to be revealed. 


SD KT Be Via Ags 


V. 12. And the sixth angel poured out Kui ὃ ἕχτος ἐξέχεε τὴν φιάλην αὑτοῦ ἐπὶ 
his vial upon the great river Kuphrates; τὸν ποταμὸν τὸν μέγαν, τὸν Εὐφράτην" καὶ 
and the water thereof was oe up, that ἐξηράνθη, τὸ, ὥδωρ αὐτοῦ, ive Eroysacgey ἢ 
the way of the kings of the east might be τ ς 2 ini aed pine 
prepared. ὁδὸς τῶν βασιλέων τῶν ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν ἡλίου. 

ᾧ 364. ‘And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river 
Euphrates.’—The judgment of this vial is preparative—the last 6low upon 
the kingdom of the beast left it in a state of darkness, (a system of salvation 
without the justifying element of righteousness.) Preparation is now made 
for its entire overthrow, to be effected apparently by the conquest of its capt- 
tal. 'The figure seems to be borrowed from the manner in which the king- 
dom of Chaldea was conquered by the Medes and Persians. Babylon was 
the capital of this kingdom, and the capture of Babylon was equivalent to 
the overthrow of the Chaldean dynasty. Media and Persia lay to the east of 
Babylon, and the establishment of the Persian monarchy in this capital may 
be regarded as a preparatory step towards the restoration of the captives of 
Judah to the land of their fathers—the order for rebuilding of the city and 
temple going forth’at the commencement of the reign of Cyrus, (Ezra i. 1-5, 
Dan. ix. 25.) This event also happened about the year of the world 3500, 
at which period the typical history of the Old Testament ceases and the 
voice of prophecy is silenced—the end of types and shadows having then 
come. | 

Corresponding with these historical facts, the termination of the apoca- 
lyptic dynasty of the beast is about to be effected by the destruction of the 
apocalyptic Babylon ; a destruction for which the preparatory step is now 
taken by the drying up of the great river of this figurative capital; the 
river constituting the principal resource of the city, although eventually 
proving, by its drying up, to be the immediate mstrument of the destruction 
of the capital, consequently of the overthrow of this whole empire, or system 
of delusions. This overthrow of the system of the beast we suppose to be 
a necessary preparation for the exhibition of truth, afforded under the figure 
of the new Jerusalem; as the taking of Babylon was formerly a prelude to 
the restoration of the Jews and the rebuilding of the temple. 


pee) ΧΑ ΩΝ ἵ ξ 
mer , 
SIXTH VIAL. 


; 371 


We have already had occasion to advert to the typical character of the 
great Euphrates, (ὃ 219.) We last saw this river in its full power, sending 
forth its myriads of horsemen, (Rev. ix. 15-21,) and we supposed it to 
represent a means of propitiation of human device ; an opposite of the pure 
river of the water of life in the midst of the street of the holy city, (Rev. xxii. 
1, 2.) We suppose it still to be the same, and, accordingly, to be a typi- 
cal figure, nearly parallel with that of the rivers and fountains of the earth: 
that is, as these rivers, &c., are to the earth, so is the Euphrates to Babylon. 
The earth, the kingdom of the beast, and this proud city being different 
figures, and each affording a different series of figures, ilMastreftig the same 
system of false doctrine ; each of them possessing features of such illustra- 
tion peculiar to themselves. 

‘And the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the 
east might be prepared ;’ or, according to the Greek, that the way of the 
kings from the rising of the sun might be prepared. The figure, as we have 
remarked, is borrowed from the successful incursion of the Medes and Per- 
sians into Babylonia ; but the spiritual allusion must be to certain precursors 
of the rising of the Sun of righteousness,—certain truths of the gospel, des- 
tined by their influence to supersede the fallacies represented by the won- 
derful power of the beast, and the delusions of the false prophet. 

As the last blow of the earthly system was that of showing its sun, or 
the action of its sun, to be of a destructive rather than of a saving charac- 
ter ; and as the last blow to the kingdom of the beast exhibited that king- 
dom as one of darkness, and that system as one devoid of righteousness ; so 
the preparatory blow to the destrdction of this same system, represented 
as a great city, is to manifest its destitution of any propitiatory or atoning 
power. In the subsequent part of the Apocalypse we have further particu- 
lars of this proud city ; at present we only know that her fall is determined 
upon, as proclaimed Rev. xiv. 8 ; and we now see the preparation made for 
this crisis by the drying up of her river. So, in speaking of a doctrinal 
system of salvation, the manifestation of its entire fallacy may be said to be 
prepared, when its only pretended provision of atonement or propitiation 
is manifested to be destitute of the requisite means of cleansing the sinner 
from the guilt of his transgressions. Such a manifestation we may suppose 
to be effected by a just exhibition of the wrath of God, showing the utter 
impossibility of any adequate means of appeasing that wrath, other than the 
atonement provided through the vicarious suffering of a divine Redeemer. 

These kings of the east, primarily the two powers of Media and Persia, 
may be supposed to represent two leading doctrines of the gospel, in effect 
performing the part of forerunners of the manifestation of Jesus, as the Sun 
of righteousness :—preparing the way for the exhibition of the Saviour in his 
true character as the Lord our righteousness, and as the only source of the 


372 THE SEVENTH SEAL—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


spiritual light, (his own imputed perfection,) prophetically alluded to, 
Luke i. 78, as the day-spring from on high. These doctrines of truth, 
whatever they may be, cannot overcome, it may be presumed, the false sys- 
tem represented by Babylon, or by the kingdom of the beast, so long as that 
system boasts itself of an atoning provision equal to the emergency. This 
error, therefore, must first be detected and exposed, before these two ele- 
ments in contemplation can be brought to bear upon the general system of 
delusion. 


Vs. 14, And I saw three unclean Καὶ εἶδον ἐκ τοῦ στόματος tot δράκοντος 
c og AG Say 5 ἜΡΩΣ 
spirits like frogs (come) out of the mouth ,αὶ ἐκ τοῦ στόματος τοῦ ϑηρίου καὶ ἐκ τοῦ 


of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the ἢ ΤΗΣ ͵ ͵ ' 
beast, and out of the mouth of the false 77 μῦτος τοῦ eno tg ht great 


Rise Sie tt So ΘΠ Sian nen 
prophet. For they are the spirits of ἀκάϑαρτα ws βάτραχοι" εἰσὶ Pgs es 
. . . . . ’ ~ ~ εν, Ὁ ΄ 
devils, working miracles, (which) go forth δαιμονίων ποιοῦντα σημεῖα, ἃ ἐκπορεύεται 
unto the kings of the earth, and of the £7} τοὺς βασιλεῖς τῆς οἰκουμένης ὅλης, συ»- 
whole world, to gather them to the battle ἀγαγεῖν αὐτοὺς sig toy πόλεμον τῆς ἡμέρας 
of that great day of God Almighty. ms - r ~ ΑΝ 

᾿ ἐκείνης τῆς μεγάλης τοῦ ϑεοῦ TOV παντο- 
κράτορος. 


ᾧ 365. ‘And I saw,’ &c.—The word come is supplied in our common 
version. The apostle did not see these spirits coming out, but he saw them 
as already out, knowing whence they came; apparently one spirit from 
each of these mouths. The more correct reading would be, And I saw 
out of the mouth, &c., three spirits unclean as frogs ;—that is, unclean as 
frogs are unclean. Frogs were Levitically unclean, because they belong to 
aclass of animals in the waters without either fins or scales, (Lev. xi. 9- 
12.) They are of a mixed character—amphibious animals—capable of 
living both upon the land and water; they inhabit watery places, but the 
water of these places is stagnant and impure: they thus represent elements 
of doctrine peculiar to a mixed system of propitiation, as of something partly 
the work of man and partly the work of God. A system of atonement of 
this character, is unclean and offensive in the sight of God; its pretended 
means of ablution being wholly inadmissible as means of salvation—like 
frogs, Levitically fit neither for sustaining life or for sacrifice. 

These evils spirits, coming as they do from the mouths of the dragon, 
&c., we may presume to be doctrines ; unclean, because their purport and 
tendency is to establish claims or pretensions of merit, of the unclean or 
mixed character alluded to. An unclean doctrine must come from an 
impure source, so the uncleanness of these spirits seems to be given as a 
reason for their coming from the mouths of these evil principles. The 
mouth of the dragon is the mouth of the accuser; the unclean doctrine from 
this source must be one of an accusing character, tending to sustain the 
action of the law, or to maintain the continuance of the legal economy, 
upon which the power of accusation necessarily depends. The doctrine 


_ THE SPIRITS LIKE FROGS. 373. 


from the mouth of the beast, we suppose to be of the blasphemous character 
of which the heads of the beast bore the name ; its mouth, as it is said also, 
Rey. xiii. 5, speaking great things and blasphemies ; that is, tending to 
place the element of se/f upon an equality with God. The doctrine from 
the mouth of the false prophet, may be taken to be the lying language of 
misinterpretation ; such a literal or carnal construction of the word of 
revelation, as tends to create an image of self-righteousness, and cause it to 
become an object of idolatrous worship, akin to the worship of self, (the 
beast.) 

The sight of these unclean spirits might be considered a consequence of 
the pouring out of the sixth vial; a just exhibition of the wrath of God, 
tending to show these spirits in their true character ; we are inclined, how- 
ever, to consider the direct action of this vial confined to the drying up of 
the Euphrates: the coming forth of these unclean spirits being an indirect 
consequence, not merely of the effusion of the sixth vial, but of that of all 
the preceding vials. 

The crisis is now approaching when the great contest is to be com- 
menced. ‘The dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, with the kings or 
powers of the earth on one side; the Intercessor, with the powers from 
the risings of the sun, (the kings of the east,) on the other. The operations 
attending the pouring out of all the preceding vials, have been approximat- 
ing towards this issue ; the last, the drying up of the great river, having the 
most direct application to it. The three allied anti-Christian powers may 
be supposed to contemplate the anticipated trial with more than ordinary 
anxiety ; they are now sending out their emissaries with the view of sum- 
moning all their resources for a last effort ; and this especially, because, 
the Euphrates being dried up, the opportunity is now presented for the 
precursors of the Sun of righteousness to advance unobstructed. ΤῸ this 
final contest allusion may be made in the prophecies concerning Cyrus, 
(Is. xliv. 28, and xlv. 1.) The restoration of the Jews from their Baby- 
lonish captivity being the temporal allusion, while the restoration of the 
truths of the gospel peculiar to the covenant of grace, from their captivity 
under the reign of error, is the spiritual allusion. The Medes and Persians 
as nations, by the conquest of Babylon ushering .in the power of Cyrus— 
Darius the Mede succeeding Belshazzar, the last of the dynasty of Nebu- 
chadnezzar, about A. M. 3448; and Cyrus succeeding Darius the Mede 
about nine years aftrwards——(Vid. Calmet and others.) 

§ 366. ‘For they are the spirits of devils, (demons, πρεύματα δαίμο- 
yioov,) working miracles,’ or making signs——Our common version makes no 
distinction here between the Greek terms διάβολος and δαίμων, although the 
first signifies strictly an accuser, and is so rendered 2 Tim. iii. 3, and Titus 


3874 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


ii. 3;* while the last is expressive of an unclean spirit, or something the 
opposite of a messenger of truth. Among the Greeks, the term demon was 
used both in a good and a bad sense, (Rob. Lex. 133,) εὐδαίμων, κακοδαί- 
nov; but in the Jewish sense it is uniformly the appellation of an unclean 
spirit, something of an idolatrous character ; as even the tutelary geniuses 
of the Greeks must have been so considered by the Hebrews. The apostle 
Paul speaks of certain doctrines of demons, 1 Tim. iv. 1, to which heed 
would be given in latter times; a departure from the faith, tending, as 
appears from the context, to the settmg up of certain pretended meritorious 
observances of man as objects of trust, in opposition or in place of that trust 
which should be reposed in the living God, the Saviour of all men. These 
spirits, unclean as frogs, we suppose may be something of the same char- 
acter; that is, they are spirits or doctrines carrying with them great appear- 
ance of plausibility, working miracles or signs in the sight of men, tending 
to maintain the empire of self, and to ascribe to the creature the glory due 
to his Creator and Saviour. Babylon, it appears, (Rev. xviii. 2,) was 
especially manifested to be the habitation of such demons ; so the apostle 
James associates the term devilish (demoniacal, δαιμονιώδης) with the terms 
earthly and sensual, ἐπίγειος, ψυχική, which we should render lteral and 
carnal, natural or physical, as opposed to spiritual. ‘The accuser, the 
beast, and the false prophet, accordingly make use of these carnal weapons 
or doctrines, to summon the powers of the earthly system for the great con- 


test in contemplation. 
‘Which go forth unto the kings of the earth,’ &c.—We suppose these 


kings of the earth to be opposites of the kings from the risings of the sun. As 
the king of Babylon may be supposed to have sent forth his emissaries, sum- 
moning to his aid all the tributary powers over ‘which he had a control ; 
corresponding with which figure, the dominion of Babylon was hyperboli- 
cally said, in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, to extend to the end of the earth, 
Dan. iv. 22; and, consequently, its auxiliaries might appropriately be 
spoken of as the kings of the earth and of the whole world. 

‘And of the whole world.—According to our common version, there 
would seem to be two classes of powers here—the kings of the earth, and 
the kings of the whole world ; but some copies of the Greek omit the words 
rendered of the earth ; confining the action of these unclean spirits to their 
influence upon one class only—the kings of the whole world. ‘This whole 
world (οἰκουμένης ὕλης) is apparently the same as that spoken of Rey. 
iii. 10, “1 also will keep thee from the hour of trial, which is to come upon 


* This term, it is true, is rendered in these passages with the adjunct false ; but 
we have already shown in what sense the devil is nota false accuser, (§ 282,) and 
there is nothing in the Greek term with which the idea of falsehood is necessarily 


associated. 


WARNING TO WATCH. 375 


the whole world ;’’ and the same as that said to have been deceived or 
misled by the accuser, (Rev. xii. 9.) An economy the opposite of that 
spoken of, Heb. i. 6, as the world into which the first-begotten was brought 
according to the purpose of God, when he said, “Let all the angels of 
God worship him ;” and the opposite of that termed, Heb. ii. 5, “the 
world to come ;” but the same economy as that of which all the kingdoms 
are said to have been claimed by Satan, (the accuser,) as peculiarly his, 
Luke iv. 5; and the same as that rendered by the term the earth, Luke 
xxi. 26; to which allusion is made Heb. xii. 27, where the great change 
in contemplation is that of a change from the dispensation of works to the 
dispensation of grace. The kings of the earth, or of this economy, can be 
no other than principles dependent upon the legal dispensation, or some- 
thing of that character.* 

‘'To gather them together to the battle of the great day of God 
Almighty.’—The contest here alluded to, we suppose to be that described 
Rey. xix. 17, 21, where it will more properly come under our consideration. 
The sixth vial brings us only to a knowledge of the preparations making for 
this battle ; it does not afford us an account of the engagement itself: it 
informs, however, of the period when it is to take place—the great day of 
God Almighty—which can be no other day than that elsewhere denomi- 
nated the day of the Lord, a period repeatedly alluded to both in the Old 
-and New Testaments. 


V. 15. Behold, lcome as a thief. Bless- Sov, ἔρχομαι ὡς κλέπτης. μακάριος, ὃ 
ed (is) he that watcheth, and keepeth his γρηγορῶν καὶ τηρῶν τὰ ἱμάτια αὑτοῦ, ἵνα 


ΕΝ he ‘walk ‘naked; ‘and’ they μὴ γυμνὸς περιπατῇ καὶ βλέπωσι τὴν aoxn- 
μοσύνην αὐτοῦ. 


* The Greek term οἰχουμένη (world) is sometimes employed in the New Testa- 
ment in a physical sense, as applying to this whole sphere of earth; sometimes in a 
political sense, as the Roman empire, and sometimes in the spiritual sense in which 
we here understand it. 

In common parlance, the Roman empire was probably frequently spoken of in the 
time of the apostles, as the whole world ; but we think the allusions in the Apoca- 
lypse are to the state of things under the Chaldean empire, and not to that under the 
Roman, and this for several reasons—amongst others, that empire, with its capital, 
appears to have been brought into existence for a typical purpose. Its history was. 
well known, and will always be well known, to all familiar with the scriptures of the 
Old Testament; and the employment of the Chaldean capital, Babylon, as a figure, 
in the odious light in which she is presented, could give no offence to the ruling 
powers in the early ages of Christianity, nor furnish any unnecessary cause of per- 
secution ;—a precaution which accords especially with the prominent feature of 
Christian doctrine, inculcating submission to the existing government, in all matters 
not pertaining directly to the discharge of religious duty. 


33 


376 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


§ 367. ‘ Behold, I come as a thief.,—We should be at a loss to know 
who was the speaker here, if it were not for the connection of this verse 
with the preceding, and the correspondence of this declaration with the 
same words uttered on other occasions. We have just been informed that 
the battle for which such important preparations are made is to take place 
on the great day of the Lord ; and we are expressly told, 1 Thess. v. 2, and 
2 Pet. iii. 10, that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night. 
The declaration, then, is equivalent to an answer to the anticipated ques- 
tion, ““ When is this great day of God Almighty to come?” [It is to come 
as a thief;—that is, suddenly, when least expected ;—which also corres- 
ponds with the repeated declaration of Christ in this vision, and elsewhere, 
that he himself is to come quickly, suddenly, in a day and hour when he is 
not expected ; the coming of the day of the Lord, and the coming of the 
Lord, appearing to be uniformly equivalent expressions. Jesus Christ, 
therefore, is here himself the interlocutor, and the occasion of his being so 
is, that the coming of the great day, just mentioned, and his own coming, 
are identic. This last contest with the beast corresponds also, apparently, 
with the trial compared by the prophet to the action of a refiner’s fire, and 
of fuller’s soap. 

‘Blessed is he that watcheth,’ &c.; or, Happy is he that watcheth— 
happy, because he is always ready—he cannot be taken by surprise. ‘The 
word μαχάριος, translated blessed, is applicable to the advantage enjoyed by 
those to whom it is applied: a meaning distinct from that of εὐλογητὸς, which 
our common version also renders by bjessed, but which conveys essentially 
the idea of praise. 

This ‘admonitory address or declaration may be of the same character 
as that attributed to the general proposition, Rev. xiv. 13, “ Blessed (hap- 
py) are the dead who die in the Lord ;” or, as that at the commencement 
of the book, Rev. i. 3, “ Blessed is he that readeth.”’ It is not part of the 
parrative, but something addressed to the reader or hearer, suggested, as it 
were, to the mind of the narrator by this portion of the narrative. In the 
introductory addresses to the churches, the speaker, Jesus, had repeatedly 
forewarned them of his coming suddenly, and he now seems to have reached 
that portion of his unveiling of himself in which this coming suddenly is to 
be exemplified. As we have already remarked, in a literal sense the hour 
of death must be a sudden coming of the day of the Lord to every one; 
but we suppose the allusion here to be something in a spiritual sense, and 
that the coming in contemplation is something to be met with in this Apoc- 
aly pse. 

Watching is the opposite of lying down and sleeping, (ᾧ 85 ;) and the 
main idea to be associated with it is that of continual readiness: ‘“ They 


WARNING TO WATCH. 317 


that sleep, sleep in the night,” says Paul, “but let us who are of the day 
be sober.” To be in the night, is to be in darkness, the position peculiar 
to the kingdom of the beast: to be of the day, is to be in the light, a posi- 
tion of righteousness or of justification—clothed with the imputed perfection 
of the Sun of righteousness. 

‘And keepeth his garments.’—It is very evident that the garments 
spoken of here are garments of salvation. Happy is he who, in the exercise 
of his faith, always finds himself clothed in a garment of salvation ; and 
great is his advantage, who is in fact clothed with such a garment, although 
he may not be himself aware of it. This is an indisputable axiom. It would 
be indisputable if nothing more were revealed respecting it, and perhaps it is 
so to be considered here—the questions still remaining to be answered, 
What is this garment, and how is it to be procured? How can one be al- 
ways in this state of watchfulness, or state of readiness? or, How can one 
be always clothed with these garments of salvation ? 

§ 368. The whole tenor of this Apocalypse shows us that the merits of 
man can afford no such garment or covering as is capable of hiding the 
guilt of sin in the sight of God. We have already learned enough from 
this revelation, to know that the robe of Christ’s righteousness alone is suf- 
ficient for this purpose; and that the garments here spoken of must be the 
covering of his merits, and not that of the disciple’s own pretended virtues ; 
such pretended merits bemg all of the moth-eaten character of the garments 
of the rich, spoken of James v. 2, or of those of the rags described by the 
prophet, (Is. Ixiv.6.) If, then, the only garment of salvation be that of 
the merits of Christ, how can it be called the disciple’s garment? or how, 
in keeping this covering about him, can he be said to keep Ais garments ? 
Evidently they can only be said to be his, because they have been freely 
given to him. Happy, therefore, it may be said, is he who has received 
such garments, and happy is he who keepeth them; who appreciates the 
gift, values it, keeps it as he would a treasure or pearl of great price— 
prizes it, too, for the purpose for which it was intended: for no one can be 
said to appreciate a garment in which he is unwilling to appear, especially 
on an occasion for which it was intended that he should appear in it; the 
gift or present having been made him for this purpose. 

It was formerly the custom of the Ottoman court to entertain the min- 
isters or representatives of foreign powers with a magnificent feast. On these 
occasions both food and raiment were provided for the guests. The am 
bassador, with his retinue, marched in procession to the palace, and attend- 
ants were in waiting to offer to each guest, upon his entrance, a robe, with- 
out the covering of which he was deemed unqualified for admittance to the 
table of the sovereign. ‘The Grand Seignor himself witnessed the feast 
from a secret recess provided for the purpose, without participating in the 


378 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


entertainment; while heralds proclaimed to the multitude that the nation 
or people thus represented, sensible of their dependence upon the benevo- 
lence of the Turkish ruler, had humbly sent to him to be fed and clothed 
at his expense. On these occasions, if a guest had refused the garment 
proffered him, or if, having received it, he had not kept it, and had at- 
tempted to sit at the imperial table without it, his conduct would have been 
deemed not merely an act of folly, but something equivalent to a rebellious 
contumacy. On the other hand, it might be said of those who were care- 
ful to conform to the requisitions of this extraordinary etiquette, Happy are 
those who not only receive these garments, but who keep them, and are thus 
at all times ready to attend the feast. 

The Asiatic custom is, we believe, one of very ancient date, and was 
probably more familiarly known in the days of the apostles, than it has been 
n modern times. Allusion seems to have been made to a custom of this 
kind by our Saviour, in his parable of the Supper, in which an account is 
given of a guest gathered in, and even compelled to come in, from the high- 
ways and hedges, and afterwards cast out for want of a wedding gar- 
ment,—a garment which apparently is supposed to have been proffered him, 


but which he did not keep. ‘The allusion in this passage of the Apocalypse . 


may have a similar bearing. 

‘Lest he walk naked,’ &c.—The words translated scald τὰ ἱμάτια, 
properly apply to upper or outer garments ; and the term naked, in Scrip- 
ture, does not necessarily involve the idea of nudity, in the ordinary sense. 
The custom of the ancients was, probably, very much the same as that of 
the Asiatics, and, indeed, of a large portion’ of mankind, especially of the 
peorer classes, at the present day, viz., that of lying down to sleep in the 
same under garments as those which have been worn during the day. A 
person roused from sleep in this state, and obliged to sally out without having 
time to put on his upper garments, mantle, cloak, &c., would be deemed 
naked, according to the scriptural use of the term. So the nakedness of 
man in the sight of God consists perhaps as much in his pretensions to a 
covering of his own merits as in his overt acts of transgression. Without 
the upper garment of his Saviour’s righteousness the disciple is found naked ; 
with it, although not unclothed, he is clothed upon, (2 Cor. v. 3,4.) The 
shame of his nakedness consists as much in the filthy rags and moth-eaten 
under garments of his self-righteousness, as in what is commonly considered 
his positive sinfulness. His shame is exhibited not merely in being without 
garments, but in being without the garments of salvation. So the shame of 
the guest at the wedding-feast, was not in his absolute nakedness, but in his 
want of the robe or mantle requisite for the occasion. 

There is a sudden change of figure here, similar to some that we have 
noticed in other passages. The battle of the great day of God Almighty is 


ARMAGEDDON. 379 


equivalent to the coming of the Lord; the coming of the Lord is else- 
where spoken of as the sudden appearance of the bridegroom, or as a call 
to a marriage feast. The figure of the battle is thus dropped, and, instead of 
calling upon the disciple to put on the whole armour of faith, the idea of a 
sudden call to the celebration of a feast is apparently introduced, and the 
absolute necessity of preparation for it in respect to the proper apparel is 
held forth. 

The admonition will apply either to principles personified, or to disciples ; 
those doctrinal principles only which are involved in the truth of salvation, 
through the imputed righteousness of Christ, being able to stand in the day 
of trial. So likewise with disciples, it is only those depending upon this 
spiritual clothing who can be prepared to meet the Lord at his coming. 
The believer, trusting in the Redeemer’s righteousness, and in the washing 
of his atonement, is at all times ready : he is found watching, as one prepared, 
even with his upper garment, to go forth at the summons of his master. 


_ V. 16. And he gathered them together καὶ συνήγαγεν αὐτους εἰς τὸν τόπον τὸν 
into a place called in the Hebrew tongue καλούμενον EBouiotl Aouaysdav. 
Armageddon. 


ᾧ 369. ‘And he gathered,’ &c.—This is to be read in connection with 
the 14th verse, the narrative being resumed ; as if the parenthetical admoni- 
tion just commented upon had not intervened. The spirits unclean as 
frogs went forth to gather together the powers of the earth to the battle of 
the great day of God Almighty ; and He, that is, God Almighty, gathered 
them together, through this instrumentality, into a place called Armageddon ; 
the kings from the risings of the sun being also assembled, as we may sup- 
pose, on the same ground. ‘The armies are thus seen to be prepared on 
both sides, and the narrative closes, for the present, as on the eve of a con- . 
flict. The further particulars are to be learnt from the developments 
attending the pouring out of the seventh vial. 

‘Into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon ;’ or, according 
to the Greek, into the place, as if the place had been previously mentioned. 
We suppose the term place to be put here for a certain position of principles 
peculiarly adapted to a test of their correctness. 

There seems to be no such place as Armageddon mentioned elsewhere 
in the Scriptures. Some have supposed the appellation to refer to Megiddo, 
a place remarkable for a double slaughter, Judges v. 19, and 2 Kings xsiii. 
29, Rob. Lex.; this double slaughter, if such be the allusion, being per- 
haps a type of the great contest between truth and error here contempla 
ted—the kings of Canaan and the king of Egypt representing the powers 
or principles symbolized in the Apocalypse by the kings of the earth. Ar- 
mageddon, according to Leusden, signifies, among other meanings, the Mount 


380 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


of the Gospel—(mons evangelit, vel evangelizationis aut mons pomorum, vel 
fructuum, sive electorum.) We may suppose it to be a figure of a certain 
manifestation of gospel truth of such a character as to be the means of the 
final destruction of all opposite errors. The mount of the gospel may be 
equivalent to the gospel itself, or to the gospel spiritually and properly un- 
derstood,—understood in such a way as to perceive the conflict between truth 
and error in respect to the plan of salvation. So, as “a city set upon a hill 
cannot be hid,” a battle fought upon a mountain may be said to have taken 
place in a position peculiarly conspicuous. If we would look for an exhibi- 
tion of the battle of this great day of the Lord, we must look for it in the gos- 
pel. As was said of the substitute ram provided for an offering in the 
place of the only child of the patriarch, “In the mount it will be seen,” 
so, certainly, we may say of the great substitute provided in behalf of man, 
In the gospel it will be seen. In this sense we may render the passage 
here—And he gathered them together.in a place called the Mount of the 
Gospel. The highly favored disciples, Peter, and James, and John, were 
taken into a high mountain apart, where they were permitted to witness 
Moses and Elias ministering to their Master in his glory; so, τ we would 
behold the law and the prophets ministering to an exhibition of the glory 
of the Lord our righteousness, we must look for it in the GOSPEL. 


SEVENTH VIAL. 


V. 17. And the seventh angel poured = Kai ὃ ἕβδομος ἐξέχεε τὴν φιάλην αὑτοῦ 
out his vial into the air; and there came ἐπὶ τὸν ἀέρα" καὶ ἐξῆλϑε φωνὴ μεγάλη ἀπὸ 
a great voice out of the temple of heaven, 


~ ~ ~ 2 - 3 ‘ ~ 4 
: : tov ναοῦ [τοῦ οὐρανοῦ"), ἀπὸ τοῦ ϑρόνου 
from the throne, saying, It is done. [ ὃ | φύλων 


λέγουσα" γέγονε" 


ᾧ 370. ‘ And the seventh angel poured out,’ &c.—Here the preposition 
ἐπὶ, instead of being rendered upon, is translated znto. We are to bear in 
mind, however, that with an accusative, as here used, it may signify about 
or concerning. This seventh development of divine wrath is something 
about or concerning the avr. 

The air is mentioned in but one other place of the Apocalypse, Rev. 
ix. 2, in commenting upon which we have already noticed (¢ 207) the 
distinction between air and ether. ‘The first, being applicable to the 
atmosphere immediately around this globe, rendered dense by earthly 
exhalations, we suppose to be put apocalyptically for the literal or carnal 
medium of construction, or interpretation, through which heavenly things 
(the doctrines of the gospel) are contemplated ; a medium of construction 
so loaded with earthly apprehensions that the spiritual meaning of revelation 
is not perceived. Paul speaks of the prince of the power of the air, (Eph. 


SEVENTH VIAL. 381 


ii. 1, 2,) as something corresponding with what he terms “ the course of 
this world.” The power of the air, corresponding also, apparently, with 
the spirit working in the children of disobedience. These children of dis- 
obedience we suppose to be not merely individuals out of the church, care- 
less and reckless of the subject of religion, but professing members of the 
visible church, refusing to submit themselves to the terms of the gospel— 
rejecting the offer of salvation by grace through the merits of Christ ; the 
spirit working in them being a spirit of self-justification, and of self-suffi- 
ciency. Like the foolish and bewitched Galatians, they refused to obey the 
gospel, (the truth,) because they believe they can do without it, expecting 
to be “‘ made perfect by the flesh,” or by their own fulfilment of the law. 
This spirit of self-justification, we take to be what Paul denominates the 
power of the air ; a spirit or power derived from a literal or carnal medium 
of construction, through which the truths of the gospel are contemplated. 

A true exhibition of the nature of divine wrath is now applied as a test 
to this medium of interpretation, showing its tendency, as of the letter, to 
condemnation. The result of this process is the destruction of the earthly 
or Babylonish system described in the remainder of this chapter, and further 
illustrated in the two succeeding chapters ; the subjects of those two chap- 
ters being, as we apprehend, amplifications of the nineteenth verse of the 
present chapter. 

‘ And there came a great voice out of the temple,’ &c.—This must be 
the same great voice as that which gave the command to the seven angels 
to pour out their vials upon the earth; the air being an element of the 
earthly system. ‘The several processes are now completed ; the last being 
that to which the greatest importance appears to be attached, if such a dis- 
tinction be admissible. The rule of construction (the medium of contem- 
plating subjects of revelation) once corrected, the destruction of every false 
system may be said to follow as a matter of course, while the way is at 
the same time opened for a perfect development of truth. 

This great voice is said to come out of the temple in heaven, from the 
throne, or from the heavenly temple from the throne ; reminding us that the 
exhibitions of these vials pertain especially to the development of principles 
peculiar to the worship and to the sovereignty of the Most High. 

‘It is done, I¢yore+—The expression is not exactly equivalent to the 
declaration, It is finished, (τετέλεσται,) John xix. 30; it rather implies the 
existence of a thing as actually present, which was previously only expected. 
The time has now come—the thing expected is brought forth—alluding, per- 
haps, to the promise of the mighty angel, Rev. x. 7, that the mystery of God 
should be finished (ἐτελέσϑη) in the sounding of the seventh trumpet. The 
Jast vial of the last trumpet having been poured out upon the air, correcting 
the mode of cOnstruction, the time has come for the final development of this 


382 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


mystery. Nothing is here said, or is again said in this book, of the faith and 
patience of the saints, as on other occasions. The last obstacle has been 
removed—the catastrophe is now immediately at hand. 


V. 18. And there were voices, and Kai ἐγένοντο ἀστραπαὶ καὶ φωναὶ καὶ 
thunders, and lightnings ; and there was βρονταί, “πὶ σεισμὸς, ἐγένετο μέγας, οἷος 
a great earthquake, such as was not since οὐχ ἐγένετο ἀφ᾽ οὗ οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἐγένοντο 


men were upon the earth, so mighty an 
earthquake, (and) so great. ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, THAMLOLTOS σεισμὸς οὕτω μέχας. 


ᾧ 371. ‘And there were voices,’ &c.—Prior to the sounding of the 
seven trumpets, when ‘the fire from the altar was cast into the earth, there 
were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake, Rev. vii. 
5. So, on the opening of the temple, prior to the developments of the 
twelfth chapter, there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an 
earthquake, and great hail. The present is, therefore, the third exhibition of 
the terrors of the law ;—this earthquake far exceeding the others, and the 
hail, as appears from a subsequent verse, being of an unusual magnitude. 
The characteristics are the same, but some extraordinary importance appears 
to be attached to this third commotion. 

If we suppose the action of this vial upon the air to be something affect- 
ing what commentators term the rules of exegesis, as applied to the expla- 
nation of the Scriptures, we may imagine a more than ordinary display of 
the requisitions of the law to be called for to effect a change in a long 
adopted mode of interpretation, the tendency of which has been virtually to 
represent the necessity of some righteousness, some fulfilment of the law on 
the part of man, as a condition of his salvation. An unusual commotion or 
shaking (σεισμός) must be requisite to effect the change of long established 
rules of exposition ; and the operation of this change must be attended with 
an unusual commotion of the minds and opinions of those directing their 
attention to the subject ; all or either of these effects may be mdicated by 
the action of this earthquake. 

In addition to the earthquakes we have enumerated, as connected with 
voices, &c., there was a great earthquake on the opening of the sixth seal, 
when the sun became black as sackcloth, and the moon as blood, and the 
heaven departed as a scroll, and every mountain and island were moved 
out of their places, Rev. vi. 12-17. There was also an earthquake when 
the two witnesses ascended up into heaven, and a tenth part of the city fell, 
Rey. xi. 13 ; the present, however, exceeds them all, as it is also the last 
mentioned in the Apocalypse. Jt may be to this that allusion is made, 
Haggai ii. 6, 7, “ Yet once a little while, and I will shake the heavens, 
(the air,) and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake 
all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come.’’ ‘To which also the 
apostle refers, Heb. xii. 26, 27: ‘‘ But now he hath promiStd, saying, Yet 


SEVENTH VIAL. 383 


once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven ; and this once more 
signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things which 
are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” 

Both these passages suggest the idea that, prior to the perfect develop- 
ment of the economy of grace as superseding that of works, there must 
necessarily be a peculiar shaking of other systems—worldly systems of sal- 
vation—especially that represented by Babylon, that great city. At the 
same time, we are to bear in mind that an earthquake is not a destruction 
of the earth itself, but only a commotion of its elements ;—so of an airquake 
or tornado. But an earthquake may be the means of destruction to the 
things resting upon it, (cities, towns, &c.) The worldly or earthly elements 
remain, notwithstanding the commotion so destructive to the systems or 
plans of salvation figuratively appearing as things depending upon the earth. 


Vs. 19, 20. And the great city was 
divided into three parts, and the cities of 
the nations fell: and great Babylon came 
in remembrance before God, to give unto 
her the cup of the wine of the fierceness 
of his wrath. And every island fled away, 
and the mountains were not found. 


Καὶ ἐγένετο ἢ πόλις ἢ μεγάλη εἴς τρία 
μέρη, καὶ αἱ πόλεις τῶν ἐθνῶν ἔπεσον" καὶ 
Βαβυλὼν 7 μεγάλη ἐμνήσϑη ἐνώπιον τοῦ 
ϑεοῦ, δοῦναι αὐτῇ τὸ ποτήριον τοῦ οἴνου 
τοῦ ϑυμοῦ TIS ὀργῆς αὐτοῦ. Καὶ πᾶσα 
γῆσος ἔφυγε, καὶ ὅρη οὐχ εὑρέϑησαν. 


ᾧ 372. ‘And the great city was divided,’ &c.—This great city and 
Babylon mentioned immediately afterwards we suppose to be identic, es- 
pecially as Babylon is elsewhere termed that great city, Rev. xiv. 8; or 
according to some editions of the Greek, the great city, Βαβυλὼν ἡ πόλις ἡ 
neyédy—great, because great in her pretensions—proud, and accounted great 
in human estimation. 

This great city is said to be not destroyed, but divided into three parts— 
something preparatory to destruction; to come into three parts being a 
figure perhaps of a doctrinal system of great pretensions undergoing an analy- 
sis, necessarily resulting in a manifestation of its fallacy. As the name im- 
ports, we suppose Babylon to represent a confused system of salvation—a 
confused mixture of principles or doctrinal elements—something partly legal 
and partly evangelical. Even this confusion, however, may be susceptible 
of divisions. There may be three different aspects in which the city is to be 
contemplated, corresponding with what we have suggested of three senses, 
(Ὁ. 191)—each of these aspects presenting a mixture, one bearing a certain 
analogy to the other ; or the city, as a system, may be divisible into three 
different elements, each of which is of a certain mixed composition. We 
prefer the last construction, more especially as this is the first time in which 
the word translated part (μέρος) is to be found in the Apocalypse, either in 
the singular or plural ; the English term having been supplied by our trans- 
jators where it occurs previously. 


384 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


We do not take this great city to represent any thing professedly anti- 
Christian or infidel ; on the contrary, we suppose it to be an erroneous system 
of faith, prevalent in the views of professing Christians, and in its general 
features not confined to any single denomination. We suppose the system 
to be particularly of a mercenary character, and distinguished for its tenden- 
cy to pride and vainglory, as exalting the pretensions of human merit, and 
assuming for man the glory of his own redemption. 

A true system of redemption corresponding with God’s plan of salvation 
may be said to consist of three essential parts, each of these parts having its 
peculiar elements or principles: first, its views of divine justice; second, 
its views of man’s sinfulness ; third, its views of the remedy by which man’s 
sinfulness is to be reconciled with divine justice. Every religious system, 
indeed, may be supposed to be possessed of these parts; for all admit the 
perfection of God, and the imperfection of man, and profess to devise some 
scheme by which these two opposite characteristics may be reconciled to 
each other. ‘The system of Babylon may be thus divisible, although each 
ofits parts is constituted of a confused mixture of truth and falsehood. [1 is 
professedly Christian—it borrows its leading features from the true doctrines 
of the gospel, and may be termed a simulation of God’s plan of redemption. 
It has its views of divine justice, brought down to a human standard, in the 
appreciation of moral good and evil. It has its views of man’s sinfulness ; 
but in this the good qualities of the sinner are supposed to be a certain set- 
off in part for his evil actions, while these last are noticed no further than 
they appear in his outward conduct. ‘The distance between these two ex- 
tremes being thus diminished, the means of reconciliation are supposed to be 
nothing more than that which is within the compass of man’s ability to per- 
form. In fine, the Babylonish system has its element of propitiation or of 
justification, professedly on the gospel plan, but in effect ascribing the work 
to some merit in man, by which his reconciliation to his God is placed in the 
light of a compensation for certain services, performances, or good conduct 
of his own; these merits being the merchandise with which Babylon has 
enriched herself. 

We suggest this classification principally for the purpose of showing that, 
although a fallacious system of faith, like the one in contemplation, may 
have its three parts distinctly marked, it may be notwithstanding a mixed 
and confused system—a system presupposing an amalgamation of the merits 
of Christ with those of the disciple as the means of salvation. Any insuf- 
ficient view of the justice of God, or of the sinfulness of sin, involves a cor- 
responding error in appreciating the nature and extent of the remedial ele- 
ment of reconciliation. If man, either from the mere lenity of his sovereign 
Judge, or from his own capabilities, be able to atone for his own transgres- 
sions, or to work out a propitiation of his own, salvation by mpuren 


AAS Ae 
\ 
i 


SEVENTH VIAL. 385 


righteousness becomes unnecessary : righteousness, in such case, contrary 
to the apostle’s implied declaration, (Gal. iii. 21,) would come by the law, 
and God would be deprived of the glory and gratitude due for the exercise 
of his sovereign grace. 

We may here notice a further distinction between the divine scheme of 
religion* and that of man’s devising. In the first, the motive of conduct may 
be said to constitute a fourth part ; the disciple there devoting himself to the 
service of his benefactor, because he has been redeemed. In the human 
system the motive of action is involved in the third part ; the disciple serving 
or obeying in order that he may be redeemed. Babylon is thus divisible 
into three parts; the holy city, on the contrary, we find described (Rev. 
xxi. 12-16,) particularly as lying four square, having on every side an 
equal number of gates. She is not spoken of as divisible ; but if we were 
to consider her as such, we should certainly contemplate her as composed 
of four parts, and not of three. 

ᾧ 373. ‘And the cities of the nations fell.’—As the great city represents 
a great system, so we suppose the cities of the nations to represent subordi- 
nate systems—powers of the earth subject and subservient perhaps to the 
great city ; but not so directly simulations of the true plan of salvation as 
the imperial city ; Babylon being probably contemplated in reference to the 
other cities of Asia, as Rome was afterwards considered in relation to the na- 
tions around her. Both of these cities pretended to a supremacy of power ; 
and, as figures, they may either of them be taken for what they professed 
themselves to be. The clause might be rendered, “And the cities of the Gen- 
tiles fell,’ which would place these cities in something of a different light. 

Babylon literally indeed was a Gentile city, but Babylon figuratively may 
represent Jerusalem in a perverted state—the true system perverted—and 
as perverted, possessing a mixture of truth and error—an amalgamation, as 
we have already termed it. The cities of the Genttles, on the contrary, may 
represent systems which never were true ; scarcely possessing an admixture 
of gospel truth, even in the smallest degree. ‘These systems therefore fall 
first, as their errors are most immediately exposed. 

By way of illustration we may take for granted, what was probably the 
case, that the Babylonians in the period of their glory enjoyed a very con- 
siderable knowledge of the true God, and of his dealings with men, and of 


*We use here the term religion (from the Latin religo, to bind) in what may be 
termed its primitive sense, as applicable to the obligation under which man is placed 
to serve the Deity—“ God’s plan of salvation” applies to the manner in which the 
sinner is redeemed; the “divine scheme of religion” comprehends this plan, 
while it further applies to the new obligation of service resulting from it. There is 
therefore no inconsistency in the position that the first consists of three parts and the 
last of four. 


386 THE SEVENTH SEAL.—THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 


his purposes in behalf of man, acquired from their intimacy with the He- 
brews. It could hardly have been otherwise but this knowledge was per- 
verted : the wisdom of God as they received it from the Israelites was mix- 
ed up with the wisdom of their so-called wise men, and their system of 
theology was probably an amalgamation of the elements of idolatry with 
those of truth—a perverted Judaism. Thus with Babylon, as a figure, we 
may associate an idea of mixture not belonging to what is intended to be 
represented by the cities of the Gentiles. So, in a figurative point of view, 
if the inhabitants of Jerusalem be taken to represent elements of the true 
system, the captivity of the Jews in Babylon may represent the state of 
restraint under which the elements of the gospel plan of salvation are placed 
by being subjected to the construction of a self-righteous, legal, and merce- 
nary system; the principles of the gospel under such restraint bemg disa- 
bled from bearing their proper evidence to the truth—unable to sing the 
Lord’s song in a strange land, (Ps. cxxxvii. 4)—a peculiarity furnishing 
another reason for this apocalyptic discrimination between the great city and 
the cities of the nations. Babylon, in this respect also, is a mixed sys- 
tem, because she holds the elements of a free salvation in the captivity of 
bondage, or under the constraint of legal construction. 

‘And great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her 
the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.—The destruction of 
Babylon is not yet described here, but that it takes place immediately 
is implied. Accordingly we suppose, as already imtimated, the particulars 
given of it in the two subsequent chapters to be an amplification of what is 
here stated. Our understanding of this cup of the wine of the fierceness of 
the wrath of God, will depend upon the understanding we may obtain of the 
very minute description hereafter given of the fall of this great city. As itis 
said here, that ““ Babylon came in remembrance,” or was remembered before 
God, so it is said in reference to the cause of her destruction, Rev. xvii. 5, 
‘¢For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her 
iniquities ;” thus identifying the dispensations of wrath pariicularized in that 
chapter with the remembrance spoken of her in this. We may also notice 
that this cup of wrath appears to be the same, by the description here given 
of it, as that to be participated in by every one worshipping the beast and 
his image, and receiving his mark in the forehead or in the hand, (Rev. xiv. 
9;) consequently we may presume Babylon, with her inhabitants—this 
false system, with its elements—to have been a worshipper of the beast 
and of his image, &c.; and thus to have become obnoxious to the denun- 
ciation of the third mid-heaven angel, while she is equally obnoxious to the 
same sentence of destruction, for the reason given Rev, xiv. 8, that she had 
made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. She is 
thus the subject of a double visitation—tributive and retributive. 


SEVENTH VIAL. 387 


‘ And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.’—At 
the opening of the sixth seal, it is said every mountain and island were 
moved out of their places. On that occasion we considered them merely as 
positions of refuge, (¢ 167.) Here we are inclined to consider them more 
particularly as the portion of refuges constituting their foundations ; a 
mountain or an island being that upon which a city may be built, and cities, 
as places of refuge, depending upon their sites or foundations for security. 
In consequence of this great earthquake, the cities of the nations generally, 
as it is said, have fallen ; and the mountains and islands being not only 
moved, but having entirely disappeared, there remains apparently no earthly 
foundation of sufficient stability to encourage the rebuilding of these cities. 
Babylon alone still stands, though divided in the midst ; but Babylon was 
a city of the plain—her foundations were in the dust. The utmost inge- 
nuity and labour and power of man have been employed, it is true, in giving 
strength to these foundations, but the time has now come when all these efforts 
will prove to have been unavailing. With the exception of Babylon, the 
whole earth may be contemplated as one vast plain ; for we suppose the 
appearance of Mount Zion in this picture to be hardly admissible. The 
figure of the old Jerusalem (Jerusalem in bondage) is involved in that of 
Babylon ; and when the new Jerusalem makes her appearance, she is to be 
seen coming down from God out of heaven. The earth, such as it is now 
supposed to be, affords no refuge; and the people of God flying from 
Babylon, as they are admonished to do, Rev. xviii. 4, can be supposed to 
look for no permanent rest till they reach the holy city from above. 


V. 21. And there fell upon men a great Καὶ χάλαζα μεγάλη ὡς ταλαντιαΐα κατα- 
hail out of heaven, (every stone) about βαίνει ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους" 
the weight of a‘talent: and men blas- τ! ͵ as ι ἮΝ 
phemed God because of the plague of the ““* ἐβλαςφὴμ σαν, οἱ ἀνϑραποιπθα ϑεὸν ὃ 
hail; for the plague thereof was exceed- "iS πληγῆς τὴς χαλάξης, ore μεγάλη ἐστὶν ἡ 
ing great. πληγὴ αὐτῆς σφόδρα. 

ᾧ 374. ‘ And there fell, &c.; or, hail great as ἃ talent fell from heaven 
upon the mén, &c.,—the men of Babylon, and the men of the eities of the 
Gentiles ; those supposed to have escaped. A multitude in a vast plain with- 
out a shelter. exposed to such hail as is here described, must be in a position 
of certain destruction. ‘These men being elements of these earthly systems 
—erroneous principles, elsewhere termed lies—are now subjected to that 
visitation which is to sweep them away, Is. xxviii. 17. The systems to 
which these lying elements belonged have fallen, except only the great 
system which is being destroyed ; it remains therefore only to annihilate these 
scattered, disconnected principles of false doctrine ; and this process is now 
in operation. There have been two visitations of hail already spoken of, 


388 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL, 


Rev. viii. 7, and xi. 19; but the present, like the earthquake with which it 
is accompanied, is represented as something far exceeding any thing before 
experienced, 

‘Great as a talent.’——The Jewish talent measure of weight is estimated 
at from one hundred and fourteen to one hundred and twenty-five pounds, 
troy ; the Attic talent, at fifty-six pounds, (Rob. Lex. 7A1.) Either of these it 
must be admitted is enormous for the weight of a hailstone. The expression 
must be deemed a hyperbolical description of hail of irresistible weight, 
carrying with it certain destruction. 

‘And men blasphemed,’ &c.; or rather, the men blasphemed.— The 
men being elements of the false systems represented by the cities, the effect of 
this judgment upon them was that of eliciting their blasphemous character ; 
the hail operating as a test in the same manner, and with the same result, 
as in the case of the pouring out of the fifth vial upon the seat of the beast. 
So an exhibition or manifestation of the blasphemous character of the prin- 
ciples of a system professing to be Christian, must be equivalent to the final 
destruction of such principles. A system overthrown by an exhibition of 
its fallacy, by the undermining of its foundations, and by proving its ele- 
ments to be blasphemous, must necessarily be entirely destroyed, and such 
we suppose to be the implied condition of all the systems here alluded to ; 
the plague of the hail sweeping away not only the refuges, but the last 
refuges of lies. There is something final in its action, as terminating a series 
of judgments. With this last visitation the chapter closes, the narrative 
being for the present suspended, to allow of a relation of the particulars of 
the fall of Babylon, as given in the two following chapters. 


RETROSPECT. 


§ 375. It is a striking peculiarity of the occurrences narrated in this 
chapter, that the whole process from which they originate emanates from 
the temple, and that there is no further mention of the temple in the Apoca- 
lypse till we reach nearly the close of it, where, in speaking of the holy 
city, (Rev. xxi. 22,) the apostle says he saw no temple therein: for the 
Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. From these cir- 
cumstances it may be fairly inferred, that after the purification of the temple 
service by the pouring out of these seven vials the worship of God is sup- 
posed to be placed in its proper light. Prior to this the state of the temple 
service is such as is adverted to by the prophet, Is. Ixvi. 1-7, “ He that 
killeth an ox is as if he slew a man,” &c. The sacrifices may be literally 
such as are prescribed, but the motive being selfish and mercenary, the 


RETROSPECT. 389 


. Whole worship or service—the offering, whatever it may be—is unclean in 
the sight of God. 

So in the time alluded to by the prophet, “a voice from the temple” 
called for a development of the truth, in the same manner and in the same 
sense as at the commencement of this chapter it commands the pouring out 
of the seven vials ;—this voice in both instances being the voice of God 
and of the Lamb; for such is the heavenly temple—the spiritual temple of 
the holy city. 

It is a characteristic of the man of sin, 2 Thes. ii. 4, that he “ sitteth 
in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God,” making himself an 
object of worship in the place of God. Such was also a prominent feature 
in the character of the mystic king of Babylon, spoken of under the appella- 
tion of Lucifer, Is. xiv. 12, and whose fall may be supposed to be involved 
in that of Babylon, predicted in the same chapter. 

There is a state of error in the mind of every individual disciple, as well 
as in the apprehension of mankind in general, and in the doctrinal views of 
the Christian community particularly, on the subject of the worship or 
service of God ; corresponding, we think, with what is here figuratively set 
forth both by prophets and apostles. ‘There is a like correspondence 
with what is predicted of the removal of these errors in the experience of 
the Christian, as he advances in a knowledge of the truth ; and we think a 
like correspondence may be found in the changes wrought in the views 
of Christians generally, as the development of gospel truth progresses 
throughout the world. 

We do not mean that every disciple of Christ is carried through this 
process of intellectual development before leaving the present state of exist- 
ence, or that any particular grade of such advancement in knowledge is a 
condition precedent of salvation; we mean only that the development is of 
that kind which may take place in the mind of any believer, and which 
probably has taken place in the understandings of many, who may not 
have been able to describe or to define it. With many the process of 
illumination may be gradual, with others it may be as the overwhelming 
light by which the once persecuting Paul was struck to the earth. With 
all it must be instantaneous, if not previously experienced, as they change 
this state of imperfect apprehension for one in which they are to see as they 
are seen, and know as they are known. 

We have already remarked, (ὁ 324,) that the only motive by which the 
service (worship) of God can be characterized, is that which must be the 
motive for this service throughout eternity. ‘To implant this motive, the 
removal of every error of an opposite character or tendency is indispen- 
sable. 

“The Lord,” it is said, Malachi iii. 1, “shall suddenly come to his 


890 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in ; behold, 
he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts.” This prophecy was primarily 
fulfilled when Jesus daily taught in the temple; when he purified the temple 
of those who frequented it for mercenary purposes ; and when, as the result of 
the accomplishment of his mission, the vail of the temple was rent in twain, 
and the holy of holies—the secret of the tabernacle—was openly exposed 
to view. But there is also another, a spiritual fulfilment of this prophecy, 
in that development of the revealed word of God, which may be said to 
purify the sons of Levi, by exhibiting the pure principles upon which alone 
God can be really served or worshipped. ‘This process of purification we 
suppose to be that represented by the action of the seven vials. 

§ 376. The disciple cannot serve God zn spirit and in truth so long as 
he supposes Ais position to be that of working out his own salvation by his 
own merits. His motives of action must necessarily in that position be 
selfish ; and whatever he performs from such motives can only add to his 
uncleanness in the sight of God. His principle of conduct bears the mark 
of the beast; his idol of worship is an amage of his own supposed righteous- 
ness, and the fruit of his mercenary labour is “‘a noisome and grievous sore.” 

The error of man’s dependence upon his own righteousness, as in an 
earthly position, arising from an insufficient appreciation of the nature of 
infinite justice, it is not till that justice is exhibited in its truly fearful charac- 
ter that this error can be removed, and consequently, that the motive of self- 
ishness in the service to be performed can be eradicated. The disciple 
must be convinced that escape from the elements of divine justice is some- 
thing entirely beyond his own strength, and that as he cannot be saved from 
so great wrath of God by any works of his own, so neither can he claim 
any glory from his deliverance. The sea must be manifested to be a sea 
of blood. r 

If, although convinced of sin and under just apprehensions of the ven- 
geance of the law, the disciple supposes himself to be in a position in which 
he can purify himself, or atone for his past transgressions by his own works 
or actions, his motive in performing these works must necessarily be selfish. 
He may profess to serve God by what he does; he may profess himself a 
miserable sinner, but so long as he believes himself to be in a condition to 
effect a propitiation for himself, so long he cannot serve God from a pure 
motive of grateful love. He must be made to see that, in the nature of the 
case, any atonement of his own, adequate to the emergency, must necessa- 
rily require the forfeiture of his eternal life—that the rivers and fountains of 
the earth are blood. 

If the disciple believe his earthly position (notwithstanding all that has 
been alluded to above) to be such as that the action of the Sun of righteous- 
ness imparts to the works of man a character of righteousness—that, having 


4 


RETROSPECT. 391 


passed through a certain change, he is now to exhibit merits upon the existence 
of which his salvation depends, his motive of action, as before, must be selfish 
and mercenary. He must be occupied in serving himself, while he professes 
to serve God. ‘To convince the believer of this error, the nature of divine 
wrath must be so exhibited as to manifest the entire nothingness of any 
pretensions to a goodness or merit of his own,—as much so subsequent to 
his conversion as before ;—the only righteousness equal to the wrath of 
God, being that of Jehovah himself: which also, in the nature of the case, 
can be obtained only by imputation. All other pretensions must be proved 
to wither and perish in comparison with this ; the Sun of righteousness act- 
ing upon them as with a burning heat. 

The disciple cannot worship (serve) God in reality, so long as he sup- — 
poses himself to be the author of his own eternal happiness,—so long as he 
supposes his position to admit of his walking in the light of a righteousness 
of his own creation. He must be made to feel, to realize, that his only 
hope and trust is in the imputed righteousness of Jehovah, or he cannot 
possess that pure motive of gratitude for the gift of eternal life, which is 
an essential ingredient in the worship of God. The wrath of God must be 
so exhibited as to show the entire destitution of any element of righteous- 
ness where self is in any degree the object of reliance. The kingdom of 
the beast must be manifested to be full of darkness. 

§ 377. Men are generally willing to admit themselves to be sinners, they 
talk much of the frailty of human nature, and self-righteousness is almost 
universally a topic of reprobation. But a prevailing error with all mankind, 
and perhaps especially. with those who profess Christianity, appears to be, 
that, whatever their imperfections, as they call them, may be, there is in 
something that they do, or that they may do, a redeeming quality—something 
which, even in the sight of God, is to operate as an element of atonement 
or of propitiation. Every one has something of this kind, which may be 
termed his great river—his great resource for eternal life: his candour, his 
honesty, his inoffensiveness, his works of penitence, his moral reformation, 
his observance of ordinances, his holiness, his zeal, his benevolence, or his 
liberality. This is, indeed, but a part of the system of se/f/—the kingdom 
of that despot is within us, and Babylon maintains her dominion in the 
heart; and her pleasant, her fructifying river,* as she vainly boasts of it, is 
one of the last objects of self-dependence ever to be surrendered. This 
error, however, must be removed, before the sovereignty of God and the 
freeness of his salvation can be exhibited. So long as the disciple is gov- 
erned by the influence of self or of selfishness he cannot serve God, in the 
strict sense of the term; that is, acting from the motive of serving God, 

* Euphrates, ΓΞ, Frugifer, sive fructificans aut crescens—fruitful, growing, &c.— 
(Leusden.) 
34 


392 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


and not of that of serving himself. So long as his design is to propitiate the 
favour of his supreme Judge, by works of his own performing, he is unable 
to act with any other view than that of promoting his own interest, while 
the tendency of his pretensions to effect such propitiation is to rob his 
divine Redeemer of the glory of his salvation. The Euphrates with every 
one must be dried up ere the elements of gospel truth can take their proper 
place in the understanding ; and this operation can only be performed by a 
due exhibition of the wrath of God, showing the utter inadequacy of any 
such human provision as an element of eternal life. 

We do not pretend to pot out what particular gospel doctrines are 
figuratively spoken of as the kings from the rising of the sun ; but if we are 
right in ascribing the primary allusion to the two kingly powers, Media and 
Persia, we may suppose these powers to represent the two peculiar doctrines 
of Christianity, supposed on a former occasion ($322) to be falsified or 
simulated by the false prophet, and, thus counterfeited, to be symbolized by 
the two horns of the beast from the ]Jand—the weapons by which the wor- 
ship of the beast and of his image may be said to be enforced. 

Nor do we pretend to define further than we have done, ($365,) the 
doctrines or elements of doctrine represented by the unclean spirits from the 
mouths of the dragon, beast, and false prophet. Their real character will 
be better ascertained when they are seen in operation, striving to prevent 
the manifestation of the truth in the person of Him, who is to exhibit him- 
self as the overcoming principle of sovereign grace, the Lord our righteous- 
ness. 

The last class of errors in the way of the worship of God is that occa- 
sioned by the medium through which religious truth is contemplated—a 
medium upon which apparently the preservation of Babylon, or the cohesion 
of the parts of this great city instrumentally depends, and upon which also 
depends the foundation of every erroneous system of salvation. ‘The true 
worship (service) of God calls for the purification of this medium. HE 
cannot be worshipped without it—the rules of exegesis, spiritually speaking, 
are to be changed, (whatever commotion it may occasion,) in order that the 
kingdom of the beast, the reign of self, may be entirely overthrown and the 
mercenary system of Babylon entirely destroyed. We think this process will 
be equivalent to that of substituting, as Paul terms it, the spirit for the letter. 

§ 378. This change also is to be brought about by a just exhibition of 
the wrath of divine justice; showing that nothing short of an entire and 
perfect righteousness can meet the requisitions of the law—consequently 
that the means of salvation must be entirely of God; that, as he will not 
share his glory with another, so he will not admit of the admixture in the 
smallest degree of any merits of man with those of his Redeemer as the 
means of salvation. 


RETROSPECT. 398 


The fall or division of Babylon appears to be the principal feature in the 
effects resulting from the action of the seventh vial upon the air; so we sup- 
pose the last and perhaps the greatest error to which the disciple is liable, 
and perhaps, too, that into which the whole Christian world may most easily 
fall, is the attempt to mix the merits of man with those of his Saviour—to 
rely upon a righteousness partly of the Creator, and partly of the creature ; a 
mixture involved in the name of the great city Babylon, and a mixture 
especially represented by her cup of abominations, which we shall hereafter 
have occasion to notice. 

So long as the disciple’s motive of conduct is to mingle in the cup of 
salvation some holiness or goodness of his own, as forming a portion of his 
claim to eternal life, he cannot serve or worship God in the proper sense of 
the term; for his motive must then be to serve himself, as much as if his 
salvation depended entirely upon it. The only difference between this 
mixed motive, and that which is professedly selfish, is, that there is an odious 
hypocrisy in one which is not to. be found in the other. The disciple pro- 
fesses to have the glory of God only at heart, when it is really his own 
interest and his own glory that he is studying. Ye cannot serve God and 
Mammon, said Jesus; no man can serve two masters; so no one can at the 
same time act from a motive of serving God, and from a motive of serving 
himself. Ifthe last motive come into consideration, the first is necessarily 
excluded. It is true that a dogma of the church, sanctioned perhaps for ages, 
ex cathedra, pronounces the chief end of man to be, “ to glorify God and 
enjoy him for ever.” But it is plain that there are here two chief ends, 
instead of one. ‘The only chief end of man must be to glorify God ; this 
is the only pure motive of conduct ; to be actuated by the motive of pro- 
moting one’s own enjoyment is to act with the purpose of serving one’s self, 
not God. Hence the necessity of an implicit reliance upon the divine pur- 
pose of grace, through the imputed righteousness of Christ, to enable the 
disciple to give himself entirely to the chief end of his being—that of glori- 
fying his Creator and Redeemer—that of worshipping God in spirit and in 
truth. Manis required to love his neighbour as himself—it is permitted here, 
to divide the affections. But God is to be loved with the whole heart and 
mind and strength ; noteven self is to come in here for a share of this love. 
The love of God must be the only motive of conduct, or God is not worship- 
ped as his temple service requires ; and it is for this reason especially, we may 
say, that no mixed system of salvation is admissible, and that such mixture, 
however highly esteemed amongst men, is abomination in the sight of God. 

“Whom the Lord loveth he rebuketh,” (Rey. iii. 19.) The admonitory 
instructions of this book are intended for those to whom they are addressed— 
disciples, not unbelievers,—the seven churches, the objects of the Saviour’s 
peculiar care. It is for the disciple who believes himself most loved to lay 


394 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


these admonitions most to heart ; to apply tliese tests to his own views, and 
to his own motives of conduct. So we may say of Christian communities: 
We are not to cast our eyes around the whole visible church, as it is termed, 
to apply the criterion of divine worship here given to the trial of portions of 
Christendom apparently least favoured of God, and most estranged from the 
truth ; we are to apply the standard of judgment to our own views, and the 
test of motives to that scheme of doctrine we are ourselves, as sects or deno- 
minations, most disposed to advocate. 


THE VISION OF THE HARLOT, 


CHAPTER XVII. 


THE HARLOT IN THE WILDERNESS.—THE BEAST WITH 
SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS. 


Vs. 1,2. And there came one of the 
seven angels which had the seven vials, 
and talked with me, saying unto me, 
Come hither; I will show unto thee the 
judgment of the great whore that sitteth 
upon many waters ; with whom the kings 
of the earth have committed fornication, 
and the inhabitants of the earth have been 
made drunk with the wine of her fornica- 
tion. 


Καὶ ἦλϑεν εἷς ἐκ τῶν ἑπτὰ ἀγγέλων τῶν 
ἐχόντων τὰς φιάλας, καὶ ἐλάλησε μετ ἐμοῦ 
λέγων" δεῦρο, δείξω σοι τὸ κρίμα τῆς πόρ- 
γης τῆς μεγάλης, τῆς καϑημένης ἐπὲ τῶν 
ὑδάτων τῶν πολλῶν, μεϑ' ἧς ἐπόρνευσαν οἱ 
βασιλεῖς τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἐμεϑύσϑησαν οἵ κα- 
τοικοῦντες τὴν γῆν ἐκ τοῦ οἴνου τῆς πορ- 
γείας αὐτῆς. 


ᾧ 379. ‘ And there came one of the seven angels,’ &c.—If this be the 
Jirst (ὃ 145) for the seven angels, it must be the one the pouring out of 
whose vial resulted in a grievous sore upon the men having the mark of the 
beast ; but perhaps either of these angels may be supposed, with equal pro- 
priety, to be instrumental in making the exhibition about to be described. 
The contents of this chapter, in its relation with the preceding portion of the 
Apocalypse, may be considered a species of episode ; the attention of the 
reader or spectator being called off for a time from the thread of the main 
narrative to something requiring a separate illustration. On the eftusion of 
the seventh vial, a dissolution of the great city took place, and Babylon 
came in remembrance before God. The questions naturally occurring then, 
we may suppose to have been, What great city is this? What was particu- 
larly the criminal character of this Babylon, for which she is made to par- 
take of the cup of the wine of the fierceness of God’s wrath? and, What 
is to be understood by her thus coming in remembrance before God? An 
answer to these inquiries is furnished in what we may here call the vision 
of the harlot. 

‘Come hither,’ &c.—Comparing this passage with that of Rev. xxi. 
9, 10, we cannot but be confirmed in the supposition already eRe 
(Ὁ 331,) that this HaRtor is an opposite of the bride, the Lamb’s wife ; 
the great city Babylon is,an opposite of the New Jerusalem. The con- 
trast to be met with in the two figures will aid us in arriving at an under- 
standing of the illustrations intended by both of them. 


396 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET .—SEVENTH VIAL. 


‘J will show unto thee the judgment,’ &c.—The whole process of 
apprehension, condemnation, and punishment, as appears from the context ; 
the woman being first described in her power, as one exulting in the success 
of a life of crime; and the account ending with a description of her final 
destruction, as of the carrying into effect the sentence of execution. 

With the Greek term 2ég»* we are principally to associate the idea of 
adulteration or mixture ; corresponding with which association, we consider 
this harlot (Babylon) as the figure of a mixed system of redemption—a 
supposed covenant of salvation, composed of a mixture of the principles 
of grace and those of works ;—something involving, on the part of the dis- 
ciple, a dependence partly upon his own merits and partly upon those of 
his Redeemer ; this Greek term carrying with it the same signification as 
that conveyed by the name Babel or Babylon, (ᾧ 991.) A harlot is the 
opposite of a wife. The wife of the Lamb we suppose to be the covenant 
of grace, or that plan of salvation by which the whole community of 
believers become the adopted children of God—consequently, heirs of God, 
and joint heirs with Christ ; on which account this economy or covenant 
(Διαϑήκη) is also styled by Paul, in his epistle to the Galatians, the mother 
of us all. 

§ 380. The opposite of a plan of grace must be a plan of works ; but as 
the Apocalypse is addressed to Christian churches, and as the errors to be 
eradicated by this development of the truth are errors in the church, and 
not out of it, we may reasonably conclude that the matter before us does 
not relate to the difference between Christians and Jews, or between the 
Christian economy and the Levitical economy. ‘The plan represented by 
the harlot must be something introduced into the doctrinal views of Chris- 
tians ; and, as such, opposed to the economy of grace, it can be nothing else 
than a mixed system. We find the figure of a harlot to be almost uniformly 
employed in the Old Testament for the purpose of illustrating a like dere- 
liction from the truth; a dereliction sometimes indeed compared to the 
conduct of a lawful wife in becoming an abandoned adulteress. The figure in 
either case is essentially different from that of the bondmaid or concubine, 
spoken of by Paul as the representation of the legal dispensation. The 
harlot of the Apocalypse represents, we think, a perverted view of the 
gospel plan of salvation ; a view involving something like a mixture of 
Christianity and Judaism—a dependence partly upon the merits of Christ, 
and partly upon the merits or righteousness of man, (self.) The first part 
indeed being rather in profession than in reality, while the last part is less 
in profession and more in reality ;—a dependence in any degree upon our 
own merits in the work of redemption, resulting, as we have repeatedly 


* Πορνεία proprié notat commixtionem eorum qui extra conjugium vivunt.—(Sui- 
ceri Lex.) Vid. § 314, note. : 


THE VISION OF THE HARLOT. 397 


remarked, in an assumption to ourselves of the glory of our own salvation ; 
thus constituting in effect a forsaking of Christ as the Lord our righteous- 
ness, and our only source of dependence. 

This error is figuratively spoken of as the great harlot, because it is the 
great, the almost universal error of the Christian church ; an error confined 
to no sect or denomination—an error to be found rather in the hearts or 
minds of disciples, than in their modes of worship or in their formularies of 
doctrine. 

ᾧ 381. ‘That sitteth upon many waters.’—This figure, a license of 
vision, would be hardly admissible, were it not that, in the language of this 
Apocalypse, the great city and the harlot, as well as their opposites, the 
holy city and the bride, are employed almost as convertible terms ; perhaps 
for the reason that we should be continually reminded of the identity of the 
subject alluded to under these different appellations ; although probably for 
the further reason, that these changes and interchanges of figures greatly 
facilitate the illustrations intended. 

Waters, as we have frequently noticed, ($ 200,) are figures of means of 
propitiation. The waters of the earth are opposites of the water of life, 
(the atonement of Christ :) the multitude of means of atonement of man’s 
device being spoken of as many waters—many supposed means, or merito- 
rious acts of propitiation, as they are erroneously estimated. On these 
many propitiatory devices, (waters,) the mixed system of salvation repre- 
sented by the harlot rests, as upon its only foundation ; the system deriving 
its influence upon the minds of men, from the efficacy of these supposed 
means of redemption ;—these pseudo-elements of atonement furnishing the 
harlot system with its cathedra, or seat of authority, whence its doctrinal 
propositions may be said to emanate. 

Changing the figure, these waters are to Babylon a substitute for the 
rock or mountain, (Zion,) upon which the holy city may be considered as 
resting. This harlot city accordingly rests upon something even more 
unstable, and less to be depended upon, than a foundation of sand: Cor- 
responding with this precarious support, the prophet speaks of Babylon as 
approaching the time of her dissolution, (Jer. li. 13:) “O thou that dwellest 
upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come.” The ancient 
Babylon—the city—was not built amongst many waters, as might be said to 
be the case with some of our modern cities ; but no doubt it owed as much 
to the labour of man for its artificial waters, (the Euphrates, by means of 
irrigation perhaps, supplying the whole city,) as it was indebted to the 
same labour of man for its immense bulwarks and hanging gardens. In this 
respect, the figure of such a city is particularly pertinent to the apocalyptic 
subject of illustration here contemplated. The dominion of Babylon, how- 
ever, as an empire, extended over many well-watered countries ; and rivers 


398 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


and streams are essential means of dependence to the subjects of an empire, 
both for purposes of life, and for the acquisition of wealth. Babylon in that 
respect, in the time of the prophet, may correctly be spoken of as dwelling 
upon many waters. At the same time, the similarity of these typical 
expressions suggests the probability that the apostle and the prophet 
had the same Babylon in view ; both employ the same ancient city as a 
figure, and probably both, directed by the same spirit of revelation, intend 
to illustrate ultimately the same spiritual truths. 

It may be objected, that the definition of these waters, given by the 
angel in the fifteenth verse of this chapter, is expressly that they are 
“peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues ;’ but this we have 
already seen to be a figurative expression for what we term earthly powers of 
salvation, or supposed means of salvation, peculiar to the earthly system, (§ 
80 ;) the very redundancy of the expression itself indicating to us that it 
is not to be taken in a literal sense. Besides, the interpretation here, as 
elsewhere, is what we term an interpretation in a vision; the language is 
part of the vision—the interpretation is as figurative as the thing interpreted. 
The apostle is told that these waters are peoples, multitudes, &c. ; we must 
then go to other parts of the Apocalypse to learn how this expression 
(peoples, multitudes, &c.) is employed, and thence derive our understand- 
ing of the interpretation given. 

§ 382. ‘ With whom the kings of the earth,’ &c.—These kings are no 
doubt those summoned by the three unclean spirits (Rev. xvi. 14) to the 
battle of the great day—the kings that hid themselves in the dens and 
rocks of the mountains, Rev. vi. 15. We suppose them here, as we have 
supposed them before, to represent ruling principles of subordinate earthly 
systems ; systems founded upon the position of man’s dependence upon his 
own works for eternal life. ‘The ruling principles of these systems may, 
perhaps, be susceptible of employment in the cause of truth or error; as 
Christ is said, Rev. i. 5, to be the Prince of the kings of the earth ;—all 
principles and all systems, whether true or false, being subordinate in effect 
to the grand design of an eventual manifestation of the truth. But these 
kings of the earth, we presume, are to be considered as altogether engaged 
in the service of the false system of the harlot ; they have become amalga- 
mated and identified with that system, and are consequently, like that system, 
destined for destruction ;—such destruction being implied, apparently, in the 
results of the great battle described at the conclusion of the nineteenth 
chapter. The kings of the earth indeed are mentioned, Rev. xxi. 24, as 
bringing their glory and honour into the holy city ; but this is subsequent to 
the passing away of the first earth, as well as the first heaven ; conse- 
quently, these latter kings are those of the new earth—ruling principles 
of systems, depending upon the new position of salvation by grace alone. 


THE VISION OF THE HARLOT. 399 


‘ And the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk,’ &c.—The 
inhabitants, οἱ κατοιχοῦντες τὴν y7j»—those against whom the three woes were 
denounced, (Rev. viii. 13 ;) the dwellers upon the earth, whose names are 
not written in the book of life, as explained in the eighth verse of this 
chapter; those that are to be tried in the hour of trial, mentioned Rev. iii. 
10; those upon whom the blood of the souls under the altar was to be 
avenged, (Rev. vi. 10;) those that were tormented by the two witnesses 
or prophets, and rejoiced over their dead bodies, (Rev. xi. 10 ;) those against 
whom the accuser came down, (Rev. xii. 12 ;) those that worshipped the 
beast, and that were deluded by the false prophet into making an image to 
the beast, (Rev. xiii. 12 and 14 :) those concerning whom the everlasting 
gospel was to be preached, (Rev. xiv. 6;) and finally, those constituting 
the host of the defeated armies whose flesh was given to the fowls, (Rev. 
xix. 21.) These apocalyptic inhabitants of the earth, we suppose, like the 
kings reigning over them, to be principles or elements of the earthly system; 
all destined to destruction either prior to, or simultaneously with, the passing 
away of the first earth. We suppose, also, these inhabitants of the earth to 
be identic with the men not having the seal of God in their foreheads, (Rev. 
ix. 4, 10;) the men sealed representing elements taken out of the mass of 
earthly principles. So when it is said, “ Behold, the tabernacle of God is 
with men, and he shall dwell with them,” we are to notice that this, as in the 
case of the kings, is subsequent to the passing away of the old earth. These 
men are the men of the new earth, or the sealed ones of the old earth trans- 
ferred to a true position ; corresponding with the change experienced by 
those “who came out of great tribulation ;” and of whom it is said, he 
that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them, (Rev. vii. 14, 15.) 

The term inhabiters of the earth, or dwellers upon the earth, or they 
that dwell upon the earth, does not occur in the Apocalypse subsequent to 
the close of this chapter; which confirms us in the supposition that this class 
of elements is supposed to be involved in the destruction of Babylon, or in 
that of the great battle before alluded to. The sealed ones taken from 
among men, are not termed dwellers upon or inhabiters of the earth, 
because they are in the light of those who have here no continuing city: 
they are strangers and pilgrims ; they may be men, but they do not depend 
upon the earth for a dwelling or a tabernacle, or a shelter from the wrath 
to come. 

These inhabitants of the earth are spoken of as haying been made drunk 
with the wine of the harlot ; or rather, as it should be expressed, having 
become drunken, (inebriati sunt, Leusden and Beza.) The term does not 
necessarily imply a state of insensibility ; it signifies either extreme satiety, 
or that state of intoxication which may be said to be akin to insanity. The 
intoxicated individual, unable to distinguish between a friend or foe, attacks 


400 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


with equal hostility every object coming in his way; so these principles of 
the earthly system, under the influence of the wine of the harlot, become 
elements of destruction or perversion to all connected with them. 

The wine possessing this intoxicating quality, we have already supposed 
to be the opposite of the wine of the marriage feast, (¢ 3382)—the good 
wine reserved for the last manifestation—the new wine to be participated in 
by the followers of Jesus in his Father’s kingdom ; not new as compared 
with old, which is said to be better, (Luke v. 39,) but wine of a new kind— 
the water of purification (the atonement of Jesus) becoming the element of 
eternal enjoyment, making glad the heart of man throughout eternity, (Ps. 
civ. 15.) The wine of the harlot’s fornication, on the contrary, we suppose 
to represent a false means of atonement ; a mixture, a propitiation, partly 
of the atonement of Christ, and partly of some supposed propitiatory acts or 
qualities of the disciple. The elements of the earthly system, influenced by 
these mixed views in relation to the doctrine of atonement, are like men 
bereft of reason ; or, if we confine our notion of this drunkenness to extreme 
satiety, we may say these elements are so overcharged with the false views 
of atonement in contemplation, that it is not possible for them to admit any 
portion of the peculiar truths pertaining to this subject. 

Drunkenness deludes the unhappy victim into a persuasion that he is 
pursuing a course of enjoyment, when he is actually destroying himself; so 
the false economy of salvation proffers a pretended means of atonement, 
promising eternal happiness, by which those adopting them fall into the 
dangerous error thus depicted ; as it is said, Is. xxvui. 7, “ But they also 
have erred through wine and strong drink ; they are swallowed up of wine, 
they are out of the way through stiong drink; they err in vision, they 
stumble in judgment.” A similar allusion may be contemplated in what is 
said of the drunkards of Ephraim, Is. xxviil. 1-4, and other like passages of 


the prophets. 


V.3. So he carried me away in the Καὶ ἀπήνεγκε μὲ sic ἔρημον ἐν πνεύματι" 
spirit into the wilderness; and I saw ἃ χαὶ εἶδον γυναῖκα καϑημένην ἐπὶ ϑηρίον 
woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured beast, 
full of names of blasphemy, having seven 
heads and ten horns. 


§ 383. ‘So he carried me away in the spirit;’ or, according to the 
Greek, in spirit; enabling the apostle to see the thing represented in its 
proper spiritual sense, (¢ 24.) 

‘Into the wilderness.’—The apostle was not literally taken into a wil- 
derness, but in a spiritual: sense he occupied a position analogous to that of 
being in a wilderness. It is only in such a spiritual wilderness that the 
system represented by the harlot can be seen or can appear in its full power. 

A wilderness is the opposite of a city ; it is a place without enclosures, 


' 2 , ΄ 
χόκκιγον, γέμον ὀνομάτων βλαςφημίας, ἔχον 
κεφαλὰς ἑπτὰ καὶ κέρατα δέκα. 


THE VISION OF THE HARLOT. 401 


without walls or defences, without dwelling-places or shelters, and where 
there is at least a sparsity of the means of subsistence. A desert of this 
kind represents a position devoid of any means of salvation. ‘To be out of 
Christ, is to be in a wilderness ; but all who are out of Christ do not per- 
ceive themselves to be in this position. The subjects of the harlot are not 
supposed to be aware that they are in a wilderness ; they fancy themselves 
in a position of security, abundantly provided even for eternity. The eyes 
of the apostle were opened ; he perceived the real character at the position 
into which as a spectator he was introduced. 

‘ And I saw a woman.’—This is the first distinct mention we have of a 
woman of a different character, and in different circumstances from those 
of the woman seen in heaven, (Rev. xii. 1,) unless we go back to what is 
said of Jezebel, Rev. ii. 20. The position of this woman in a wilderness is 
certainly an opposite to that of the woman in heaven: and if we suppose 
this woman to represent a pseudo-covenant, or a dispensation the opposite 
of the economy of grace, we may consider her also in the light of a false 
prophetess, or a false interpretation of the divine will, (¢ 69,) nearly identic 
with that woman Jezebel. 

‘ Sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast.’-—This also may be contemplated 
as the opposite of ‘a woman clothed with the sun,” or having a position in 
the sun, resplendent with the rays of that dispenser of light. The colour 
of this beast we may take to represent that of blood: it is not the fiery red 
of the accuser, indicative of his trying as well as of his vindictive qualities, 
but it is the colour of the element representing the penalty of sin, and sym- 
bolizing a power derived from the continued action of the law. There is 
nothing said here of the spotted appearance of the leopard, or of the mouth 
of the lion, or of the feet of the bear; but as this beast is represented to 
be full of the names of blasphemy, and to have seven heads and ten horns, 
like the beast seen rising from the sea, we suppose the two animals to be 
identic ; certain characteristics only appearing more prominently on one occa- 
sion than on the other. The scarlet colour of the beast here, however, may 
be a figure equivalent to that of his appearing to rise from the sea, (the element 
of wrath,) when before seen ;—so, full of the names of blasphemy, cannot 
be otherwise than equivalent to having the name of blasphemy upon his 
seven heads. Being the same beast, we are of course to understand that 
he possesses the power, seat, and great authority of the dragon or accuser ; 
the power of the beast depending upon that of the accuser, and the weapons 
of both consisting in the requisitions of the law, (their ten horns,) or rather 
in the power of the law as a whole ; corresponding with the analysis we 
have already suggested of these heads and horns, (ᾧ 294.) 

The position of the woman sittig on the beast, we suppose to be figu- 
rative of the dependence of the false economy, of which she is a figure, upon 


402 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET —SEVENTH VIAL. 


the blasphemous element of self, with its peculiar attributes. ‘The woman 
depending upon the beast, and not the beast upon the woman, as in the 
order of the Apocalypse, we find her the first to be destroyed. 

We have already (ᾧ 277) noticed the peculiarity, that the woman bear- . 
ing the man-child fled to the wilderness where the harlot was in full power, 
and have adverted to the difference in the circumstances of these symbolical 
females: the one being in the wilderness in a state of seclusion; the other 
in the pride of her vainglory, arrayed in all the trappings of royalty, and 
sustained by the imposing appearance of an extraordinary power. 

It is in a wilderness that the authority of the accuser may be said to be 
undisputed, as it was in a wilderness that Sinai might be said to have 
reigned alone. It is in the wilderness that a semi-legal system of self- 
righteousness appears to be the great power of God. At the same time, it is 
in a spiritual wilderness that the disciple, when his eyes are opened to a view 
of his state of destitution by nature, is led to feel his need of divine mercy, 
and is constrained to accept the gracious provision offered him by the gospel. 
So it was in the wilderness that even the wayward children of Israel were 
constrained to cry unto the Lord for the supplies indispensable to the pre- 
servation of life. It was in the desert in their distress that he gave them 
water from the rock, and the bread of heaven ;.and this even when their 
own grovelling inclinations prompted them to prefer the flesh-pots of Egypt. 
It was in the wilderness that fiery serpents had power to torture and to destroy 
them ; but it was also in the same wilderness that the healing power—the 
symbol of the Saviour—was lifted up, that all who looked to it might be 
saved. The same wilderness, therefore, in which the power of the accuser 
appears undisputed, in which the unclean element of self may for a time 
appear exalted, and in which the false covenant or economy appears to be 
sustained by all the power of the law, is eventually the means of bringing 
the disciple to a knowledge of the rich inheritance provided in the merits of 
Christ. So the barren desert of Sinai was to the Israelite the way to the 
land of promise. 


Vs. 4, 5. And the woman was arrayed Καὶ ἡ γυνὴ ἦν περιβεβλημένη πορφυροῦν 


in purple and scarlet-colour, and decked 
with gold and precious stones and pearls, 


having a golden cup in her hand full of 


abominations and filthiness of her forni- 
cation: and upon her forehead (was) a 
name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON 
THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF 
HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS 
OF THE EARTH. 


καὶ χύχκινον καὶ κεχρυσωμένη χρυσίῳ καὶ 
λίϑῳ τιμίῳ καὶ μυργαρίταις, ἔχουσα ποτή- 
ριον χρυσοῦν ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὑτῆς γέμον βδε- 
λυγμάτων, καὶ τὰ ἀκάϑαρτα τῆς πορνείας 
σεν τς Sa 
αἱτῆς, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ μέτωπον αὐτῆς ὄνομα 
γεγραμμένον: μυστήριον: Βαβυλὼν ἢ με- 
γάλη, ἡ μήτηρ τῶν πορνῶν καὶ τῶν βδελυγ- 
; ye 
μάτων τῆς γῆς. 


§ 384. ‘ And the woman was arrayed,’ &c.—Purple has been almost in 
all ages a colour peculiarly appropriate to the exhibition of regal or imperial 


THE VISION OF THE HARLOT. 403 


power. The kings of Midian in the time of Gideon wore a raiment of purple, 
(Judges viii. 26.)—Jesus was clothed in a purple robe, in mockery of what 

. Was supposed to be his pretensions to an earthly sovereignty ; and to take the 
purple has been in later times a common expression for the assumption of 
supreme political power. ‘The scarlet colour of this woman’s array (crim- 
son, xdxxtxog) is the same as the colour of the beast ; its figurative indication 
being probably also the same. The despotic as well as the sanguinary 
character of the system represented by the woman are thus symbolized by 
these elements of her dress—a dress furnishing a striking contrast to the fine 
linen, clean and white, of the wife of the Lamb, (Rev. xix. 8,) and directing 
our attention to the opposite means of salvation, or to the opposite righteous- 
nesses of the two economies thus illustrated. It is also worthy of remark 
that the colours of this woman’s dress very nearly correspond with those of 

᾿ the fen curtains of the tabernacle in the wilderness, (Ex. xxvi. 1,) blue and 
purple and scarlet ; all of them corresponding with different appearances of 
the blood, as it shows itself in the veins and arteries of the living human sub- 
ject ; indicating that, as under the legal dispensation there was no purification 
without blood, so the shelter or tabernacle of the first covenant was one in its 
nature exacting something equal to the forfeiture of the eternal life of the trans- 
gressor. ‘This seems sufficient to point out the legal tendency of the system 
of Babylon; although, it is true, a clothing of purple and scarlet may be 
taken merely as a figure of earthly wealth, or of the ostentatious display of 
self-dependence ; as it was said of certain idols, Jer. x. 9, “blue and purple 
is their clothing,” or of the rich man, whose position furnishes so striking a 
contrast to that of the beggar laid at his gate, that he ‘was clothed in purple 
and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.” 

‘ And decked with gold and precious stones and pearls.’—It is said im- 
mediately in connection with the predicted destruction of the earthly system, 
Is. xiii. 12, “41 will make a man more precious than fine gold ; even a man 
than the golden wedge of Ophir.” In allusion to which, it is also said of 
Christ, 1 Pet. ii. 7, “To you therefore that believe, he is precious.” To be 
in Christ, enjoying the attribute of his righteousness, is to be in the truth, 
(John xvii. 23 ;) and thus to be in him is to be decked indeed with fine and 
pure gold. 'This gold of the harlot, however, is of a different material : it 
is what she claims to be her gold—it is neither pure, nor fine, nor tried in 
the fire. Jt is like the metallic representative of wealth of the rich men 
spoken of by the apostle James, which he denominates their gold and their 
silver. So we may say of these precious stones and pearls of the harlot, 
they are her gems and her pearls: far different in their real value from the 
one stone spoken of as elect, precious, 1 Pet. ii. 6, and the pearl of great 
price—the true ransom of the soul, (the atonement of Jesus,) for which the 
disciple is ready to give up every claim of merit of his own. 


᾿ 


404 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


Babylon, no doubt, boasts of her riches—she makes a great display of 
her resources ; for, according to the prophet, she is to be as much character- 


ized for her pride as for her apparent wealth, (Jer. 1.31.) The merits and , 


means of propitiation of human fabric are the uncertain riches (1 Tim. vi. 
17) which not only take to themselves wings and fly away, but which must 
be found to be entirely worthless in the emergency when something really 
precious will be most called for. 

§ 385. ‘ Having a golden cup in her hand.’—As we have taken gold to 
be symbolical of truth, it may appear hardly in keeping with our view of the 
character of Babylon as a false system, that the material of her cup should 
be gold. ‘This however may be construed in two ways. She was decked 
in gold, that is, in her gold, (gold at the best very much alloyed or mixed,) 
and the material of her cup may be of the same debased character ; or, if it 
be of pure gold, then it represents an instrument of truth, or a true exhibition 
showing the true character of the mixture in which her followers participate. 
We prefer this latter construction, although the result would not materially 
differ in either case.* 

‘Full of aboninations and filthiness of her fornication.’-—Such 15 the real 
character of this mixture when truly exhibited. We are not to suppose the 
participants of this cup to be aware of its true character, any more than they 
are aware that the magnificent city Babylon, as they esteem it, is but a 
wilderness, or the capital of a wilderness. As we have considered the wine 
of the harlot an opposite of the wine of the marriage feast, we may also 
consider her cup a professed substitute, or a counterfeit, of the cup of salvation 
alluded to Ps. cxvi. 8. Babylon professes to furnish by her cup an element 
of joy and rejoicing, an atonement or propitiation essential to the enjoyment of 
eternal life. 'The most odious characteristic of the ingredients of this cup 
is, apparently, that it is a mixture, as indicated by the epithets applied to it; 
a mixture corresponding with what we have said (¢ 99) of the character of 
the system represented by Babylon herself. ‘This cup offers to the disciple, 
as an object of his faith and trust, a pretended atonement or propitiation, 


* There would be no inconsistency in supposing the harlot to appear with orna- 
ments of pure gold, and of gems and pearls, really precious ; for it accords with our 
common experience of falsehood, that it usually makes its appearance “ in truth’s 
array.” In like manner, our supposed pseudo-economy of salvation, besides arraying 
herself in the sanguinary apparel of the legal covenant, may, in perfect’ keeping with 
her mixed character, make a display also of many of the precious truths of the gospel 
economy ; the character of these valuable materials being changed only by the 
abuse to which they are perverted: as itis said, Lam. iv. 1, 2, “ How is the gold be- 
come dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are 
poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine 
gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the 
potter !” 


THE VISION OF THE HARLOT. 405 


wrought out partly by the merits of Christ, and partly by the merits of man. 
Such a mixture involves the ingredients of hypocrisy, of blasphemy, of vain- 
glory, of mercenary and selfish motives, of ingratitude towards the author of 
salvation, and of lukewarmness in his service ;—hypocrisy, because it pro- 
fesses a dependence upon the merits of Christ, when the real dependence of 
the deluded disciple is upon his own merits, and because it professes to give 
the glory of salvation to the Saviour, when it really assumes this glory for 
some merit of the being saved; blasphemy, because, if man be supposed 
to be in any respect the efficient cause of his own salvation, such a supposi- 
tion places him, in pretence, upon an equality with God ; vainglory, because, 
if the disciple trace his eternal well-being to some merit in himself, he 
assumes for himself the glory of his own salvation; mercenary selfishness, 
because on these mixed principles man must necessarily act from the secret 
motive of promoting his own interest, and his own glory, while the pretension 
that eternal life is a compensation for merited service, in any degree, must 
as necessarily diminish the gratitude due for that which is an unmerited gift, 
and must thus generate the lukewarmness so hateful to God, as we have seen 
it declared to be in the case of the Laodicean angel, (ᾧ 102.) The ingre- 
dients of such a mixture may well be supposed to be abominations in the 
sight of Him, who has declared himself the only Saviour ; who will not divide 
his glory with another ; a jealous God, beside whom no other object of wor- 
ship or other source of dependence is permitted. 

The word rendered /ilthiness in our common version, ἀχαϑάρτητος 
according to some editions of the Greek, does not occur in any other pas- 
sage of the New Testament; but its kindred, axudaegota, and the adjective 
ἀκάϑαρτος, are met with several times, and are uniformly rendered by the 
words uncleanness and unclean, as the three spirits were said, Rev. xvi. 13, 
to be unclean as frogs ; an uncleanness, as we have supposed, of a Levitical 
character—the opposite of that which is holy or set apart. Wesuppose the 
second ingredient of the harlot’s cup to be a principle or principles of this 
unholy character : common or unclean, because not set apart to the service 
of God—elements of propitiation not of the class required.by God ; such 
uncleanness in matters of doctrine being apparently alluded to, Eph. iv. 19, 
and 1 Thess. ii. 3. Purity, however, being the opposite of mixture, as forni- 
cation is the opposite of marriage, this uncleanness may involve also the same 
jdea of mixed principles, partly of self-dependence and partly of dependence 
upon God, as those alluded to under the figure of abominations ; as a reliance 
partly on one’s own righteousness and partly on the righteousness of Christ, is 
figuratively spoken of as an adulterous infidelity or breach of marriage vows. 

The cup or the wine of a marriage feast represents in Scripture the 
occasion of joy or happiness afforded by the marriage, not merely to the 
parties united in wedlock, but to all the guests present at the feast. To 


406 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


participate in the wine of the marriage entertainment, is to share in the com- 
mon joy and common cause of rejoicing of the whole company. The figure 
appears to be taken from the presumed interest which every friend or relative 
of the parties thus united takes in the prospect of their happiness, resulting 
as it does from a legitimate and honourable connection. The cup or wine of 
the harlot represents an occasion of false, ill-founded joy or rejoicing ; as if 
we were to imagine the friends of a bride called together to celebrate, as 
they supposed, her nuptials, which proved to be only of a fictitious character, 
resulting in an illicit connection. ‘The joy of these relatives would appear, 
to one aware of the deceit, a species of madness. In like manner, the 
followers of the harlot are led away with the insane delusion that her festal 
cup represents a real occasion of rejoicing ; while, to those who are aware of 
its fallacious character, the conduct of these devotees appears to be equalled 
only by the folly of the maniac. Something like this seems to be implied 
in the language of the prophet, ‘“‘ Babylon hath been a golden cup in the 
Lord’s hand, that made all the earth drunken; the nations have drunken of 
her wine, therefore the nations, are mad,” Jer. li. 7;—they have been 
deceived into the belief that the illicit connections peculiar to the system of 
Babylon, affords that cause of rejoicing which can result only from the occa- 
sion of the legitimate union of the divine Spouse with his spiritual bride. 

§ 386. ‘And upon her forehead a name,’ &c.—The elements of truth, 
the sealed ones, bore upon their foreheads the name of the Father of the 
Lamb. The subjects of the beast were required to receive his mark in their 
foreheads, and, corresponding with these, the harlot is conspicuously marked 
with her name and character. The impress, however, we may presume is only 
to be seen by one who, like the apostle, in spirit sees her in her true char- 
acter and position. Her deluded followers, of course, are not supposed to 
possess this degree of discernment. ‘To the apostle she may be said to ap- 
pear unveiled ; by him, therefore, the inscription upon her forehead is plainly 
perceived, but to those partaking of her cup, she may appear as the espoused 
wife—the false economy usurping the place of the true, as the blasphemous 
beast usurps the place of the true God. 

‘Mystery.’—We have already spoken of the mystery of truth, the mys- 
tery of God, of Christ, and of the Gospel, (¢ 331.) Here, it is evident that 
there must be something of an opposite character. ‘The gospel is termed, 
Rom. xvi. 25, “The revelation of the mystery of God, which was kept 
secret since the world began ;” that is, the revelation of God’s plan of salva- 
tion. Opposite of this, we suppose the harlot to represent a mystery or 
plan of salvation of human device—a simulatzon of the plan revealed by the 
gospel—a simulation of that union represented by the marriage tie, which 
Paul denominates a great mystery—an opposite of the covenant declared, _ 
Gal. iv. 26, to be “ the mother of us all,” or rather a substitute for it ; for 


VISION OF THE HARLOT. 407 


we do not suppose Babylon to represent the covenant of works—which is 
something of an unmixed character. We suppose the harlot to be rather 
professedly a representation of the covenant of grace, but in reality a ¢on- 
fused mixture of the principles of both covenants. She does not profess to 
advocate a system of doctrine in which no salvation is esteemed necessary ; 
she pretends, on the contrary, to furnish a cup ofsalvation of her own. And 
as the gospel mystery has its cup of propitiation, (the atonement of Christ,) 
so the harlot has her professed means of atonement, a mixture such as we 
have before noticed ; the mystery of the harlot bearing to the beast (self) 
a relation corresponding with that borne by the bride, or true covenant of 
grace, to the Redeemer—Babylon being perhaps a figure of the mystery of 
iniquity, alluded to by the apostle Paul in his account of the man of sin, 
2 Thess. ii. 3. The mystery of iniquity is not the man of sin himself, but 
the two are so intimately connected, in their principles and results, that they 
may be contemplated as identic. As, on the other hand, the bride (the 
covenant of grace, or the purpose of God) is in effect so much the same 
with the Lamb, Christ, (the personification of the Logos,) that they also, 
when fully revealed, will be manifested to be identic. 

‘Babylon the great.—We have already enlarged so fully upon the 
system of confusion designated by this appellation, that a further analysis of 
it here would be but a repetition. The principal use to be made of this 
inscription at present is to identify expressly these two figures of the woman 
and the city, that there may be no hesitation in receiving whatever is 
affirmed of the one as equally applicable to the other: this harlot, the 
great city, and Babylon, represent but one and the same mystery; as we 
shall find their opposites, the bride, the holy city, and the New Jerusalem, 
alike representing one other mystery. The explanation may be the more 
called for here, as, while Babylon is described in this chapter as existing, 
and as being finally destroyed under the figure of a woman, her destruction 
ἡ in the next chapter is more circumstantially set forth as the conflagration of 
a great city. , 

‘The mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.’-—As any con- 
fused system of true and false principles must necessarily generate a multi- 
tude of subordinate errors, so Babylon, as a mixture of the elements of the 
law with those of the gospel, is the parent of a multitude of minor doctrinal 
systems and elements of the same erroneous character. All such adultera- 
tions of truth are alike offensive and abominable in the sight of God ; all 
possessing the same features of hypocrisy, vainglory, ingratitude, lukewarm- 
ness, and blasphemy ; for which reason they are entitled to the appellation 
of abominations, abominations of the earth, because they are peculiar to 
that earthly view of man’s position which supposes him to be dependent 
upon his own merits or works. All these minor sys ems, with their variety 

, 35 


/ 


408 | SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


of forms and phases, may be contemplated as inventions of the false prophet 
for sustaining the power of self, and for promoting the worship of that image 
of Self, or of self-righteousness, which comes into immediate collision with 
the only true object of worship, Jehovah our Redeemer. They owe their 
origin, however, mediately to that mixture or amalgamation, of which Baby- 
lon is the representation. The inscription upon the forehead of this adulte- 
rous woman might accordingly be translated thus: Mystery, the system of 
confusion; the parent of mixed systems, and of self-righteous schemes of 
salvation, arising from carnal and perverted interpretations of the revealed 


word of God. 


- 1 wer , ν = 
Kai εἶδον τὴν γυναῖκα μεθύουσαν ἐκ τοῦ 

° ~ c , ~ « ~ 
αἵματος τῶν ὑγίων καὶ ἐκ TOU αἵματος τῶν 


Vs. 6. 7. And I saw the woman drunk- 
en with the blood of the saints, and with 


the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and 
when I saw her, 1 wondered with great 
admiration. And the angel said unto me, 
Wherelore didst thou marvel ? I will tell 
thee the mystery of the woman, and of 
the beast that carrieth her, which hath 


, 2 ΕΣ ΠΣ , 2et > 
μαρτύρων ᾿Ιησοῦ" καὶ ἐθαύμασυ, ἰδὼν αὐ- 
, ~ ' - 3 ͵ Pi 
τί, ϑαῖμα μέγα. Kat εἰπὲ μοι ὃ ἄγγελος" 
‘ ~ ΄ an? ae ‘ ΄ 
διὰ τὶ ἐθαύμασας ; ἐγώ σοι ἐρῶ τὸ μυστη- 
- ‘ ~ ~ 
ριον τὴς γυναικὸς καὶ τοῦ ϑηρίου τοῦ βασ- 
ἧς ? ‘ ~ ΄ ‘ c 
τάζοντος αὐτή", τοῦ ἔχοντος Tus ἑπτὰ κε- 


the seven heads, and ten horns. ἢ Sead SP ; 
φαλὺς χαὶ τὰ δέχα κέρατα. 


§ 387. ‘ And I saw,’ &c.—The idea to be associated with this drunk- 
enness we suppose to be more especially that of satiety ; as, in speaking of 
a ferocious animal, it might be said to be satiated, gorged with the blood of 
its victims. The figure corresponds with what is said of certain elements, 
represented as inhabiters of the earth in the last chapter, which are said to 
have: shed the blood of saints and of prophets, on which account blood was 
given them to drink. The triumphant condition of the harlot precedes the 
pouring out of these vials of wrath ; the elements of her system being pro- 
bably the same, or part of the same, as those said to be worthy of the visita- 
tion of the third vial, (Rev. xvi. 6.) 

These saints (holy ones) and martyrs (witnesses) of Jesus we have 
before supposed ($$ 162, 262) to represent elements of revealed truth as 
transmitted to us in the sacred Scriptures, all witnessing to the true character 
of Jesus, as the Lord our righteousness, and to the nature of his work in the 
economy of grace, when their spiritual sense is correctly taken into considera- 
tion. On this account, to maintain the system of the harlot, it is necessary 
to divest these elements of revelation of their spiritual sense ; this separation 
of the spirit from the letter is, therefore, figuratively spoken of as a shedding 
of the blood, or a taking of the life of those who are witnesses of the truth. 
This the harlot system is supposed to have done to satiety, so as apparently 
to have completely triumphed, and to have done so with impunity. 

‘And when-I saw her, I wondered with great admiration,’ (wonder.)— 
This expressicn appears designed to bring out the explanation of the angel 

(immediately following it; but the wonder will appear the more natural, if 


VISION OF THE HARLOT. 409 


we bear in mind that the apostle at present sees the harlot only in her glory 
and power, rioting in the midst of the exercise of her cruelty and oppression. 
As yet, he knows nothing of her end ; that she should be permitted thus to 
triumph, appears to him, therefore, a mystery—something indeed wonderful. 
The feelings of the apostle may be compared here with those of the Psalm- 
ist when he saw the prosperity of the wicked, and before he understood 
their end, (Ps. Ixxiii. 4-17.) 

‘And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel ??—As if 
appealing to the knowledge which the apostle must have had of the deal- 
ings of God, in permitting the temporary prosperity of the wicked, the 
angel reminded him that he should have perceived this short-lived triumph 
of the harlot to be designed for some peculiar exhibition of the power and 
providence of the Most High. 

‘I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that car- 
rieth her.’—I will tell the end, the purpose for which this wickedness is 
permitted. As the woman was drunken with the blood of saints and martyrs, 
and as the beast carried or sustained her, the conduct of both constitutes one 
and the same mystery ; so in the sequel we find the woman destroyed by 
the horns of the animal, upon which she had depended for support. 

‘ Which hath the seven heads, and ten horns.”—This repetition of the 
description just before given of the beast, would appear hardly necessary were 
it not designed to fix our attention to the fact, that this monster is the same 
as that seen rising from the sea, (Rev. xiii. 1,) whose peculiar characteris- 
tics we have already analyzed, ($ 294.) 


V.8. The beast that thou sawest was, 
and is not; and shall ascend out of the 
bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and 
they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, 
(whose names were not written in the 
book of life from the foundation of the 
world,) when they behold the beast that 
was, and is not, and yet is. 


§ 388. ‘The beast that thou sawest,’ 


To ϑηρίον, ὃ εἶδες, ἣν καὶ οὐκ ἔστι, καὶ 
μέλλει ἀναβαίνειν ἐκ τῆς ἀβύσσου καὶ εἰς 
ὑπάγειν" ϑαυμάσον ται οἵ 
κατοιχοῦν τὲς ἐπὶ Ἐπ γῆς, ὧν οὐ VEY OUR 
ται τὰ ὀνόματα ἐπὲ τὸ βιβλίον τῆς ζωῆς 
ἀπὸ καταβολὴ Lis κόσμου, βλεπόντων τὸ ϑη- 
ρον, OTL ἦν καὶ οὐκ ἔστι, καὶ παρέσται. 


ἀπώλειαν καὶ 


&c.—The explanation of the 


mystery of the woman is here preceded by an account of the beast, which 
occupies the principal part of the remainder of the chapter. 

We are not obliged to suppose that the beast was to be annihilated, and 
afterwards created a second time. ‘The language of the angel is apocalyptical, 


and is to be taken in that qualified sense. 
it 7s not when it is not revealed or manifested ; it will be 


or manifested : 
when it is again manifested. 


A thing ts when it is revealed 


We have supposed this beast to be the principle or element of self ;— 
something in the heart of man pretending to an independence of God, ($ 


410 SEVENTH SEAL._SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


301,) and even assuming the position of God as the author and efficient 
cause of eternal life. 

This blasphemous principle (self) was manifest under the legal economy. 
It then ruled with undisputed sway, for the law was supposed to recognize 
no fulfilment of its requisitions, except by the works or righteousness of man “ 
the beast then was. No sooner, however, is the gospel introduced, than the 
principle of self is banished. Christ having fulfilled the law and satisfied 
its demands, he alone appears, as he ts, the efficient cause of salvation: the 
creature (man) in this work is nothiny—the beast then 5 not. Again, 
the language of revelation is misconstrued ; some of the leading doctrines of 
the gospel are perverted ; the economy of grace is represented as a mixture ; 
salvation no longer appears a free gift; the sinner is supposed to have beew 
redeemed on account of something meritorious in himself; he claims now 
to be the efficient cause of his own eternal happiness ; he forms in his own 
mind an image of his fancied righteousness ; he adores the image of himself ; 
he builds his hope upon the baseless system of salvation by human merits. 
The beast is now seen to ascend, as it were, out of the bottomless pit, (ἢ 
206.) 

These different processes of manifestation may take place in some sense 
in different ages of the visible church, or they may at times be more plainly 
discernible in some portions of Christendom than in others ; but we think 
the declaration of the mighty angel, (Rev. x. 7,) there shall be time no 
longer, is to be applied here as elsewhere, (ὃ 230 ;) the changes in contem- 
plation being of a nature to take place in the mental experience-—the doc- 
trinal views—of Christian disciples of all ages and of all denominations, 
the reign of the beast representing the ascendency of a eertain principle of 
error opposed, to the element of sovereign grace. 

‘ And they that dwell upon the earth shall wonder,’ &c.—As if it had 
been said, in allusion to the astonishment of the apostle, ‘It is not for you to 
wonder even at this extraordinary power and prosperity of the wicked, for 
by you the end should be considered ; but there is room for those that dwell 
upon the earth to wonder, as with great fear, when they see the downfall 
and final perdition of this impostor, or element of imposition, to which they 
have been accustomed to look as to the great power of God ;’ the word 
rendered wonder expressing the kind of amazement felt by an ignorant 
multitude in beholding some extraordinary celestial phenomenon, prodigy, 
or portentous omen. ‘These dwellers upon the earth, with a certain excep- 
tion, we have uniformly considered principles of the earthly system personi- 
fied, those especially subject to the influence of the beast, and made drunk | 
with the wine of the harlot. This is the last passage in which the appella- 
tion occurs ; and we may suppose this predicted wonder or amazement to be 


THE VISION OF THE HARLOT. All 


indicative of the approaching end of those by whom it is experienced— 
an end perhaps simultaneous with that of the beast, (Rev. xix. 20, 21.) 

‘When they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. —We 
think the wonder here spoken of is applicable rather to the sight of the per- 
dition of the beast than to the sight of the beast itself. It is said, in the first 
description of this extraordinary animal, that all the world wondered after 
the beast. The wonder then was in beholding his power and exaltation ; 
it is now to be in seeing his downfall. There is, however, some difference 
in both the Greek and English editions in the words here given, which it 
appears necessary to notice. 

ᾧ 389. According to some, the reading of the last words, rendered and 
yet ts in our common version, should be καίπερ ἐστίν ; according to others, χαὶ io 
παρέσται. ‘The English peta of Wiclif, Tyndale, Cranmer, and Reimés, nf o- 
omit the expression altogether: ὅτε also may be rendered that or because, / 
although it is sometimes put for ὅτε, when. ‘The reading of Wiclif is, “and 
men dwellinge in erthe schuln wonder, seyinge the beest that was is not.” 
In one case the wonder is in seeing the beast ; in the other, in seeing that, 
although he was, he no longer is ; while in another, as in our common ver- 
sion, the greatest wonder would seem to be that, although he is not, yet he 
15 ;—a contradiction apparently in terms. 

If παρέσται, however, be the correct reading, as the latest editions 
represent it to be, and if, as we suppose, this word be from πάρειμι, a 
compound of παρά and εἰμί, as ἔσται is the third person of the future 
tense of εἰμί, and not of the present, the compound παρέσται must signify 
will be, and not is. The sentence will then read, “shall wonder when 
they behold the beast that was, and is not, and will be ;” corresponding 
with what is said of the monster in the first part of the verse, that he shald 
ascend, or is to ascend (μέλλει ἀναβαίνειν) from the abyss. This reading 
appears preferable, as it does not involve even an apparent contradiction 
in terms, while it does not militate with a fair construction of the subsequent 
verse. 

If we prefer rendering the last clause according to our common version, 
the result cannot vary materially upon a fair construction of it. ‘The beast 
that was, and is not, and yet is, must be that which zs not apparently, and 
yet zs in reality. As the verb πάρειμι is used, John xi. 28, “ The Master ts 


come, (πάρεστι, is present,) and calleth for thee ;” 


that is, he is hard by, 
although not seen ; so the experience of every one may convince him that 
the principle of self or selfishness operates within him, although its exist- 
ence is not recognized by him. | 

The apostle seems to have been told here of something already seen by 
him ; that is, the ascending of the beast from the abyss. But he was not 


then acquainted with the peculiarity, that prior to the coming of the beast 


412 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


from the sea he had existed, and had been in full power ; this power having 
been subsequently taken from him; and his rising frem the sea, Rev. xii., 
being his second appearance, equivalent to his ascending from the bottom- 
less pit. ‘The present narration of the angel going back to the commence- 
ment of the history of the beast, in order that the mystery of both ΟΝ and 
woman may be the better explained. 


Vs. 9, 10,11. And here (is) the mind Ὧδε 6 νοῦς ὃ ἔχων σοφίαν" αἷ ἑπτὰ κε- 
which hath wisdom. The seven heads φαλαὶ ἑπτὰ ὄρη εἰσίν, ὅπου ἡ γυνὴ κάϑη- 
are seven mountains, on which the woman 
sitteth. And there are seven kings: five 
are fallen, and one is, (and} the other is 
not yet come; and when he cometh, he ἦλϑε, καὶ ὅταν Ey, ὀλίγον αὐτὸν δεῖ per 
must continue a short space. And the va. Kat τὸ ϑηρίον, ὃ ἣν καὶ οὐκ ἔστι, καὶ 
beast that was, and is not, even he is the αὐτὸς ὑγδοός ἐστι, καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἑπτά ἔστι, 
eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into 
perdition. 


2 ches ΕΞ - ΄ 
ται ἐπ αὐτῶν. Kat βασιλεῖς ἑπτὰ εἰσίν" 
οἵ πέντε EXETOY, ὃ εἷς ἐστιν, ὃ ἄλλος οὕπω 


\ Ὕ 2 , ς ΄ 
καὶ εἰς UTEMAELAY UMUYEL. 


ᾧ 390, ‘Here is the mind which hath wisdom ;” or, here the understand- 
ing having wisdom—Hic sensus habens sapientiam, (G. & L.)—an intima- 
tion of the peculiarly mystic sense of the explanation about to be given ; for 
as there is no conjunction in the original corresponding with and at the com- 
mencement of the verse in ovr common version, the sentence seems to be 
set off from the preceding matter, and to apply more particularly to what 
follows. ‘The angel is about to interpret the meaning of the seven heads 
and ten horns of the beast, and the notice is necessary to remind the hearer 
that the interpretation itself is something to be also interpreted. The inti- 
mation is of the same character as that we have attributed to the words, He 
that hath ears to hear, &c. Here is matter for the understanding of those 
who possess the hidden wisdom—the wisdom of God in a mystery—the oppo- 
site of the wisdom of this world, τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, and the opposite of the 
wisdom of the princes (principles) of this world, (1 Cor. ii. 6, 7.) 

‘The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.’— 
As this seems to be an explanation it might be taken literally, if it were not 
for the caution just given. In fact, the angel is telling a mystery, rather than 
explaining it; or, if explaining, his language is the language of vision. The 
terms he employs in the explanation are as apocalyptical as those of any 
other part of the book, and as such are subject to further explanation. 

The woman was first said to be sitting on many waters, (Rev. xvii. 1.) 
She is again said to be seen in a wilderness, aan on a beast, (v. 33) again 
she is said to be carried by the beast, (v. 7;) she is now epelsies: of as sitting, 
as being seated upon seven mountains. ers must be something analogous 
in all these sites—something in which they have a common resemblance- 
The waters, the beast, and the mountains, are apparently different figures of 
the same foundation, upon which this mystery, Babylon, depends. Not only 


THE VISION OF THE HARLOT. 418. 


this, but, according to what we suppose to be the correct reading, there is 
yet another figure of the same foundation, site, or support. 

‘ And there are seven kings.’ —There is no warrant, in our apprehension, 
for the introduction of the word there in this place, as if the verb εἰσέν were 
to be rendered impersonally ; nor should there be a period at the end of the 
ninth verse. If we are right in these particulars, the exact reading of the 
Greek must be as follows: The seven heads are seven mountains, where the 
woman sits upon them, and are seven kings. That is, these seven heads are 
both seven mountains and seven kings—seven mountains or foundations, as 
representing fundamental principles; and seven kings, or chiefs, as repre- 
senting ruling or leading principles. There is still another figure for this 
foundation of the mystery, or woman, as we shall find in the fifteenth verse. 
The waters upon which she is seen to sit are declared to be “ peoples, and 
multitudes, and nations, and tongues,” a figure we have already supposed to 
represent powers of the earthly system. The mystery, Babylon, is thus 
sustained and carried forward by waters, by mountains, by kings, by peoples, 
nations, &c.—all of them representing fundamental, or leading principles , 
or supposed powers, of a pseudo economy of salvation; the different 
figures being intended to illustrate different characteristics of the same con- 
trolling or sustaining principles. 

The figure of a woman is preserved throughout, but this woman is 
declared to be both a mystery and Babylon; and Babylon is known to have 
been both a city and an empire. The mystery must be always the same, 
however differently it is illustrated. It is always Babylon, having the same 
mixture ; a system of the same adulterated character. As a human being, 
this mixed system is sustained by the beast ; asa city, it is seated upon seven 
hills or mountains ; and as an empire, it is said to be seated upon many 
waters, or rivers; while, as a kingdom, it is under the guidance or control 
of seven chiefs. 

We have already enumerated, by way of suggestion, seven leading 
elements of a self-righteous system of salvation as the seven heads of the 
beast, ($ 294.) These elements may figuratively be spoken of either as 
foundations, (mountains,) or as chiefs or kings ; that is, either as the funda- 
mental or ruling principles of a system—principles from which the mixed 
system of the harlot emanates. ‘These seven principles are composed how- 
ever of a mixed multitude of subordinate doctrinal principles, originating 
from a misconstruction of the language of revelation, and tending to advo- 
cate supposed means of propitiation, (the atoning elements of the harlot’s 
plan of salfation.) Such a mixed assemblage of self-righteous elements may 
be spoken of sometimes as waters, (waters of the earth,) and sometimes as 
peoples, nations, &c., in contradistinction to the chosen people of God. 

If we supply the definite article immediately in connection with the 


414 SEVENTH SEAL.--SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


words “seven kings,” the reading would be, And the kings are seven ; or, And 

‘the seven heads are seven mountains, upon which the woman sitteth, and 
are the seven kings. ‘The question would then occur, What kings? which 
carries us back to the second verse of the chapter, where certain kings of 
the earth are spoken of, with. whom the harlot is said to have maintained an 
illicit connexion. Our interpretation would then be about the same, limiting 
only these kings of the earth to the number seven—indicating an admixture 
of this Babylonish system, or mystery of atonement, with seven leading 
elements of that view of revelation (the earth) which supposes man to be 
dependent upon his own works, the position of our first parents when ex- 
pelled from Paradise. As we have before remarked, the word translated 
kings may not only be rendered chiefs or leaders, but may apply to those 
presiding over sacred things, and is therefore a figure so much the more 
appropriate for leading elements of religious doctrine. 

§ 391. ‘Five are fallen, &c.—A king or chief fallen, is one deprived of 
his power, or shown to be powerless. So we may suppose these five fallen 
kings to be principles, manifested to be without the power previously imputed 
to them. One, however, (the sixth,) still remains apparently in power. As 
all the world wondered after the beast, considering him the great power 
equal to God, so the world may be supposed still to wonder after the sixth 
element spoken of as a king. 

If we are right in supposing the beast carrying the woman to be that 
seen rising from the sea, if his heads be the same seven heads then seen, and 
if these seven heads represent the seven kings as well as seven mountains, 
then one of these kings must be represented by the head which appeared 
as it had been slain and subsequently resuscitated. 

We suppose the beast to represent a certain spirit of error, the parent or 
source of other errors. His seven heads we take to be so many leading 
erroneous principles. ‘The head apparently once slain and alive again, 
we take to represent an error especially on the subject of the atonement ; 
that which we have termed self-atonement, (δῷ 294 and 298,) an opposite 
of the true atonement of which Christ only is the source. Under the legal 
dispensation every subject of the law was held to make an adequate atone- 
ment for his own transgressions—this head of the beast was then living. 
Under the gospel, when fully understood, it is manifest that no atonement 
is sufficient, except that which Christ has offered. ‘This head of the beast 
15 then, as it were, wounded to death, slain. Under the mixed system, how- 
ever, of the harlot, sustained as it is by the beast, the error prevails that the 
propitiation for the transgression of the sinner is something to be effeeted partly 
by the disciple and partly by Christ; the sinner is to atone for himself as 
far as he can; Christ is to make up the deficiency ; or the sinner, by some 
peculiar influence of the Holy Spint, obtained through the oral intercession 


——— 


THE VISION OF THE HARLOT. 415 


‘ 


of Christ, is now supposed to be enabled to atone for himself, or something 


of this kind, the error being susceptible of a variety of modifications. Such 
mixed views constitute the harlot’s cup; and thus, under her reign or influ- 
ence, this mistaken view of the power of self-atonement (the sixth king) 
may be considered in fact in full vigour ; appearing, in this stage of revela- 
tion, to be in the full enjoyment of supreme authority ; that is, wherever the 
harlot is seen sustained, as she here appears to be, by the beast. 

The five fallen kings may be five doctrinal elements, or errors, so mani- 
festly involving a supposition of the continuance of the legal dispensation 
as not to be admissible even in the harlot-system. The system of Babylon 
being an adulterated evangelical system, in the state of things now under 
contemplation. all elements purely legal are supposed to be powerless as 
means of salvation ; their reign accordingly may be said to have passed away. 

§ 392. When Joshua was about to take possession of the promised land, 
he was opposed by five kings or chiefs, (Joshua x.5,) who had till then held 
possession of that country ; one of these five, Adoni-Zedek, king of Jerusalem, 
calling in the other four as his auxiliaries. The name of this leader signifies 
the God of Justice, or the Justice of God. The Jerusalem, of which he was 
the king, was the old Jerusalem—the old vision of peace—peace to be 
obtained only by man’s fulfilment of the law. The kingdom of this chief 
may have represented the economy of man’s position by nature, of which 
divine justice is the controlling principle ; the four auxiliary kings we may 
suppose to represent kindred judicial principles. ‘The promised land repre- 
sented, as before noticed, the Rest of the disciple—the position of relief 
afforded to the spiritual children of God by the free gift of eternal life ; 
Joshua, or, as the name is expressed in Greek, Jesus, being the type of 
Christ—the leader of the disciple into the spiritual position of rest. As 
Joshua was opposed by these five aboriginal chiefs, so Christ, in leading his 
followers into rest, is opposed by corresponding judicial elements. The 
opposers of the Hebrew leader were entirely overcome ; the sun standing still 
in Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon, till their destruction was 
completely accomplished. In like manner, the revelation of the light of the 
Sun of righteousness must be continued until the manifestation is complete 
that the elements of man’s position by nature have been superseded by the 
principles of that economy of grace which may be said to constitute his pro- 
mised rest. 

In adverting to a similar figure, it was said by an apostle, Acts xiii. 19, 
that seven nations, the original possessors of Canaan, were cast out to make 
room for thé people of Israel ;—as if all elements of man’s legal position 
must be removed before a full view of his state of rest by grace could be 
fairly exhibited. Nevertheless, to humble and to prove the Israelites, prone 
as they were to forget the only author of their enjoyments, certain of these 
aboriginals were left amongst them, (Judges ii. 22, 235) nor were they 


416 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


ever entirely relieved from this mixed multitude till after the rebuilding of 
the temple, subsequent to returning from their Babylonish captivity, (Nehe- 
miah xiii. 1-3.) So it appears to have been with the exhibition of the means 
of salvation afforded in the time of the harlot, and under the reign of this 
sixth king. The legal principles are supposed to be overcome, but there 
are still certain self-righteous powers asserting their prerogative to reign in 
this kingdom of the beast; for we suppose the beast himself to govern, 
through the instrumentality of bis seven heads. 

The children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, and 
Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites, and they took their 
daughters to be ‘their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and 
served their gods, (Judges iti. 5 ;) an illustration of the amalgamation sub- 
sequently taking place in the views of the Christian world, and of Christian 
disciples individually, in matters pertaining to the mystery or economy of 
salvation. 

The existing error at the epoch contemplated in this passage of the 
Apocalypse, is a mixed view of the doctrine of atonement, an essential 
power of salvation, and accordingly represented as a king or chief. It is 
said to be, not merely in reference to a latent existence, but rather in refer- 
ence to its manifestation. It is now manifested ; the cup of the harlot, and the 
harlot herself, as figures, being instruments of bringing this peculiar error to 
light. 

‘The other is not yet come.’—It would be premature for us at present 
to attempt to point out what is to be understood by this seventh king. Like 
the others, we suppose it to be some leading erroneous principle of the 
dominion of the beast, (self;) and from its number (seven) we think it 
probable that it pertains especially to the doctrine of the REST peculiar 
to the Christian plan of salvation, and typified by the seventh day of the 
week, even as early as the creation of the world. If the sixth king be con- 
sidered as remaining in power till the destruction of Babylon, we cannot 
look for a revelation of this seventh till after we have completed the details 
of that destruction ; that is, not ull after the conclusion of the next chapter. 
_When this seventh error is manifested, it is said that he (the king) is to 
continue but a short space. We suppose this to be an intimation that the 
eradication of the previous six errors will so pave the way for the fall of 
the seventh, that its exhibition and the termination of its power will be 
almost coincident. 

‘ And the beast that was, and is not,’ &c.—The beast representing the 
element of self was manifest as in full power under the legal dispensation ; 
he was then recognized. Under the gospel dispensation it is not so, 
although his influence secretly lurks in the prevailing perverted views of the 
gospel. 

‘ Even he is the eighth.’ —That is, when the chief element to which these 


THE VISION OF THE HARLOT. 411 


seven principles belong (or which itself is constituted of these seven 
principles) shall be revealed, its manifestation will be equivalent to that 
of an eighth king, or ruling principle. He “is of the seven,” or out of, 
or from the seven, as the Greek preposition é implies ; the element of self 
emanating from these seven selfish principles. An exhibition of the seven 
leading errors involves that of the parent stock. And as error is no sooner 
detected and exhibited than it is overthrown ; so the manifestation of this 
eighth, consisting as it does in that of the seven, is no sooner perfected than 
the error itself is destroyed, or goes into perdition. The seventh king may 
be said to remain a short space. The eighth, when thus detected and exposed, 
is not to be considered as enduring even for a time: he goeth into perdition 
almost simultaneously with the exposure of his true character ;—this reve- 
lation and destruction of the eighth king, or the beast itself, corresponding 
with the manifestation and destruction of that wicked spoken of by Paul, 
2 Thess. ii. 8, whose revelation and perdition appear to be equally coinci- 
dent. So we suppose the predominance of the seven erroneous principles, 
the constituent elements of the beast, to correspond with the working of the 
mystery of iniquity alluded to by the apostle in the verse immediately pre- 
ceding that above quoted. 


Vs. 12, 13. And the ten horns which Kai τὰ δέκα κέρατα, ἃ εἶδες, δέκα βασι- 
thou = ek ten kings, ee have λεῖς εἰσιν, οἵτινες βασιλείαν οὔπω ἔλαβον, 
᾿ ‘ne J H e ν a ~ « 
5 ν . \ - δεν oe fe ΄ 
These have one mind, and shall give their 70U0+ μετὰ TOU ϑηρίου. Ουτοι Laasie Cains 
ny ἔχουσι, καὶ τὴν δύναμιν καὶ τὴν ἐξου- 
μην» &% i i 


power and strength unto the beast. 
σίαν ἑαυτῶν τῷ ϑηρίῳ διδόασιν. 


ᾧ 393. ‘ And the ten horns which thou sawest,’ &c.—These ten horns 
we have before supposed to be figures of the ten commandments—the deca- 
logue—the ten collectively representing the whole power of the law; 
kings or chiefs being political powers, as horns are animal or physical 
powers. The terms horns and kings are convertible ; neither of them to be 
taken in a literal sense, and both alike are terms of vision. 

These ten kings or powers are said to have received no kingdom as yet ; 
or, as the Greek word οὔπω might be rendered, have not received, or have 
never received a kingdom ;* which seems more consistent with what is said 
immediately afterwards of their being overcome by the Lamb, implying 
that if they have not hitherto received a kingdom, neither are they hereafter 
to receive it. They receive power as kings or chiefs, however, one hour 
with the beast; that is, their power is contemporaneous with that of the 


beast. 
The word translated hour, in its original sense, expresses time, year, 


* Οὔπω, nondum, nunquam, (Suiceri Lex.,) not yet, never, (Donnegan.) 


418 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


season, (Donnegan.) We cannot suppose the sense to be restricted here 
literally to one hour ; but it appears very reasonable to consider that, as the 
ten horns of an animal would possess their physical power during the life of 
the animal, so these ten kings, represented by such horns, must possess their 
power, whatever it be, during the reign of the beast, for the same time or 
period—certainly not subsequently to his destruction. So, according to our 
views of the element represented by the beast, wherever self reigns, there 
the power of the law must be felt in full operation. So long as man is 
dependent upon his own works, so long he must be subject to the power of 
the law, and obnoxious to its penalties. ‘Thus the ten kings and the beast 
possess power for one and the same period. 

Corresponding with this construction, it is added, “ these (the ten kings) 
have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.” 
They act in concert with the beast ; the tendency of their action is the same ; 
they have, as it were, the same end in view ; their action thus in unison in 
effect is the same in subjecting the disciple to a state of bondage, placing him 
in the position of a slave, furnishing only mercenary and selfish motives of 
conduct, and prompting him in his efforts to fulfil the law for himself, to seek 
his own glory instead of seeking the glory of God. 

The ten kings give their power and strength unto the beast, and indeed 
the beast depends upon them for his power and strength. They are, as we 
have remarked in treating of the ten horns, (ὃ 294,) his weapons—the instru- 
ments of power by which he enforces his authority, and maintains his domin- 
ion. “ The law is good, if a man use it lawfully ;’—here its use is supposed 
to be perverted. ‘These ten horns, as we shall see hereafter, are designed 
to fulfil the will of God, (Rev. xvii. 17;) but while on the beast, and while 
acting in concert with him, and while he sustains the harlot, they are ful- 
filling the will of the beast, and not that of God; that is, for the period 
allotted for this joint action. During this period they represent the law 
unlawfully used ; its power and strength being given to a service for which 
it was not designed, except in a qualified sense. 

As the power to work out a righteousness of one’s own depends upon 
the continuance of the legal economy, so the power of self depends upon 
the power of the law ; as, if the law be fulfilled by Christ, there is no room 
for the pretensions of self ; in which case his reign ceases. , 


V. 14. These shall make war with the Οὗτοι μετὰ τοῦ ἀρνίου πολεμή, σουσι, καὶ 
Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them: τὸ ἀρν lov νικήσει αὐτούς, ὅτι κύριος κυρίων 
for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings; 
and they that are with him (are) called, 
and chosen, and faithful. 


ἐστὶ καὶ βασιλεὺς βασιλέων, καὶ οἱ μετ 
2 ~ 
αὐτοῦ κλητοὶ καὶ ἐκλεκτοὶ καὶ πιστοί. 


§ 394. ‘These shall make war,’ &c.—We are here to ask, With what 


THE VISION OF THE HARLOT. 419 


is it that the Lamb has to contend? What is it that the Lamb overcomes ἢ 
The allusion is indisputably to Christ in his propitiatory character, as “ The - 
Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,” (John i. 29.) The 
war or contest must be between the pcwer of propitiation on the one side, 
and the power or requisitions of the law on the other. ‘The ten horns, or 
ten kings, represent the exactions of the law, which, so far as the sinner is 
concerned, are requisitions of vindictive justice, calling for the condemnation 
and punishment of the offender. The law, in the first instance, exacts 
perfect obedience ; this exaction not having been complied with, the legal 
call is for vengeance upon every soul of man that doeth evil. Here the 
mercy of God is exhibited, not in changing the nature of the law, or in 
relaxing the claims of divine justice, but in providing an adequate satisfac- 
tion for these claims—fulfilling the commandments of the law by substitu- 
tion ; a vicarious fulfilment equal to an atonement for the past, and a provi- 
sion for the future. The propitiatory and justificatory elements of the plan 
of redemption being all represented in the person of the Lamb of God, as 
the opposite legal elements are represented in the persons of the ten kings, 
or in the combined power of the ten horns of the beast. 

Here then we have, in the exhibition of a contest on earth, a figure paral- 
lel with that before represented as a war in heaven—Michael and his angels 
fighting against the accuser and his angels, (ὃ 279.) The field of battle, in 
which these ten kings ventured to meet the Lamb, is the wilderness; an 
earthly field ; an exhibition of transactions on the earth, while the other was 
a representation of something going on in heaven, equivalent to a delineation 
of the operations of the divine mind, in that process in which mercy and 
truth meet together, and righteousness (justice) and peace are reconciled. 
The contesg on earth represents the gradual development of the same issue 
between the same conflicting elements, and the same final result. ‘These 
are not two wars, but two representations of the same war ; the question at 

_issue being not merely whether man shall be saved or lost, but also whether, if 

saved, the glory shall redound to God, the deliverer, or to the redeemed sinner, 
the helpless object of divine mercy. Christ and his forces (the principle of 
divine propitiation and the elements of evangelical truth) contend for the 
glory of GOD, and the exaltation of his name alone; the principles of 
legality warring on behalf of self, as the horns of the beast aim only at 
promoting the glory and exalting the name of man. 

‘The Lamb shall overcome them,’ &c.—As Michael, the representative 
of the gracious power of divine Sovereignty, overcame. the dragon, (the rep- 
resentative of the condemning power of legal accusation,) so the element of 
propitiation, the offspring of that divine Sovereignty, overcomes the con- 
demning power of those legal elements upon the action of which the beast 


420 SEVENTH SEAL.—_SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


(self,) depends for his claim to sovereignty, and for the blasphemous promo- 
tion of his glory. 

The Lamb overcame these ten kings when He who knew no sin became, 
as the apostle says, (2 Cor. ili. 9,) sin for us, that we might become the 
righteousness of God in him. - As Jesus himself said to his disciples, (John 
xvi. 33,) “In the world (in your position by nature under the law and 
dependent upon your own merits) ye shall have tribulation; but be of 
good cheer, I have overcome the world.” ‘To which we may add, as an 
explanation, the language of Paul, Rom. vi. 14, “ Ye are no longer under 
the law, but under grace.” So when the same apostle, labourmg under a 
deep sense of humiliation, apparently occasioned by some besetting sin, 
earnestly prayed for deliverance, the answer he received was not a removal 
of this thorn in the flesh, but the assurance of a counteracting remedy : “‘ My 
grace is sufficient for thee: my strength is made perfect m weakness,” (2 
Cor. xi. 9;) the greatness of the power of Christ to save being mani- 
fested by the weakness of the sinner, in whose behalf that power is exercised, 
as sovereign grace alone is sufficient to counteract the liability to condem- 
nation to which the transgressor is subjected. “The law entered that the 
offence might abound, (that sin might be manifested to be exceeding sinful ;) 
but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin hath 
reigned unto death, so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal 
life, by Jesus Christ our Lord,” (Rom. v. 20, 21.) Such is the nature of 
the contest between the Lamb and the ten kings, and such the manner in 
which they are overcome. 

ᾧ 395. ‘For he is Lord of lords and King of kings.’—He, the Lamb, 
(God, once manifest in the flesh,) is supreme ; as in fact nothing but sove- 
reign supremacy can control and overcome the requisitions @f sovereign 
justice. Christ overcomes even the power of the divine law, because it is 
God himself who performs the wondrous work, (2 Cor. v. 19.) 

‘He is King of kings,’ &c., or Chief of chiefs—not merely supreme 
over temporal dignitaries or political chiefs, but over all principles or 
elements, whether in a spiritual or temporal sense. ‘The righteousness of 
Christ is sufficient to fulfil the law in behalf of man, because it is the 
righteousness of God himself ; wherefore it is said, he shall be called Jeho- 
vah our righteousness. ‘The vicarious arrangement above contemplated is 
effectual, because it is the arrangement of the Sovereign Ruler, who virtually 
takes upon himself the penal consequences of the redeemed sinner’s guilt, 
that He may impart to that sinner the merit of his own righteousness ;_ the 
revelation of the mystery being adapted to the comprehension of the feeble 
intellect of man by the work of Christ on earth—the work of him who 
was the express image of the Father, and the brightness of his glory. 


3s 


THE VISION OF THE HARLOT. 421 


To assert the supremacy of the Lamb (God manifest in the flesh) over 
the kings of the earth, in the ordinary sense, would appear the proposition of 
a mere truism. We cannot suppose this to be the design of a mystic revela- 
tion like that under consideration ; but when we apply this supremacy of 
Christ to legal and even to moral principles, as we have done, then indeed 
we perceive something like the development of a mystery—a_ hidden 
mystery. 

A case in point may illustrate the nature of the supremacy we have in 
view. ‘The law required the strict observance of the Sabbath ; so strict as 
not even to allow the gathering of manna on that day ; so strict as to call 
for the death of him who was found gathering sticks on that day : yet Jesus 
allowed his disciples to pluck the ears of wheat on the Sabbath, and to pre- 
pare the grain for eating, by rubbing it in their hands. The disciples were 
accused of doing that which was not lawful. ‘This point was not contro- 
verted by Jesus. He took higher ground: ‘“The Son of man,” said he, “is 
Lord (master) of the Sabbath,” Luke vi. 1-5. Godinstituted the Sabbath, 
and God alone can be said to be Lord or master of it. Jesus, therefore, as 
God manifest in the flesh, here asserted his prerogative. As he made the 
law originally, so he was master of it, to modify or even to dispense with it. 
In like manner, he is Chief of chiefs and Master of masters of the elements 
of law, as well as of all the elements of nature ; and it is for this reason that 
his propitiatory satisfaction of the law is adequate to the requisition. 

* And they that are with him (are) called, and chosen, and faithful.,—The 
verb are is supplied in our common version, and the Latin version of G. and 
L. supplies the pronoun gui, (who.) We might perhaps with equal propriety 
supply both, and read the clause, For he is Lord of lords, and King of kings, 
and those with him, who are called both chosen and faithful—alluding to 
the true sayings of God, Rev. xix. 9, and xxii. 6; and to the true and 
faithful words (οἱ λόγοι πιστοὶ καὶ ἀληϑινοὶ) spoken of Rev. xxi. 5. The 
terms translated called and chosen, occur nowhere else in the Apocalypse. 
We suppose all these epithets to apply to elements of the plan of salvation by 
grace—elements of Gospel truth—probably the same as the one hundred and 
forty-four thousand sealed ones seen with the Lamb on the Mount Zion, and — 


supposed to accompany him throughout the circumstances here narrated ; the 
element of propitiation (the Lamb,) together with all the other elements of the 
divine plan of salvation, maintaining a predominance over the legal prinei- 
ples represented by these ten kings. Christ has laboured, and his ransomed 
followers enter into his labours. His disciples are the beneficiaries for whom 
the battle has been fought; they have not been sharers in the contest, nor 
can they claim any part of the glory or sovereignty resulting from the victory, 
except it be by imputation. All the elements of divine goodness, led on by 


4292 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


the chief element, (a divine atonement,) have been engaged in manifesting 
the work of man’s redemption—man himself is but the sinner saved. 


eV: 15. And he saith unto me, The wa- Kot λέγει μοι" τὰ ὕδατα ἃ εἶδες, οὗ ἡ 
ters which thou sawest, where the whore πόρνη κάϑηται, λαοὶ καὶ ὄχλοι εἰσὶ καὶ 
sitteth, are peoples. and multitudes, and 


2» \ ~ 
: edvy καὶ γλῶσσαι. 
nations, and tongues. 1 καὶ γλῶσσ 


ᾧ 396. ‘ And he saith unto me,’ &c.—In making the explanatory rela- 
tion occupying the last five verses, the angel appears as if led away from his 
original design of showing the mystery of the woman, and he now goes back 
to resume the thread of his narration where he left it, in the ninth verse. The 
harlot was then spoken of as sitting upon seven mountains, and now the 
reader or the apostle is reminded that this site is identic with that of the 
many waters upon which she was said to sit at the commencement of the 
chapter. 

We have already spoken of these waters as symbolic of professed means 
of atonement peculiar to the earthly system; these professed means, when 
classed under seven heads, appearing as seven foundations, (mountains,) 
upon which a mixed system of salvation may be supposed to rest, and the 
same means figuratively spoken of as waters of the earth, in allusion to the 
rivers of the ancient empire of Babylon, being equally symbolized by peoples, 
multitudes, &c., as pseudo powers of salvation belonging to the earthly sys- 
tem; these last appellations (peoples, nations, &c.) being as much terms of 
vision and as figurative as the waters, horns, mountains, or kings. ‘The sitting 
of the harlot upon these peoples, nations, &c., may represent the support 
furnished to the mixed system by these false foundations, and the reciprocal 
influence of this mixed system upon the earthly principles sustaining it— 
an influence already alluded to as producing the insanity by which all par- 
ticipants of the cup of Babylon are characterized. These nations, however, 
as well as the kings just noticed, are to be overcome by him who is Lord of 
lords, who is to rule them as with a rod of iron. So, likewise, the time also 
is to come when the mountain of the Lord’s house is to be established on 
the tops of the mountains, when these seven foundations upon which the 
woman sitteth will appear in their proper subordinate light, or, like the old 
earth, will have passed away. 

This variety of illustration we do not suppose to be unnecessary or 
merely ornamental: no doubt each of the figures afford illustrations peculiar 
io themselves, none of them being so redundant as to be spared without 
prejudice to the completeness of the revelation. 


Vs. 16, 17. And the ten horns which Καὶ τὰ δέκα κέρατα, ἃ εἶδες, χαὶ τὸ ϑη- 
thou suwest upon the beast, these shall φίον, οὗτοι μισήσουσι τὴν πόρνην, καὶ ἠρη- 


THE VISION OF THE HARLOT. 


hate the whore, and shall make her deso- 

late and naked, and shall eat her flesh, 

and burn her with fire. For God hath 

put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and 

to agree, and give their kingdom unto the 

beast until the words of God shall be ful- 
ed 


423 


μωμένην ποιήσουσιν αὐτὴν καὶ γυμνήν, καὶ 
τὰς σάρκας αὐτῆς φάγονται, καὶ αὐτὴν κα- 
τακαύσουσιν ἐν πυρί. Ὃ γὰρ ϑεὸς ἔδωκεν 
εἰς τὰς καρδίας αὐτῶν, ποιῆσαι τὴν 7νώμην 
αὐτοῦ, καὶ ποιῆσαι γνώμην μίαν, καὶ δοῦναν 
τὴν βασιλείαν αὑτῶν τῷ ϑηρίῳ, ἄχρι τελεσ- 


ϑήσονται oi λόγοι τοῦ ϑεοῦ. 


ᾧ 397. ‘ And the ten horns,’ &c.—These horns or powers are those 
just now declared to be ten kings, but the figure is again changed or brought 
back to its original character, to adapt it to the particular illustration about 
to be made. Not only so, with the license of vision these horns are repre- 
sented as themselves carnivorous animals, and also as animals or persons 
capable of the passion of hatred, as well as of exercising a certain degree of 
reason and intelligence. 

‘These shall hate,’ &c.—The verb is the same as that employed in 
speaking of the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, (Rev. ii. 6.) We suppose the 
hatred to be of a like character in both cases: the first indeed is spoken of 
as the hatred of God, and the last as that of the ten horns; but then the 
reason assigned for this hatred of the horns is, that God has put it into their 
hearts to do his will. The horns hate because God hath caused them to 
hate. We have supposed the Nicolaitan system to be a mixture of pretended 
faith in Christ, and of real dependence upon one’s own righteousness ; and the 
system of the harlot to be the same species of mixture. The ten horns 
represent the law: the law is as much opposed to a mixed system as the ele- 
ment of sovereign grace is opposed to it. The tendency of the law (unlaw- 
fully used) is to establish the dominion of self; the law recognizes no middle 
course: whoever fulfils the Jaw, must do it altogether for himself. If a man 
fulfil the law entirely for himself, the glory is entirely his, and he is inde- 
pendent of God. Thus, the requisitions of the law, if limited in their action 
to man’s fulfilment, act on the side of self. Self, in pursuit of vainglory, in 
its efforts to maintain the independence of man, may give birth to a mixed 
system, originate and sustain such a system, but the law in the nature of the 
case is opposed to every modified plan of this kind ;—every one of its 
requisitions must be obeyed, and this exactly. The law hates the harlot 
system, because, on the principle of law, there can be no division of glory. 
God hates the harlot system, or the Nicolaitan system, because, on the prin- 
ciple of grace, He will not divide his glory with another. Thus the prin- 
ciples of the law and the gospel are equally opposed to a plan of salvation 
of the character of an amalgamation. 

‘And shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and 
burn her with fire. —Here are four several illustrations of the action of these 


horns, all of them resulting as we apprehend in the one action of the law 
36 


424 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


upon the mixed system, showing its entire worthlessness and inefficacy in 
furnishing a means of salvation. 

The scriptural figure ef a desolate woman, is that of something entirely 
barren and unfruitful ; not merely an unmarried woman, but one without 
children ;—children, as already noticed, being figures of merits or means of 
justification ; as, in patriarchal times, the whole family of the head of a tribe 
constituted his political power, his means of defence, upon which he relied 
in any contest with a neighbouring chieftam. Children, too, as handing 
down the name of their progenitors to posterity, were depended upon for 
maintaining the-glory of the house. The action of the law upon the harlot 
or mixed system, proves it to be incapable of furnishing any merit or right- 
eousness, or means of salvation or of glory: thus brought to the test of the 
law, it is proved to be desolate. 

Corresponding with this action, the same test shows this system to 
be incapable of furnishing a garment of salvation or a robe of righteous- 
ness. The harlot never did appear arrayed in the fine linen which is the 
righteousness of the saints ; she pretended to consider, we may suppose, her 
trappings of purple and scarlet to be far better than a clothing of linen, pure 
and white. The mixed system professes to furnish a vesture of propitiation 
of man’s own working out; as if the sinner had trodden the wine-press 
for himself; but being tried by the requisitions of the law, it is manifested 
to be incapable of furnishing any garment of salvation equal to affording a 
shelter from the wrath to come: the harlot is made naked, or manifested 


to be so. 
In the same manner we have supposed flesh to represent the moral per- 


fection or righteousness constituting the means of eternal life. The flesh of 
the harlot must represent the pretended moral perfection proposed to be 
acquired by that mixed system. ‘The exactions of the law applied to this 
perfection eats it up, as a voracious animal devours flesh without being 
satisfied by it, and as all the offerings for sin under the law were eaten up 
or otherwise entirely consumed ; while the one offering of the body of Jesus, 
after having satisfied all the requirements of infinite justice, remained itself 
entire : not a bone of it was broken ; nor did his flesh see corruption ;—his 
offering alone being more than sufficient to meet the requisition. 

§ 398. ‘ And burn her with fire.’—This last figure comprehends appa- 
rently the action of the other three. The revealed word, as we have 
repeatedly assumed, is the fire by which every doctrine or doctrinal ele- 
ment is to be tried. The law, brought to bear upon the system of. the 
harlot, destroys all its pretensions ; but this process of bringing the law to 
act upon the doctrinal system in question, is effected through the operation 
of the revealed word—the last bearing testimony to the first. The requisi- 


THE VISION OF THE HARLOT. 425 


tions of the law (the ten horns) thus act through the instrumentality of the 
word of revelation—the word of God, understood in its proper spiritual 
sense ; and which the ‘Lord himself compares to a fire, (Jer. xxiii. 29.) 

This description of the fate of the harlot corresponds very nearly 
with that given by the apostle James of the fate of the rich—those esteem- 
ing themselves rich, in a spiritual sense :— Go to, (ye) rich men, weep 
and howl for your miseries that shall come upon (you :) your riches are 
corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten ; your gold and your silver are 
cankered ; and the rust of them shall be witness against you, and shall eat 
your flesh as it were fire.” There is something also in the character and 
tendency of the mixed system very closely resembling the characteristics of 
the angel of the Laodicean church ; as it is said of that angel, “1 know thy 
works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would that thou wert cold or hot. 
So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew. 
thee out of my mouth, because thou sayest, I am rich and increased in 
goods, and have need of nothing ; and knowest not that thou art wretched, 
and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” 

There is a difference in the reading of the Greek editions in the first 
part of this verse. According to some, as in our common English version, 
the ten horns only of the beast hate and make war upon the harlot; accord- 
ing to others, as in the Greek from which we copy, the ten horns and the 
beast unite in this hatred and hostile action. We are inclined to think our 
common version most correct in this particular, although were it otherwise 
the difference would not affect our construction. In the nature of the case, 
self (the beast) as well as the law must be hostile to the mixed system, be- 
cause self claims the whole glory of the work of salvation ; representing man 
to be equal with God, in being the efficient cause of his own eternal life and 
happiness. It might be still a question whether God could be said to put it 
into the-heart of self, as well as into that of the ten horns or elements of the 
law, “ to do his will.’ We think it might be so spoken, as in the case of 
Pharoah, whose heart God is said to have hardened ; that is, God put it 
into the heart bf Pharoah to refuse to let the children of Israel go, in order 
that by so doing the miraculous power exercised in their behalf might be 
exhibited, and the whole typical action of their history carried out for the 
subsequent illustration of gospel truth. So far we esteem the difference of 
editions immaterial. In either case, the powers to which the harlot trusted, 
by which the scheme of adulteration is sustained, (whether powers of the 
ten horns alone, or their powers with that of the beast,) become event- 
ually the instruments of her destruction. The confused system of amal- 
gamation is first destroyed; after which, the question of compromise being 
at an end, the beast (self) throws off all disguise—that wicked is revealed 


426 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


or unveiled—self claims the whole of the glory of man’s salvation, and pre- 
pares for the final trial,—the battle of Armageddon. 

‘For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil bis will, and to agree, and 
give,’ &c.—Here the ten horns only must be spoken of; for it could be 
hardly necessary to state that the beast agreed with the ten horns in the 
giving of their kingdom to him, unless there were some reciprocity in this 
agreement, of which there is no intimation. 

As it was just now said of these ten horns, or kings—for the figure of 
royalty is resumed in this verse—that they had received no kingdom, and, 
subsequently, that they were overcome by the Lamb, we must take them 
to represent so many chiefs, assuming no independent sway, but acting in 
concert, ahd conferring their aggregate power upon some other object, and 
this as by divine appointment for a limited period. As it was said of Herod 
and Pilate, with the Gentiles (the Romans) and people of Israel, that they 
conspired together “to do whatever the hand and counsel of God deter- 
mined before to be done,” (Acts iv. 27, 28;) Gentiles and Jews, in the 
persons of their chiefs, being made the instruments of manifesting the pro- 
pitiatory purpose of God, although not doing the will of God from the heart ; 
so, in the present case, the principles of the law, together with the element 
of self, are made to co-operate in manifesting the folly and inutility of a 
mixed plan or economy of redemption. As the ten kings act in concert in 
giving their power to the beast, so we may say of the requisitions of the law, 
their tendency is to make those sovereign who fulfil them. Thus, lawfully 
used, they establish the sovereignty of Christ, by whom alone they have or 
can be really fulfilled, in the strict sense of the term. Unlawfully used, 
they tend to establish the sovereignty of self upon the pretension of a like 
fulfilment. To the promotion of this latter object their power is applied for 
a certain period. 4 

«Until the words of God shall be fulfilled ;? or, until the purposes (of 
λόγοι) of God are accomplished, finished, or brought to an end; or until all 
that is written in the revealed word of God is accomplished ;—the progress 
of error being the means by which truth is eventually manifested. The 
moment when the harlot, or mixed system of propitiation, gives way to the 
beast; when the principles of Jaw are so universally misapplied or unlaw- 
fully used as to exhibit se/f in his most blasphemous position, the true char- 
acter of his pretensions to entire sovereignty being revealed, (the man of sin 
“as God sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God ;” 
the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place ;) then the time of 
the end may be said to have approached—the time when the revelation of 
the purposes of God shall be brought to an end, as the verb τελεσϑήσονται 
implies ;—the destruction of the kingdom of the beast very speedily follow- 
ing that of the harlct system. 


THE VISION OF THE HARLOT. 427 


V. 18. And the woman which thou χζαὶ ἢ γυνή, ἣν εἶδες, ἔστιν ἡ πόλις ἢ μεγά- 


sawest is that great city, which reigneth ee ' Nga , 
: ἢ ἢ ἔχουσα βασιλείαν ἐπὶ τῶν βασιλέων 
over the kings of the earth. τῆς ἮΝ β β 
ἧς. 


§ 399. ‘And the woman which thou sawest,’ &c.—If any doubt re- 
mained as to the identity of this harlot with the apocalyptic city Babylon, 
that doubt must now be removed. She is here expressly declared to be 
that great city ; and having been seen bearing upon her forehead the name 
ef Babylon, it must be evident that the great city and Babylon are identic ; 
confirming the interpretation we have heretofore adopted of these several 
figures. Accordingly, if the great city Babylon has its opposite in the holy 
city, (the new Jerusalem,) the opposite of the woman just now described is 
the bride, the Lamb’s wife. These particulars may be important to us 
hereafter in ascertaining the true character of the object symbolized by the 
Bride, &c. ‘ 

This last verse serves as a hinge by which the subject of this chapter is 
connected with that of the subsequent chapter; or rather it is a sign of 
equality, showing the correspondence of the narrative just related with that 
which is immediately to follow ; the division into chapters, as we are to bear 
in mind, being no part of the original composition. 

‘Which reigneth over the kings of the earth.’—-That is, reigneth over 
these kings by the influence of her cup of abominations: the influence of 
the mixed element of propitiation peculiar to the harlct system upon the 
leading elements of self-righteous systems generally. ‘These kings we sup- 
pose to be the seven kings, or all the kings or leading principles of the imperial 
system of the beast. As the Roman empire was sometimes politically term- 
ed the whole earth ; and as the empire of Babylon was hyperbolically said 
by the prophet to extend to the end of the earth ; so the empire of the beast 
(self) may be said to be coextensive with the apocalyptic earth, and these 
seven kings or chiefs, the heads of the beast, to be pre-eminently the kings 
of the earth ; or, the number seven being equivalent to a totality, these 
seven kings of the earth may be put for all leading earthly principles. 

We do not suppose the ten kings (horns) to be included in the number 
of these kings of the earth, both because they are said to have no kingdom, 
and because, instead of being reigned over by the harlot, they are described 
as hating and destroying her: not only rendering her desolate, and naked, 
and eating her flesh, but also burning or consuming her with fire ; further 
particulars being given of this destruction by fire in the next chapter, 
although the powers instrumentally causing the conflagration are not again 
adverted to. The burning of the harlot, however, Rev. xvii. 16, and the 
burning of the city, Rev. xviii. 8, are both expressed by the same Greek 
verb, xeraxaio, the preposition κατά giving intensity to the action of the 


428 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


verb. The woman and the city are both burned up, or entirely consumed ; 
one judgment is not a continuation of the other, but both descriptions apply 
to the same destruction. 


RETROSPECT. 


ᾧ 400. The account of the judgment of Babylon is not yet completed, 
although, so far as it is represented by that of the harlot, it may be said to 
terminate with the declaration at the close of this chapter, that the woman 
is the great city. While we look forward, therefore, to learn the fate of this 
city, we must carry with us a recollection of what we have learned of its 
character from the description afforded under the duplex figure of this illus- 
tration. 

This great city then is Babylon,—the opposite of the Holy City. As 
its name imports, its composition is a mixture of heterogeneous elements 
representing a false economy of salvation, the opposite of that symbolized by 
This city has its many waters ; cor- 
responding with the language of the prophet,* (Jer. 11. 13,) “Ὁ thou, that 


the “ Jerusalem which is from above.” 


dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, (and) 
the measure of thy covetousness.”’ These waters are its sources of depend- 
ence ; as the resources of an empire depend upon its rivers or upon the 
multitudes subject to its control ; and as the dependence of a mixed system 
of salvation must be upon a variety of imaginary means of propitiation or 
atonement. The follower of the harlot exclaims, almost in the language of the 
Syrian, (2 Kings v. 12,) Are not the many waters of Babylon better than the 
pure river of the water of life? may I not wash in them and be clean? But 
means of propitiation are not only the foundations of a system of salvation, 
they are also the professed element of eternal happiness. The harlot has 
her cup of abominations, a mixture of the wine of divine atonement with 
the strong drink of human means of propitiation. The character of this 
mixture is to deceive; making mad those that drink of it, and depriving 
them of the inclination, and even of the ability of participating in the true 
eup of salvation. 

The waters of Babylon, or the nations of that empire, represent the 
means of salvation erroneously supposed to be within the power of man to 


* We can hardly compare?chs. xvii. and xviii. of the Apocalypse with chs. |. and 
li. of Jeremiah, without being struck with the resemblance of their descriptions, and 
even the sameness of some of their expressions. The temporal calamities of Baby- 
ion were, no doubt, a primary fulfilment of the predictions of the prophet; but there 
must be an ulterior fulfilment of them we think, and this is apparently the same as 
that represented by the destruction of the apocalyptic Babylon. 


RETROSPECT. 429 


provide for himself; as her treasures, spoken of by the prophet, may repre- 
sent her pretended resourceS for the ransom of the soul. Self, accordingly, 
in this respect is the real object of dependence ; and in correspondence 
with this error, Babylon is seen sitting on the beast. 

The various grounds upon which man claims to be the author of his 
own salvation, may be classed under seven different heads, as already sug- 
gested ; but they are all the heads of the same blasphemous element, (self-) 
Accordingly, whether the harlot be represented as sitting upon these seven 
heads, (mountains,) or upon the beast himself, the figure is nearly equiva- 
lent. Whether these seven grounds of human pretension be symbolized by 
mountains or kings, the difference is principally in the allusion to them, as 
fundamental or as leading principles. In either case the mixed system is 
so intimately connected with these seven pretensions as to be immediately 
dependent upon them, influenced by them, or identified with them. 

The deluded’ disciple, in defending his adulterated views of salvation, 
finds it necessary to appeal especially to the continued action of the law. 
He professes to believe in the atonement and mediation of the Son of God ; 
but Jesus himself, he says, has declared that he came not to destroy the 
law, but to fulfil it; and that one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from 
the law, till all be fulfilled, (Matt. v. 17, 18.) Consequently, it is argued, 
the power of the law is as great as it ever was; for the law has not yet been 
fulfilled by man, and therefore has not passed away. If man be saved, then, 
it must be partly through what Christ has done for him, and partly through 
what he may do for himself. Thus the mixed system depends for its sup- 
port upon the pretensions of self, armed with the powers of the law ; the 
harlot in the wilderness sitting on the beast with seven heads and ten horns. 

While, however, the follower of the harlot employs the law to advocate 
the claims of his mixed system, the law itself, when brought to act in its 
proper sense upon that system, necessarily destroys it; showing, that as 
Christ came to fulfil the law, unless he did fulfil it there can be no hope 
of its fulfilment from any source. 

The system of the harlot is a system of covetousness, of mercenary 
and selfish motives; the law requires purity of motive as well as obe- 
dience of conduct, and tried by this test, the pretended fulfilment of the 
law, upon which the mixed system depends for its efficacy, is consumed as 
it were by fire. 

The picture of delusion presented in this chapter we suppose to apply 
in the first instance to the principles or elements of a doctrinal system ; but 
there is something analogous to it passing in the mind of every disciple: some- 
thing of which the experienced Christian must be more and more convinced, 
as he examines his own heart. Every one, however deeply convinced of sin, 
of righteousness, and judgment, may find within himself a proneness to lean 


430 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


upon some means of atonement of his own providing ; some portion of his 
conduct, or some exercise of his religious feelings, to which he trusts as a 
means of propitiating the justice of an offended God, He has his eup of 
salvation, his wine of atonement; but it is a mixture. The atonement of 
Christ may form a part of it ; but his own repentance, his own reformation, 
his vows, his new resolutions, his inward mortifications, and outward merito- 
rious performances, (as he esteems them,) all enter into the composition of 
his cup; God is in effect deprived of the glory of his own work of sal< 
vation, : 


DESOLATION OF BABYLON, 


431 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


THE DESOLATION OF BABYLON.—THE CONFLAGRATION. 
—THE ANATHEMA. 


Vs. 1, 2,3. And after these things I 
saw another angel come down from hea- 
ven, having great power; and the earth 
was lightened with his glory. And he 
cried mightily with a strong voice, say- 
ing, Babylon the great is fa'len, is fallen, 
and is become the habitation of devils, 
and the hold of every foul spirit, and a 
cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 
For all nations have drunk of the wine of 
the wrath of her fornication, and the kings 
of the earth have committed fornication 
with her, and the merchants of the earth 
are waxed rich through the abundance of 


Καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα εἶδον ἄλλον ἄγγελον 
καταβαίνοντὰ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, ἔχοντα ἐξου- 
σίαν μεγάλην: καὶ ἡ γῆ ἐφωτίσϑη ἐκ τῆς 
δόξης αὐτοῦ. Καὶ ἔχραξεν ἐν ἰσχυρᾷ φωνῇ 
λέγων: ἔπεσεν, ἔπεσε Βαβυλὼν ἡ μεγάλη, 
καὶ ἐγένετο κατοικητήριον δαιμόνων καὶ 
φυλακὴ παντὸς πνεύματος ἀκαϑάρτου καὶ 
φυλακὴ παντὸς ὀρνέου ἀκαϑύρτου καὶ με- 
μισημένου: ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ οἴνου τοῦ ϑυμοῦ 
τῆς πορνεΐας αὐτῆς πέπωκε πάντα τὰ ἔϑνη, 
χαὶ ot βασιλεῖς τῆς γῆς MET αὐτῆς» ἐπόρ- 
γευσαν, καὶ OL ἔμποροι τῆς γῆς ἐχ τῆς δυ- 


her delicacies. γάμεως τοῦ στρήνους αὐτῆς ἐπλούτησαν. 


ᾧ 401. “ And after these things,’ &c.—After having seen in the wilder- 
ness Babylon in the midst of her glory, under the figure of an adulterous 
woman, after having been made acquainted with the mystery of her power, 
and after having heard the prediction of her final destruction as by fire, the 
apostle is furnished with further particulars of the desolations of this great 
city, and of the final destruction awaiting her by fire, corresponding with the 
prediction in the sixteenth verse of the preceding chapter. ‘The scenery 
is now changed: the apostle is restored to the position he occupied as a 
spectator at the pouring out of the seventh vial, when the great city was 
divided into three parts, and Babylon came in remembrance before God. 
The figure of a woman is dropped; and consequently the correspond- 
ing figures of the manner in which this woman was to be destroyed, are 
also dropped, except that of the action of fire, the only one of the four 
figures before employed applicable to the nature of the subject, (a city,) 
now about to be described. 

In order the better to preserve the connection, we may set aside the 
episode of the seventeenth chapter, and read as from the end of the sixteenth, 
‘ After these things ;’ that is, after the earthquake, after the division of the 
eity, and after the fall of the great hail out of heaven, “I saw,’ &c. 


432 SEVENTH SEAL,—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


‘ Another angel come down,’ &c.; or, coming down out of heaven.— 
Another revelation—another important development of truth ; a revelation 
of such importance as to throw an extraordinary light upon the whole mys- 
tery or scheme spoken of as the earth. The effect of this light, we sup- 
pose to be such as virtually to perform what the angel is said to proclaim ; 
that is, when Babylon is seen to be fallen, or to be in the state of destitu- 
tion and desolation described by the angel, the earth is lightened with the 
glory resulting from this great development of truth. 

‘ And he cried mightily,’ &c.—This expression we suppose to be equiv- 
alent to that of the great power and glory of the angel ; indicating some- 
thing in the revelations made of a peculiarly mighty and overpowering 
character, beyond all other revelations, and still more beyond all imagina- 
tions of man ; as it is the characteristic of a very strong voice to overcome 
all other sounds or voices. Indeed the appearance of this angel corresponds 
in some degree with that predicted of the coming of the Son of man—as the 
lightning that shineth from one end of heaven unto the other, and the sound 
as of the trump of God overcoming all other sounds. So we may say, when 
Christ is fully revealed or unveiled, the eftect of this revelation must be vir- 
tually to.exhibit the fallen state of the mixed or harlot system. 

‘ Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become,’ &c.—The angel 
following the messenger of the everlasting gospel, had before proclaimed 
this fall of Babylon, (Rev. xiv. 8.) but this was a declaration in the midst 
of heaven ; it is now represented as something taking place on earth. 

As the great city was said to be “ divided into three parts,’ and as the 
action of the ten horns upon the harlot is described as producing three dif- 
ferent results previous to her final destruction by fire, so the fall of Babylon 
is here characterized by three different features of desolation ; depicting, 
apparently, the condition of the city prior to its utter destruction by fire: 
although this threefold figure of desolation may be an equivalent of that of 
the conflagration afterwards described, the two illustrations representing in 
effect the same entire destruction. 

ᾧ 402. ‘The habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and 
the cage of every unclean and hateful bird..—The place of dwelling of 
demons, and the place of custody of all unclean spirits, and of all unclean 
and hateful birds. ‘The figure does not imply that these unclean spirits and 
hateful birds choose Babylon as a dwelling-place: their own inclination 
would Jead them to fly abroad, to contaminate other spirits and other places; 
but they are now confined to Babylon, as this great city is on the other hand 
restricted to furnishing a dwelling for them. 

As affecting a doctrinal system or view of a plan of redemption, we 
presume the change in Babylon to be, not in her nature or real character, 
but in her appearance. The truth being developed, this great city, once 


DESOLATION OF BABYLON. | 433 


apparently so magnificent, is now seen to be what she really is, a mere 
menagerie of unclean and ferocious beasts ; or the habitation of maniacs. 
The mixed system, like the whited sepulchre, appears beautiful outwardly, 
but within it is full of all uncleanness, (Matt. xxiii. 27.) The ornamented 
tomb being opened, and the sculptured marble laid aside, the interior exhi- 
bits but a mass of putrefaction. This interior was the same before the 
opening of the tomb as afterwards; it is only the appearance that is 
changed. 

‘ The habitation of demons,’ (Satdrar)—something different from devils 
or accusers ; these latter being more peculiarly elements of a legal system. 
The demon of the Hebrews was an unclean spirit ; but we do not suppose 
that to be the sense here, because the term unclean spirits is mentioned 
immediately in connection with these demons as something additional. 
Among the Greeks, demons were a species of divinities, good and bad, 
occupying, in the estimation of the heathen, the place of gods. In this 
respect, these demons may represent the blasphemous elements of the mixed 
system ; principles of doctrine tending to represent men as the authors of 
their own eternal well-being. Principles, tending to create in the mind of man 
an image of his own righteousness, ($ 311,) may be considered of this de- 
moniacal character; as a disciple, misled by a false doctrine, may be figura- 
tively spoken of as possessed of a demon. If, however, we choose to give to 
these demons the character of devils, it would be easy to show that the mixed 
system, when duly exposed, must necessarily appear a habitation of accusa- 
tory as well as of blasphemous elements. Such a construction would also cor- 
respond with the language of the prophet, (Jer. li. 37:) “ And Babylon 
shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, and a 
hissing, without an inhabitant,’’—the dragon, or the hissing spirit of the pro- 
phecy, being equivalent to the demon or accusing spirit of the Apocalypse ; 
and the prophetic expression, without an inhabitant, showing the entire 
destitution of shelter peculiar to the system alluded to: its whole tendency 
being that of accusation and condemnation ; the demon of the Apocalypse, 
like the dumb spirit mentioned Mark ix. 22, bringing its subject into con- 
tinual danger, as from fire or flood. 

§ 403. ‘And the hold (prison, place of confinement) of every unclean 
spirit..—Unclean, as the opposite of clean, is Levitically something not set 
apart or sanctified, as opposed to that which is set apart. The motive ofa 
man’s conduct may be said to be the spirit by which he is actuated ; so an 
impure motive may be denominated an unclean or unsanctified spirit. The 
only pure motive of conduct, and the only motive set apart to the worship 
of God, is the love of God—the motive of gratitude. Opposite to this is 
every motive involving selfish or mercenary considerations. The desire of 
promoting one’s own interest and glory, even one’s own eternal interest and 


434 SEVENTH SEAL—SEVENTH TRUMPET —SEVENTH VIAL. 
"éternal glory, is but a motive or spirit of covetousness ; all such motives, 
when the truth is manifested, will be proved to be found in the system 
represented by Babylon, as in a place of custody. 

‘ And the cage’ (also place of confinement, the Greek term being the 
same in both cases,) ‘of every unclean and hateful bird.’—The appellation 
ὄρνεον (a carnivorous bird) is here employed as distinguished from ὄρνις, 
a domestic bird, (Rob. Lex. 515.) Birds of prey, the eagle, the vulture, 
the kite,.&c., were-held: in. abomination under: the: Levitical law. Those 
also which obtained their sustenance partly from the land and partly from 
the water, were an abomination ; as was likewise every flying, creeping 
thing, of a certain mixed character, (Lev. xi. 13-25.) The term hateful 
reminds us of the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, (Rev. ii. 6 and 15;) and 
the twofold nature of these abominable birds, Suggests the conclusion that 
the unclean and odious elements here alluded to, are principles of a mixed 
character, such as we have before had occasion to notice as being hateful for 
their hypocrisy as well as for their tendency to lukewarmness :—elements 
of doctrine professedly advocating a dependence upon the redeeming work 
of Christ, but really inculcating the dependence of man upon his own works ; 
professing to seek the glory of God, but combining this motive with the 
desire of glorifying self ;—in effect going about to rob God of the glory 
belonging to him as the only Saviour, and this under the garb of a professed 
geal for his honour and service. Motives or principles of this kind are 
unclean as well as hateful, because cleanness or purity is the opposite of 
mixture. No motive of conduct is set apart or holy in the sight of God, 
except that of love to him ; this love must be pure, unmixed, unadulterated 
by amalgamation with other motives. 

The system represented by Babylon affords no such pure motive, 
Whatever its pretensions may be, when submitted to the test, its professed 
element of love to God will be manifested to be the opposite of a pure and 
grateful attachment. As it offers no shelter to the disciple from the wrath to 
come; so likewise, in the nature of things, a pure motive can no more 
abide in it, than a human being can dwell with serpents and dragons. The 

-~system, when seen in its true light, must appear capable only of containing 
elements of a selfish, mercenary, or mixed character. Corresponding with 
this, appears to be the allusion in the prediction concerning Babylon, Jere- 
miah li. 62: ‘ Then shalt thou say, O Lorn, thou hast spoken against this 
place, to cut it off, that none shal] remain in it, neither man nor beast, but 
that it shall be desolate forever.”’ : 

§ 404. ‘For (because) all nations have drunk,’ &c.—The word ren- 
dered wrath in this passage, is the same as that translated fierceness, Rev. 
xvi. 19. For the reason before assigned, ($ 332,) we prefer the term 
vehemence, as giving intensity to the expression, and according with the 


~)% 


DESOLATION OF BABYLON. 435 


antithesis implied, when contrasting the vehemence of unlawful gratification 
with the vehemence of divine anger. 

The extraordinary annunciation of this angel is composed of two parts : 
the first exhibiting the miserable condition of Babylon, the last assigning the 
eause of this visitation. ‘The wine of Babylon we have already defined 
(Ὁ 335) as a supposed means of propitiation ; a mixture of man’s preten- 
sions of atonement, with a professed faith in the atonement of Christ. This 
mixture of the adulterated economy contaminates every doctrinal system, and 
every element of doctrine coming in contact with it. The only remedy for the 
evil is the utter destruction of that which causes it. Babylon once destroyed, 
her cup of abominations is destroyed with her; the mixed system itself 
being overthrown, and its fallacies exhibited ; and among these fallacies, the | 
most prominent (its pretended means of propitiation) being «manifested in 
their true charaeter, its deleterious influence ceases. The abomination, and 
hatefulness, and impurity of this false economy are exposed, especially 
because of the influence of its prominent element (a pretended atonement) 
upon doctrinal views and principles of doctrine generally, 

Such we suppose to be the purport of the reason here assigned for the 
desolation of the great city. ‘The terms nations and kings have been suffi- 
ciently noticed on other occasions, as figures of powers and leading princi- 
ples of the earthly scheme of salvation. Whether we contemplate these 
nations and kings as those of the earth generally, or as those of the empire 
of Babylon, hyperbolically spoken of as the earth, does not appear to be 
material. The important subject of consideration presented by the passage — 
is, that a mixed scheme of salvation, with its adulterated views of propitiation, 
such as are represented in this and in the preceding chapters, constitutes an 
insurmountable obstacle to the promulgation and right understanding of the 
truth of salvation by grace; that this obstacle must be entirely removed 
by a just exposition of their character and tendency of these views, before 
the truth itself can have free course ; and perhaps we may add, before the 
main error of self-dependence can be directly attacked and overcome. 

‘ And the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through abundance of 


’ or, have become rich through the greatness of her luxury : 


her delicacies ; 
6 virtute lurus ejus divites facti sunt, (G. & L.)—The merchants are not 
supposed to be sharers in the delicacies, but the great luxury of the city, by 
its effect upon commerce, has been the means of enriching the merchants. 
These traders have thus a direct interest in sustaining the luxury, and in 
promoting the prosperity of this great emporium ; we may therefore con- 
sider them as constituent elements of the system, placing in a promi- 
nent point of view the mercenary character of the scheme itself. The mer- 
ehants in contemplation are figures of mere calculating elements ; guided 


by no considerations but those of profit and loss. They find a pecu- 


436 SEVENTH SEAL._SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


niary advantage in pandering for the vices, and in fostering the voluptuous- 
ness of this dissolute city. This is their motive of action. They may not 
have participated in drinking of the cup of Babylon, but they have assisted in 
furnishing the wine and the drugs of abomination with which it is prepared. 
They may not wear her costly array, but they have grown rich by furnish- 
ing its various materials. Perhaps they would have taken an equal interest 
in the glory of the New Jerusalem, if they could have equally enriched 
themselves by dealing in her fine linen, pure and clean. But as the holy 
city represents an economy of grace, all its enjoyments being matters of free 
gift, there is no room for trade or commerce in it. There, accordingly, 
such elements of calculation find no place; the economy of grace is neither 
sustained by, nor can it furnish a harbour to, mercenary principles of 
conduct. 

These traders, however, are not spoken of here as otherwise punished 
than by the loss of their vocation. Babylon once destroyed, her commerce 
is at an end, and the merchants disappear, (Is. xlvil. 15,) which is all that 
the illustration requires. ‘The mixed system being destroyed, there is no 
further room for the action of mercenary motives ; accordingly, one of the 
reasons for the destruction of Babylon is, that she sustained and gave a 
lucrative employment to merchants. ‘This, as a matter of political economy, 
we should say was rather a favourable feature in her character, and it is 
only as an illustration of a matter of doctrine that we can put a different 
construction upon it. The adulterated economy is destroyed, because it sus- 
tains and gives action to mercenary and selfish motives, and because these 
motives can be banished or expelled from the mind only by the entire de- 
stru-tion of the views of doctrine to which they are peculiar. 

§ 405. This is the first direct intimation we have had in the Apocalypse 
of the commercial character of this great city, or of the peculiarly mercenary 
nature of the system represented by it; but we are to recollect that it is 
not tll the fall of Babylon that her true character is developed ; a peculi- 
arity equally to be predicated of the fallacious system symbolized by her. 
Jeremiah speaks of the covetousness of Babylon ; but he makes no allusion 
to her commerce in his last prediction concerning her, from which we have 
made several quotations. ‘The same mystic feature, however, is apparently 
alluded to by different prophets under similar figures: as Is. xxiii. 8 and 
11, “ Who hath taken counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose 
merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth.” 
“The Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant-city, to destroy 
the strongholds thereof.” So also in the prophecy of the fall of Babylon, 
by the same prophet, Is. xlvii. 15, ‘‘ Thus shall they be unto thee with 
whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall 
wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.” So in the pro- 


THE WARNING CALL. 437 


phecy concerning Nineveh, Nahum iii. 16: it was her reproach that she 
had multiplied her merchants above the stars of heaven. There seems like- 
wise to be a typical peculiarity in the fact, that in the rebuilding of Jeru- 
salem after the restoration, the merchauts and sellers of ware were not 
allowed even to lodge about the wall of the city during the Sabbath, (Neh. 
xiii, 20, 21.) As if to point out to us the doctrinal peculiarity of the economy 
of grace, that when its truths are delivered from the bondage of the law, 
and are fully exhibited, it will be manifest that no mercenary motives can 
be harboured in that portion of its arrangements which affords its position 
of rest. So every mercenary principle or selfish notive is wholly incon- 
sistent with a perfect confidence in the work of Christ,—an entire reliance 
upon the merit of his righteousness. 

Οἱ the other hand, no allusion is made throughout this book of Revela- 
tion to the military or naval prowess of Babylon. Great as she is, her 
greatness consists in her riches, (the corruptible riches of self-righteousness.) 
Her merchants were the great men of the earth, (Rev. xviii. 25,) and so 
we may suppose her great men (rulers) were her merchants. Correspond- 
ing with this, the chief elements of the mixed system are its mercenary 
principles. ‘These obtain great credence in the earthly construction of 
revelation ; as we find, in fact, mercenary motives and calculations of self- 
interest in the matter of religion to be most appreciated with mankind, and 
even to be esteemed the chief elements of the divine plan of government. 
A fallacy, the general currency of which corresponds with the deceptive 
characteristic scripturally imputed to the occupation of trading ; as it was 
said of Ephraim, “ He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his 
hand,” Hosea xii. 7. 


Vs. 4, 5. AndTI heard another voice Καὶ ἤχουσα ἄλλην φωνὴν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ 
from heaven, saying, Come out of her, 
my people, that ye be not partakers of her 
sins, and that ye receive notof her playues. ©) PU e it | ceaape ab PG p 
For her sins have reached unto heaven, οἴη *@4 && ΤΩΡ πλι γῶν EES) Os A λα- 
and God hath remembered her iniquities. βητε" ore ἐχολλι ϑησαν αὐτῖς αἱ ὑμυρτίαι 

ἔχοι τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ ἐμνημόνευσεν ὁ ϑεὸς 
Ι Tie ἀδικήματα αἱ τῆς. 


υ rere ΡῈ oe « ΄ 
λέγοισαν": ἐξέλήετε ἐξ αὐτῆς, o hues μου, 
« ‘ , ~ ' > 
Wu μὴ συγκοιγων OTE Tule ἐμωρτίαις αὖ- 


ᾧ 406. ‘And I heard another voice,’ &c.—The first voice was that of 
the angel having great power, by whose glory the whole earth was lighted— 
declarative of a fact—something equivalent to a manifestation of Christ 
himself, (§401.) The second voice is that of warning, as of the voice of 
prophecy. The desolate state of Babylon is already exhibited : her final 
destruction is at hand; the people addressed are supposed, like the family 
of Lot, to be still lingering amidst their ancient connections, while the exe- 
cution of judgment is delayed only for their departure ; as the impending 


438 SEVENTH SEAL__SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


deluge was withheld till after the entrance of Noah and his family into 
the ark. 

‘Come out of her, my people,’ &c.—This favoured class probably bear 
the same relation to Babylon that the one hundred and forty-four thousand 
sealed ones bear to the earth ; different figures representing the same truth. 
The system symbolized by Babylon is a confused mixture, but in this mix- 
ture there are some elements of true doctrine. So long as these remain con- 
nected with principles of error, their whole character is changed, perverted ; 
and in that state their destruction must be as necessarily called for as that of 
the errors themselves: brought out, they are like the grain separated from 
the chaff, or like the wheat separated from the tares. 

‘That ye be not partakers of her sins.’—As the Babylon in contem- 
plation is not literally a.city, so neither are the people called out from her 
literally human. beings, nor are the sins of Babylon alluded to literally acts 
of immorality, although they may be figuratively spoken of as such, The 
primitive signification of the term translated sins (ἁμαρτία) is a missing or 
mistaking of the object aimed at; as the adjective ἁμαρτίνοος is applicable 
to the state of error peculiar to the mind of an insane person, (Donnegan.) 
the secondary meaning is that of a fault, or sin. We must judge of the 
meaning by the occasion upon which the word is used: if it be applied to 
the conduct of a rational being, the signification may be that of sim in the 
ordinary seuse of the term; but if applied to the character and tendency of 
a doctrinal system, it may signify error in matters of faith. The truths 
of the economy of grace are accordingly to be discriminated and separated 
from the errors of the mixed system, with which they have besome com- 
mingled, and this in order to prevent them from sharing in the common 
destruction. 

The figure immediately in contemplation may be that of the Jews, while 
in a state of captivity in Babylon. The time of their deliverance is now at 
hand, their confinement hitherto having arisen out of circumstances not here 
alluded to ; the admonition very closely resembling that of the prophet, (Jer. 
li. 6,) “Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul : 
be not cut off in her iniquity ; for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance ; 
he will render unto her a recompense.” We might suppose, by way of 
illustration, the people of God to have been permitted to remain in captivity 
with the view of converting their captors, by bringing them to the know- 
ledge and worship of the true God. The insane proneness of the Babylonians 
to idolatry, however, is so great, that, instead of being thus changed, it is to 
be apprehended that they will change or pervert the views of the captives 
under their influence. The season of forbearance is now therefore at an 
end: Babylon must be destroyed, and her captives must be released. 

‘That ye receive not,’ &c.—The principal plague or blow prospectively 


THE WARNING CALL. 439 


in contemplation is that of fire, as appears from the remainder of the chapter, 
(the action of the revealed word upon every element of error.) But we may 
suppose this second voice to have been uttered contemporaneously with the 
previous visitations. The call to the truths of the gospel to come out of 
the mixed system, is as much to prevent them from being perverted by 
association with foul and hateful principles, as to prevent their entire 
destruction. 

The admonition corresponds with that of the apostle Paul, (2 Cor. vi. 
17,) “ Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the 
Lord, and touch not the unclean (thing) ;’—this unclean thing, in the 
language of the apostle, being the same element of selfishness and mercenary 
consideration as that for which the mixed system of Babylon is peculiar ; 
the rudiments of the world, spoken of Col. ii. 20, being apparently of a 
similar character. 

ᾧ 407. ‘For her sins have reached unto the heavens.’—Some Greek 
editions employ here the verb ἀχολουϑέω, which our common version has 
rendered in this place by the English verb reach, although elsewhere in the 
Apocalypse it is translated follow. The Greek edition we have adopted in 
this work, however, employs the word ἐχολλήϑησαν, from the verb κολλάω, 
signifying the fastening upon, or cleaving, or joining of one thing to another; 
as Luke xv. 15, ἐχολλήϑη ἑνὶ τῶν πολιτῶν, x.7.2., He joined himself to a 
citizen of that country. So, Acts ix. 26, Paul assayed to join himself to the 
disciples after his conversion, but they were afraid of him; and Acts x. 28, 
Peter says to Cornelius, Ye know that it is an unlawful thing for a Jew to 
keep company; and 1 Cor. vi. 16, 17, the term is employed to express 
even that intimacy of union which is a figure of identity—He that is joined 
to the Lord is one spirit. 

The errors of Babylon have fastened upon or joined themselves to the 
very heaven—to the revelation of truth itself, agglutinata sunt ejus peccata 
ad celum, (G. & L.) As we might say, the errors of this mixed system have 
arrived at such an excess of perversion, that they have identified themselves 
even with the whole language of the Scriptures, affecting the entire con- 
struction of the sacred volume ; the spiritual heaven or heavens being a 
display of the scheme of divine government in spiritual things, as the phy- 
sical heavens afford an exhibition of divine power and wisdom in physical 
things, (δ 115.) The presumption of the errors of this system (Babylon) 
corresponds with that of its sustaining principle (self) the beast ; the blasphe- 
mous character of both being expressed in the language of Lucifer, (Is. xiv. 
3,) quoted on a former occasion ; as it is also symbolized by the presumptu- 
ous attempt of the ancient inhabitants of the land of Shinar to perpetuate 
their own name and glory, by building a city and a tower whose top should 
reach unto heaven. 


37 


440 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


‘And God hath remembered her iniquities :᾿ or, God hath called to 
mind her acts of injustice.—We have to make the same remark with respect 
to this term iniquities (ἀδικήματα) as we have made with regard to that of 
sins. ‘The meaning depends upon the manner and the occasion upon 
which it is used. If applied to the conduct of a human being, it is to be 
understood literally, as of injuries or offences ; if applied to a system, it must 
be taken for something the opposite of justice or of justification, (ὁ 174.) 
Apparently these ἀδικήματα of Babylon, are opposites of the δικαιώματα, 
judgments or justifications of ‘the Lord, (Rev. xv. 4, § 352.) The tend- 
ency of the mixed system is to operate against justification through the 
imputed righteousness of Christ. Its principles, therefore, are the opposites 
of justification : or, if we consider the mixed system as offering other means 
of justification, such as a composition of the merits of man with those of his 
Saviour, these means are her acts of injustice. The noun ἀδίχημα occurs 
in two other places only of the New Testament, Acts xviil. 14, and xxiv. 
20, where it is employed in the singular to express any act of injustice cog- 
nizable to human laws. ‘The acts of injustice of the apocalyptic Babylon, 
if exercised towards God, consist in her substitution of false means of salva- 
tion for the true means, thereby robbing him of the glory due to his name. 
If these acts be exercised towards man, they must consist in the same sub- 
stitution of false means for the true, thereby operating against the plan of 
justification by grace, or tending so to do. In either case, these iniquaties 
of Babylon are of the same character as her cup of abominations ; as indeed 


they accord with the view we have 
mixed system. 


Vs. 6,7. Reward her even as she re- 
warded you, and double unto her double 
according to her works: in the cup which 
she hath filled, fill to, her double. How 
much she hath glorified herself, and lived 
deliciously, so much torment and sorrow 
give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit 
a queen, and am no widow, and shall see 
no sorrow. 


presented of all the elements of this 


> , 9 - « > ‘ 3 ΄ 
‘Anodote αὐτῇ, ὡς καὶ αὐτὴ ἀπέδωκε, καὶ 
"A > -~ ~ ‘ ~ 
διπλώσατε αὐτὴ διπλᾶ κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτῆς" 
> ~ ’ it te tail ?. > κα 
ἐν τῷ ποτηρίῳ, ᾧ EXEQUOE, χεράσατε αὑτῇ 
~ εἰ ΓΑ ΤᾺ 1 
διπλοῖν: ὅσα ἐδόξασεν Envtiy καὶ ἐστρη- 
- , > ~ 
γέασε, τοσοῦτον δότε αὐτῇ βασανισμὸν καὶ. 
r a > ~ 5 c ~ ' [4 
πένϑος. ὅτι ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αἱτῆς λέγει" καϑ- 
΄ ? 
μαι βασίλισσα, καὶ χήρα οὐκ εἰμί, καὶ 
2 ᾿ ΄ 
πένϑος ov μὴ ἰδω" 


§ 408. ‘ Reward her even as she rewarded you.’”*—As we have sug- 


gested, on a former occasion, ($ 162,) it would be very extraordinary if 
language like this were to be taken literally, even if addressed to Christian 
martyrs in times of bitterest persecution. Μηδενὶ κακὸν ἀντὶ κακοῦ ἀποδιδόν- 


zec—‘‘ Reward no one evil for evil,’ is the express instruction of the 


* The word translated you is not found in all editions of the Greek: without it 
the reading would be, “Reward her as she has rewarded ;” that is, upon the prin- 
ciple of reward that she has assumed, so recompense her—corresponding with the 
construction wé have adopted. 


SENTENCE OF RETRIBUTION. 441 


gospel, Rom. xii. 17. “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, 
do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you 
and persecute you,” is the exhortation of the Son of God to all his fol- 
lowers, Matt. ν. 44. It is even the language of the law, which requires 
every subject of the law to be perfect, as He is perfect who maketh his sun 
to shine upon the just and upon the unjust. 

There is in the nature of things an unavoidable reaction of truth, when 
manifested upon the elements of falsehood. There is a righteous retribu- 
tion with which all false doctrine must be visited. This retribution is 
visited through the instrumentality of opposite truths. Such reaction and 
such retribution we suppose to be what is alluded to under the figura- 
tive language of this vindictive exhortation. Even this avenging recom- 
pense, however, is the work of God, and not of man; as it is said, Rom. 
xii. 19, “ Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord ;” and, as it is 
said by the prophet, in reference to this same Babylon, ‘“ Shout against her 
round about :” ‘“ her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down; for it 
is the vengeance of the Lorp: take vengeance upon her ; as she hath done, 
do unto her; . . for she hath been proud against the Lord.” . . “ Behold, 
Τ am against thee, Ὁ thou most proud, saith the Lord God of Hosts ; for 
thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee: and the most proud shall 
stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up; and I will kindle a fire in his 
cities, and it shall devour all round about him,” (Jer. li. 14, 15, 31, 32.) 

A prominent feature in the character of the mixed system is its pride ; 
a pride pretending to give the Most High an equivalent of human merit, in 
exchange for the benefit of eternal life; a pride disdaining to be under 
obligations to God as the only Redeemer and Saviour. The fall or humili- 
ation of Babylon is a retributive visitation of this pride—she is rewarded in 
kind. So, as another feature of the system is its mercenary character, the 
judgment corresponds with it. Babylon is repaid or recompensed by the 
standard of her own adoption ; with the same measure that she meted to 
others, it is measured to her again. As it was said to the unprofitable sery- 
ant, “Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee.” She has adopted the 
rule of Jaw—that rule of law is now applied to her conduct ; she depended 
upon her works—she is visited according to her works. 

‘Double unto her double,’ &c.—We suppose this double recompense 
to be the retribution of a double transgression. The sinner in the sight of 
God has justly deserved eternal punishment for his transgression of the law ; 
if, in addition to this, he goes about to work out a propitiation of his own, 
he deserves an equal punishment for his rejection of the gospel. Babylon 
is guilty of this double transgression; the retribution is therefore to be 
doubled, and this upon her own principles—the standard of her own mer- 
cenary calculations of profit and loss. 


442 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


‘In the cup which she has filled,’ &c.—The cup, as we have seen, is 
a cup of abominations—a mixture or adulteration of pretended human means 
of atonement with those of Christ. The effect of the retribution shows 
such a pretension on the part of the sinner to be a doubling of his guilt. In 
addition to his sin, his pretended atonement is an abomination ; like the mul- 
titude of sacrifices and the vain oblations spoken of by the prophet, (Is. 1. 
10-13.) It is the adding of sin to sin ; the drawing of iniquity with cords 
of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart-rope, (Is. ν. 18.) 

§ 409. ‘How much she hath glorified herself,” &c.—The harlot has 
ostentatiously displayed her gaudy apparel ; Babylon has boasted of her 
pretended riches. "The mixed system has fostered the pride of man in its 
pretensions of human merit. Babylon has lived deliciously, (luxuriously,) 
as those “at ease in Zion; stretching themselves on beds of ivory, and 
reposing upon their couches,” (Amos vi. 1-4.) She has reposed upon her 
own imaginary merits—resting in the security of her own means of propitia- 
tion. Just in proportion to this vainglory and misplaced confidence, the 
madness and folly of this mixed system will be exhibited ; as it is said, 
Prov. i. 32, according to the margin, ‘‘ The ease of the simple shall slay 
them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.” 

‘So much torment and sorrow give her.’-—So much is she to be sub- 
jected to trial as on the rack, as if to extort the truth by confession, (ᾧ 210.) 
The greater the pretensions of the false system, so much more severely it is 
to be tried, that its fallacies may be exposed, and its real destitution of all 
means of comfort, or consolation, or rest, exhibited. 

‘For (because) she saith in her heart,’ &c.—The pride of Babylon is 
a pride of the heart ; and not only this, “ she has been proud against the 
Lord.” Like the man of sin, she exalts herself in opposition to Jehovah. 

‘J sit a queen.’—Not that Babylon professes to share the throne with a 
royal partner ; on the contrary, she sits a queen, as a substitute for a king— 
and as an opposite, even a competitor of the King of kings. She saith in 
heart, no doubt, If ] am not a king I am equal toa king—I am a sovereign, 

“7 am no widow ;’—or, as the Greek χήρα, feminine of χῆρος; may be 
rendered, (Donnegan;) Tam not bereft, 1am not desolate. Babylon does 
not pretend to be a legitimate wife ; still less, the wife of the Lamb. She 
assumes to be independent—she is not mm a state of bereavement—not 
because she has a husband, but because she professes neither to depend 
upon, nor to desire a husband. ‘The mixed plan of salvation is something 
which virtually professes to make man his own redeemer. The language 
of inspiration, “ Thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of hosts is his name,” 
(Is. liv. 5,) has nothing in common with the system of Babylon. 

ς 7 shall see no sorrow.’—As Babylon is sensible of no bereavement in 
the loss of a husband, so she flatters herself with suffering no sorrow as from 


SENTENCE OF RETRIBUTION. 4438 


the Joss of children, She prides herself upon her independence, and sup- 
poses herself lifted up above the causes of sorrow incident to created beings. 
Her language is that of self-confidence, self-sufficiency, and self-righteous- 
ness, corresponding with the tone imputed to her, (Is. xlvii. 7-9 ;) the con 
sequence of this presumption, as then predicted, being exemplified in the 
picture of destruction now presented in the Apocalypse: “ And thou saidst 
i shall be a lady forever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy 
heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it. Therefore, hear now 
this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in 
thy heart, J am,* and none else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, nei- 
ther shall Ε know the loss of children: but these two things shall come to 
thee in a moment, in one day, the loss of children and widowhood ; they 
shall come upon thee in their perfection, for the multitude of thy sorceries, 
and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.”’ 


_ V.8. Therefore shall her plagues come διὰ τοῦτο ἐν μιᾷ ἡμέρᾳ ἥξουσιν at πλη- 
Kise pawl Mbecchalitholuserip-bama σι τος Berar am sixes aa gg 
with fire : for strong (is) the Lord God 7” Fe τω pity μεν ν a ee 
who judgeth her. κύριος ὁ ϑεὸς ὁ κρίνας αὑτη». 

§ 410. ‘ Therefore shail her plagues come in one day ;’—or, all at once, 
as it is expressed by the prophet in the passage just quoted, in a moment, 
in one day ; corresponding in this respect with the change spoken of by 
Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 52, “ In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” 

‘ Death, and mourning, and famine.—From the order of this enume- 
ration, as compared with that of the preceding verse, we may consider death 
to be put here as an opposite of sttfing a queen ; mourning as the opposite 
of being no widow ; and famine as an opposite of seeing no sorrow. Even as 
a figure .we cannot take death, in a natural sense, as applying to Babylon 
herself, for then it could not be followed by the other woes or plagues ; but 
if we contemplate Babylon as a sovereign, the death may be that of her 
subjects, or if as acity, it may be that of its inhabitants. A sovereign 
deprived of his subjects, is divested of his power and glory ; and a city 
without its inhabitants, is equally divested of its resources. As we suppose 
the phrase Iam no widow to express a boast of exemption from bereave- 
ment generally, whether of husband or of children; so we suppose the 
opposite mourning to apply to the sense of destitution in both these particu- 
lars: mourning the loss of all—the two things mentioned by the prophet, 
the loss of children and widowhood. And as the expression, I shall see 
no sorrow,”’ is equivalent to the vain assertion, | shall suffer no want, so the 
opposite of this is famine, or a destitution, even of the necessaries of life ; 

* This expression is not merely one of egotism; it is something equivalent to a 
blasphemous assumptivn of divine sovereignty. 


444 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


corresponding with the call of the Lord’s vengeance, Jer. 1. 15, 16: “ As 
she hath done, do unto her. Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that 
handleth the sickle in the time of harvest.” 

In a more spiritual sense, we consider death a manifest state of con- 
demnation under the law ; not a death in Christ, but a death out of Christ. 
Mourning, as of the loss of children, or of a state of widowhood, we take to 
be a figure of entire want of merit or righteousness, a manifest destitu- 
tion of those merits which may be spoken of as the offspring of a union 
with Christ. So the famine must represent a like manifestation of 
the absence of every element capable of securing salvation or eternal 
life. 

These three figures correspond in their spiritual meaning with the deso- 
lation, and nakedness, and consumption of the flesh of the harlot, described 
in the preceding chapter; the effect of famine and the loss of flesh in 
these illustrations both indicating 2 manifestation of unworthiness, else- 
where denominated a leanness of the soul. ‘This manifestation visits 
as a judgment the proud boasting of self-dependence; as it was said 
of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, Is. x. 15, 16: “Shall the axe 
boast itself against him that heweth therewith? . . . . as if the red should 
shake itself against them that lift it up .. . therefore shall the Lord of 
hosts send among his fat ones leanness ; and under his glory he shall kindle 
a burning like the burning of fire.” 

‘ And she shall be utterly burned with fire.’—This visitation corresponds 
with the final action of the ten horns upon the harlot, as it was predicted of 
them that they should ‘“ burn her with fire.” We conclude, from this comcei- 
dence, that the epoch at which we have arrived in this chapter is identic 
with that of the description in the last chapter; the difference being only 
in the figure. In the one case, the destruction of Babylon is pictured as 
that of a human being, and in the other as that of acity. Im the first 
mstance, as if to spare the reader or spectator the dreadful particulars of 
the burning alive of an individual, the figure is changed, and the particulars 
of the burning of a magnificent city are given in the place of it. Both figures 
alike apply to the destruction of ἃ mixed doctrinal system, by the agency 
of the revealed word of God; which, as we have repeatedly noticed, is 
scripturally compared to a fire. 

‘For strong is the Lord God who judgeth her; or, mighty is the Lord. 
The term in the Greek, ἰσχυρός, is the same as that immediately afterwards 
applied to Babylon—“ that mighty city,” (in human estimation.) If Baby- 
lon be accounted mighty by men, God is really mighty : as it is said, 1 Cor. 
1, 25, ‘Even the weakness of God is stronger [more mighty] than man. 
For this reason, besides the other blows inflicted upon her, she is utterly 
consumed or burned up. 


THE CONFLAGRATION. 445 


Strictly speaking, it is for God to judge, and to condemn, and to exe- 
cute his own sentence of condemnation ; but the Greek verb (κρίνω) employed 
here, is applicable more especially to the act of discrimination ; and, as far 
as the fate of a system of doctrines is concerned, the act of discrimination 
is the execution of a judgment. No sooner is that which is false discrimi 
nated from that which is true, than the first is utterly destroyed; the 
destruction of error consisting in its detection and exhibition. If according 
to a man’s system of faith, his real motive of conduct be to serve himself 
instead of serving God, as he pretends it to be, no sooner is the just discrimi- 
nation made between that which constitutes such service and that which is 
of an opposite character, than the theory or system itself, whence the error 
emanates, is destroyed. ‘The discerning between him that serveth God and 
him that serveth him not, is accordingly detailed by the prophet as a con- 
sequence of the coming of the day which is to burn as an oven, which 
“shall burn up those that do wickedly as stubble, leaving them neither root 
nor branch,’ (Mal. iii. 18, and iv. 1.) 


THE CONFLAGRATION. 


Vs. 9, 10. And the kings of the earth, Καὶ χλαύσονται τκαὶ κόψονται ἐπὶ αὐτῇ 


who have committed fornication and lived 
deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and 
lament for her, when they shall see the 


smoke οἱ her burning, standing afar off 


for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, 
alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty 
city! for in one hour is thy judgment 


οἱ βασιλεῖς τῆς γῆς, ot μετ' αὐτῆς πορνεύ- 

σαντες καὶ στρηνιάσαντες, ὅταν βλέπωσι τὸν 

χαπνὸν τῆς πυρώσεως αὐτῆς, ἀπὸ μακρό- 
ἃ ΄ ‘ ‘ , ~ 

Sev ἑστηκότες διὰ tov φόβον τοῦ βασανισ- 

- 2 - ᾿ > 

μοῦ αὐτῆς, λέγοντες " oval, οὐαΐ, ἡ πέλις ἡ 
, ‘ « , i) roo Ἢ 

μεγάλη, Βαβυλὼν ἢ πολις ἡ ἰσχυρὰ, ott μιᾷ 


= ὥρᾳ ἠλϑὲν “ κρίσις σου. 

ᾧ 411. ‘And the kings of the earth,’ &c.—There is a peculiar license 
in this imagery, which in a human composition would be considered alto- 
gether unwarrantable. Babylon is spoken of expressly as a city, while those 
alluded to as having maintained illicit connection with her are mentioned, 
not as other cities, or as the inhabitants of other cities, but as certain sove- 
reigns of various countries of the earth; the whole figure being of such a 
character as entirely to preclude the possibility of a literal construction. We 
can neither suppose Babylon to be literally a city or a kingdom, nor the 
kings literally kings. Such may in effect be the design of this anomaly—to 
create a bar to the application of the illustration to any personal or political 
object. 

These kings of the earth we have before supposed to be leading princi- 
ples of what we term the earthly system ; perhaps the same as the seven 
heads (seven kings) of the beast, (Ὁ 991.) They are leading principles 


A46 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


which have sustained the mixed system—being themselves sustained by the 
element of self. The living deliciously of these kings we suppose to be a 
figure of the false position of rest furnished by the mixed system ; an oppo- 
site of the true position found in Christ. To them the loss of Babylon is 
the loss of this rest. They are no longer able, through the instrumentality 
of amalgamated views of doctrine, to hold forth the promise of a position 
indispensable both to the safety and to the eternal enjoyment of the disciple. 

‘ Bewail her, and lament for her,” (κλαύσονται καὶ xéworrou,)—crying and 
cutting themselves, after the manner of the priests of Baal ;—these chief 
principles perhaps standing, in relation to the mixed system of doctrine, as 
the priests of Baal stood to their idol—sustaining his worship for their own 
private advantage and enjoyment. 

‘When they see the smoke of her burning ; 
of her being destroyed is exhibited. 

‘Standing afar off for the fear of her torment ;’ 
torture—for fear of undergoing the same trial (as by fire) to which she is 
exposed—an intimation that, if brought to the same test, their fate must be 
It does not appear that they are involved in precisely the same 
destruction ; but, notwithstanding this, we find their judgment lingered not, 
(2 Peter ii. 13.) They escape the fire, but they afterwards fall by the 
edge of the sword, as we learn from the conclusion of the next chapter. 

‘For in one hour,’ &c.—The lamentation is not merely over the fall 
of Babylon, but that it should take place so suddenly—a peculiarity we 
find noticed alike by all of the three classes of mourners described in the 
chapter. 


> that is, when the evidence 


or rather, for fear of her 


the same. 


Vs. 11-14.. And the merchants of the 
earth shall weep and mourn over her; 
for no man buyeth their merchandise 
any more; the merchandise of gold, and 
silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, 


Kai ot ἔμποροι τῆς vis κλαίουσι καὶ πεν-. 
ϑοῦσιν ἐπ᾽ αὐτῇ, ὅτι τὸν γόμον αὐτῶν οὐ- 
δεὶς ,ἀγοράξει οὐχέτι" γόμον χουσοῦ καὶὲ 
ἀργύρου, καὶ λίϑου τιμίου καὶ μαργαρίτου, 


and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and 
scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all man- 
ner vessels of ivory, and all manner ves- 
eels of most precious wood, and of brass, 
and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and 
odours, and ointments, and frankincense, 
and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and 
wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, 
and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. 
And the fruits that thy soul lusteth afier 
are departed from thee, and all things 
which were dainty and goodly are de- 
parted from thee, and thou shalt find 
them no more at all. 


ᾧ 412. ‘And the merchants,’ 


καὶ βυσσίνου καὶ πορφύρας, καὶ σηρικοῦ 
καὶ κοκκίνου, χαὶ πᾶν ξύλον ϑύϊνον καὶ 
may σχεῦος ἐλεφάντινον, καὶ πᾶν σκεῦος 
ἐχ ξύλου τιμιωτάτου καὶ χαλκοῦ καὶ σιδή- 
ρον “ur μαρμάθου, καὶ κινόμωμον καὶ ἄμω- 
μον, καὶ ϑυμιάματα καὶ μύρον καὶ λίβανον, 
καὶ oivey καὶ ἔλαιον, καὶ σεμίδαλιν καὶ ot- 
τον, καὶ κτηγηὴ καὶ πρόβατα, καὶ ἵππων καὶ 
ῥεδῶν καὶ σωμάτων, καὶ ψυχὰς ἀνθρώπων. 
Koi ἡ ὀπώρα τῆς ἐπιϑυμίας τῆς ψυχῆς σον 
ἀπῆλϑεν ἀπὸ σοῦ, καὶ πάντα τὰ λιπαρὰ 
καὶ τὰ λαμπρὰ ἀπώλετο. ἀπὸ GOL, καὶ οὐ- 
κέτι οὐ μὴ εὑρήσης αὐτά. 


&c.—We have already contemplated 


these merchants as representing principles of the mercenary character, 


THE CONFLAGRATION. 44 


interested in sustaining the mixed economy, because they are themselves 
sustained by it; the earth representing the basis of man’s position by 
nature, dependent for the means of life upon his own labour: these merce- 
nary elements we suppose to be peculiar to this earthly basis. ‘They are 
elements of doctrine belonging to a system of self-dependence, suggesting 
to the disciple no motives of conduct except such as result from a calculation 
of profit or loss—principles wholly inconsistent with a system of grace— 
principles to be as thoroughly expurgated from the disciple’s views of faith, 
as the original inhabitants of Canaan were to have been driven out to give 
place to the favoured people of God. 

The appellation Canaan is said to signify a merchant or trader. The 
Canaanites were to have been driven out of the promised land, but certain 
of them, as we have noticed, were left to try the people. So, in human 
views of God’s plan of redemption, certain mercenary principles appear to 
have been suffered to remain to ¢ry the disciple. But as the Israelites were 
led away by the ancient inhabitants of Canaan to worship idols, so these 
mercenary principles appear to have predominated in the minds of Christians, 
especially in sustaining their views of a mixed plan of redemption. With- 
out such a mixed system these principles cannot be sustained. ‘The mer- 
chants of the earth therefore weep and mourn over the fall of Babylon. 

‘For no one buyeth their merchandise any more.’—The illustration is 
the more happy, as it is a matter of experience in the operations of trade, 
that the seller is dependent upon the buyer rather than the buyer upon the 
seller. If these merchants had resorted to Babylon principally to obtain 
certain articles of luxury to be disposed of in other countries, the loss of her 
would not have been so important; they might have procured the same 
articles elsewhere, or have substituted others for them ; but here the misfor- 
tune is, that tle consumer is destroyed—the chief consumer of the earth, not 
only a city but an empire. and one distinguished for its immense consump- 
tion of luxuries as well as of necessaries of every description. ‘These traders 
are supposed to be furnished with their merchandise ; their immense stocks 
on hand. As citizens, they would willingly forfeit their political and personal 
liberties to obtain a market for their goods. Babylon was to them the god 
of their idolatry ; but now their occupation is gone—no one buyeth their 
merchandise any more. ‘They weep and mourn, not from sympathy for the 
sufferers by this fearful conflagration, but because their own pecuniary 
interests are most deeply affected by it. So we may say of the mercenary 
principles sustaining and sustained by the mixed system in contemplation, 
they are of a character altogether selfish ; a pure motive of gratitude or love 
to God, or of zeal for his glory, forms no part of their composition. 

‘The merchandise of gold,’ &c., &c.— Here follows an enumeration of 
the different kinds of merchandise furnished by these traders, of which Baby~ 


448 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


Jon was the consumer. Every particular, no doubt, might be enlarged upon, 
illustrating by a variety of figures the same general truths: the articles of 
which gold and silver are the materials representing earthly riches—oppo- 
sites of the true riches, and of the gold tried in the fire: precious stones 
and pearls—opposites of the stone, elect, precious, and of the pearl of great 
price ;—the materials of clothing representing opposites of the garments of 
salvation, and of the robe of righteousness ; the fine linen purchased of the 
merchants being something different from the fine linen, pure and white, 
which is the righteousness of the saints. 'The purple and silk and scarlet 
might have been employed in the tabernacle in the wilderness, under the 
legal dispensation, but they are not called for in the heavenly tabernacle. 
Under the legal dispensation, all that man could furnish was required, and 
this all was insufficient. The mixed system retains the requisitions of the 
Jaw—even its temple is a house of merchandise. Accordingly we may 
suppose these vessels of ivory and precious wood, these spices, and odours, 
and incense, to be the materials of temple service—elements of divine wor- 
ship ; opposites of the one sacrifice of propitiation, and the one reasonable 
sacrifice of thank-offering peculiar to the Christian system. So the provi- 
sions of wheat, wine, oil, &c., may be taken as opposites of the bread of 
life, of the new wine of the Saviour’s cup, and of the oil of Azs holiness or 
sanctification. As the beasts and sheep, or rather cattle and sheep, κτήνη 
καὶ πρόβατα, constitute both articles of food and elements of sacrifice, they 
may have their opposites in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, 
and in the spiritual flesh or righteousness of Christ, the true bread of eternal 
life. Horses and chariots are means of safety and protection—figures of 
supposed means of salvation. Slaves and souls of men, or more strictly 
bodies and souls of men, (σωμάτων καὶ ψυχὰς ἀνϑρώπων,)---ἴῃθ body and soul 
of the slave constituting one article of merchandise,—represent elements of 
bondage of every grade. The language here employed being that of inspi- 
ration, we have no doubt that every term here employed has its mate, (Is. 
xxxiv. 16;) but an exact analysis would require more space than can be 
now allotted to it. Besides, we have already had occasion to notice the 
spiritual signification of many of these particulars elsewhere. 

‘ And the fruits that thy soul lusteth after,’ &c.; or, more exactly, And 
the autumn or the autumnal fruits of the desires of thy soul are departed 
from thee; (ἡ ὁπώρα τῆς ἐπϑυμίας τῆς ψυχῆς σου ;) as if at the very moment 
when Babylon was about to obtain the fruit of her desires, it was taken 
from her. 

‘ And all things which were dainty and goodly,’ or, All things sumptuous 
and splendid, (καὶ λιπαρὰ καὶ τὰ λαμπρά,) all gratifications of appetite and 
vanity, are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. A 
commercial emporium only partially destroyed may revive again ; but Baby- 


THE CONFLAGRATION. 


Jon is utterly burned with fire. 


449 


She is never to be resuscitated. The mixed 


system in contemplation, once exposed by a just application of revealed 
truth, can never again obtain credence. 


Vs. 15, 16. The merchants of these 
things, which were made rich by her, 
shall stand affar off} for the fear of her 
torment, weeping and wailing, and say- 
ing, Alas, alas! that great city that was 
clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scar- 
let, and decked with gold, and precious 
stones and pearls! For in one hour so 
great riches is come to nought. 


Οἱ ἔμποροι τούτων, ot πλουτήσαντες ἀπ᾽ 
αὐτῆς, ἀπὸ μαχρύόϑεν στήσονται διὰ τὸν 
φόβον τοῦ βασανισμοῦ αὐτῆς, κλαίοντες 
καὶ πενϑοῦντες, λέγοντες " οὐαί, oval, ἡ 
πόλις ἢ μεγάλη, ἣ περιβεβλημένη βύσσινον 
καὶ πορφυροῦν καὶ κόκκινον καὶ κεχρυσωμένη 
χρυσίῳ καὶ λέϑῳ τιμίῳ καὶ μαργαρίταις, OT 
μιᾷ ὥρᾳ ἠρημώϑη ὃ τοσοῦτος πλοῦτος. 


ᾧ 413. ‘The merchants of these things which were made rich,’ &e.— 
Our remarks upon the eleventh verse of this chapter, have already aatici- 
pated the observations to be made here. Mercenary principles depend for 
their currency, and for their appreciation in the sight of men, upon the legal 
and upon the mixed system. ‘The legal system we suppose to be out of the 
question ; and if it were not, the law strictly put in force, as illustrated by 
the action of the ten horns upon the harlot, (¢397,) would not admit of a 
mercenary or selfish principle in the sight of God; for the law applies to 
the heart and to the motive, as well as to the outward conduct. Mercenary 
principles, therefore, in effect depend altogether upon the mixed system. 
As if the professing Christian, while he éxpressly repudiates the idea of 
receiving eternal life as a compensation for his faithful services, still sup- 
posed the design of the economy of grace to be that of placing him in 
a position in which he may consider the favour of God a reward for his 
good conduct. Eternal life he admits to be the gift of God, and death to 
be the wages of sin ; but he argues, ‘ Eternal life having been given me, I 
am now to receive a reward for the duties 1 perform.’ Under this appre- 
hension, whatever his professions may be of unworthiness and of love to 
his Redeemer, he is actuated by mercenary principles, and these principles 
depend upon his mixed system of faith. His chief discrimination between 
the law and the gospel seems to be, that whereas the first demands a 
purity of motive as well as an exactness of service to escape punishment 
alone, the last is not so rigid in either of these respects ; and not only so, 
under the gospel dispensation, however imperfect his services, and however 
tainted with selfishness his motives, he may now expect a reward pro rata 
for every act of obedience. ‘The apprehension of the advocate of these 
views appears to be, that the motive of gratitude for eternal salvation is not 
sufficient ; and that accordingly the prospect of some specific reward must be 
held out to stimulate the disciple to obedience. 

Mercenary principles depend upon the reputation of the mixed sys« 
tem, as the artificers of Ephesus depended upon the credit of the great 


450 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


goddess Diana. As it was said by Demetrius, “Sirs, ye know that by this 
craft we have our wealth,” (Acts xix. 25.) If the temple of Diana came 
to be despised, the craftsmen lost their employment. In like manner we 
sometimes find subverted views of gospel doctrine sustained, lest the avoca- 
tions of those interested in their support should come to nought. 

‘Alas! alas! that great city that was clothed,’ &c.—The language is 
that of astonishment as well as of regret, that a city so important, whose 
inhabitants were so richly clad, and were in possession of such great wealth, 
should be so suddenly destroyed. The mixed system of faith holds out the 
promise that all dependent upon it are clothed with garments of salvation, 
obtained by their own works, and robes of righteousness of their own fabric, 
or at least of their own ornamenting. An astonishment, like that of these 
merchants, may pervade the breast of the disciple, who has been laboring to 
establish a claim of reward for his own faithful services, as he esteems them, 
when he finds that his garments are moth-eaten, and his gold and his silver 
cankered. Light is thrown in upon his mind, he perceives his folly, but 
be cannot be otherwise than astonished that so plausible a theory of faith 
should be thus suddenly demolished. 


Vs. 17-19. And every ship-master, and Kai πᾶς κυβερνήτης καὶ πᾶς ὃ ἐπὶ τόπον 
all the company in ships, and sailors, and πλέων, καὶ ναῦται καὶ door τὴν ϑάλασσαν 
as many as trade by sea, stood afur off, cavdtovidi, ant’ udapete™ eatiner Omak 
and cried when they saw the smoke of 07 ESA ον aS ra 


2» - U A ‘ ~ , 
her burning, saying, What (city is) like ἔκραξαν βλέποντες τὸν καπνὸν τὴς πύρω- 
unto this great city! And they cast dust σεως αὑτῆς, λέγοντες " τίς ὁμοία τὴ modes 
on their heads, and cried, weeping and τῇ μεγάλῃ; Kat ἔβαλον χοῦν ἐπὶ τὰς κε- 
wailing, eaying, Alas, alas, that great city, φαλὰς αὑτῶν, καὶ ἔχραξαν κλαίοντες χαὶ 
wherein were made rich all that had ships ah NM ge ΠΤ oad aaa 
in the sea by reason of her costliness! for &’V OUTS: ZE/OPTES” OVAL, OULU, 7] MOAI 
in one hour is she made desolate. ἢ μεγάλη, ἐν ἢ STER OVER σαν TUT ES SONS 

τὲς τὰ πλοῖα ἐν τῇ ϑαλασσῃ ἐκ τῆς τιμιοτη- 

τος αὐτῆς, ὅτι μιᾷ ὥρᾳ ἠρημώϑη. 

ᾧ 414. “ And every ship-master,’ &c.; or, And every pilot, and every 
one sailing from place to place, and the sailors, and as many as were 
engaged in maritime commerce, (ὅσοι τὴν ϑάλασσαν ἐργάζονται.) ---ἰ 8. enu- 
meration may be fairly said to cormprehend the whole shipping interest of 

. . ' - 
the earth; the ship-master and supercargo, or travelling merchant, being 
in ancient times part owners of their vessels. 

We may suppose these to represent something of an auxiliary class of 

SEPP } 
mercenary principles. The merchant is interested in Babylon directly by 
the sale or exchange of his commodities ; those connected with shipping are 
interested, because they are the instruments of effecting this exchange, and 
are compensated for it by the merchants. They represent mercenary princi- 
ples, although somewhat of a different grade: the ship-master labours for his 
freight, the supereargo for his commission, the sailor for his wages, the ship- 


mechanic for his pay, and the merchant for his expected profit, The mctive 


THE CONFLAGRATION. 451 


is the same with all, and the interest of all is the same in sustaining the 
prosperity of a country, upon the commerce of which they depend even for 
their means of life. Allusions to similar auxiliary principles of a mercenary 
character appear to be made by the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, in their 
mention of the ships of Tarshish, Tyre, Sidon, and even of Chaldea; as it 
is said, Is. xliii. 14, “Thus saith the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of 
Israel, For your sake 1 have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all 
their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.” The picture of 
the desolation of Tyre, especially in her maritime relations, as given by the 
prophet Ezekiel, bears so strong a resemblance to the account we have of 
Babylon now under consideration, that we cannot but be confirmed in the 
belief thatythe Tyre of one prophet is the Babylon of another, and that 
both have a like reference to the great city of the Apocalypse : Ezek. xxvii 

12-36. ; 

‘And they cried when they saw,’ &c.—Our English version omits the 
particular that these ship-masters, &c., stood afar off, but the Greek includes 
it. They are not, however, said to stand off from fear of her torments, as 
is said of the kings and merchants. Their first sentiment seems to be that 
of surprise, that so great a city should meet such a fate ; their feeling is 
next that of sorrow, disappointment, and regret. “ They cast dust upon 
their heads,”’ &c., as it was said of Tyre: ‘‘ The suburbs shall shake at the 
sound of the cry of the pilots [ship-masters]. And all that handle the oar, 
the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, 
they shall stand upon the land; and shall cause their voice to be heard 
against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast dust upon their heads ; 
they shall wallow themselves in the ashes,” &c. 

‘And they cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas! alas! that great 
city, wherein were made rich all that had ships..—The mourners now call 


to mind their own interest, as navigators, ship-owners, &c., in this scene of 


desolation ; they mourn the loss of that commerce through the instrumen- 
tality of which they themselves became rich. 

There is something strikingly in keeping in the lamentations of these 
three classes of spectators. The kings lament the loss of pleasure, and are 
astonished that so powerful a city should be destroyed so suddenly ; the 
merchants lament the loss of a most important customer for their wares, and 
wonder that so wealthy a city should be ruined in so short a space of time ; 
while the seafaring class, regretting the loss of freights for their ships, are 
equally astonished that a city making others so rich should herself so sud- 
denly come to nought. 

The treble repetition of the remark, that all this desolation of Babylon 
comes upon her in one hour, is to be particularly noticed. The mixed 


_ system, like an opulent city, may have been small in its origin: its accumu- 


452 SEVENTH SEAL._SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


lation of power and advancement in human estimation has been gradual ; 
but its destruction, whenever it takes place, is to be sudden, and speedily 
accomplished : corresponding apparently with all that is said m Scripture of 
the coming of the day of the Lord ; and applicable, in the case of the indi- 
vidual, to the mental change taking place when he discerns the difference of 
his position in Christ and out of Christ, and still more applicable to the 
change taking place in his views on his transition into another state of 
existence. Besides this, we trust it also applies toa general change in the 
views of the Christian community, at a period not far distant, scripturally 
spoken of as a period when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth 
as the waters cover the deep, (Heb. ii. 14; Is. xi. 9.) 


V.20. Rejoice over her, (thou) heaven,  Evggaivou ἐν αὐτῇ, οὐρανέ, καὶ οἱ ἅγιοι 
ie (ve) holy a aie τὴ aia a for yet οἱ ἀπόστολοι καὶ οἵ προφῆται, OTL ἔκρι- 
God hath avenged you on her. vey ὃ ϑεὸς τὸ κρίμα ὑμῶν ἐξ αὐτῆς. 


ᾧ 415. ‘ Rejoice,’ &c.—The apostle, we are to bear in mind, has not 
himself witnessed this conflagration of Babylon, nor has he heard himself 
the lamentations of the kings, merchants, and mariners, but the voice spoken 
of in the fourth verse of the chapter tells him how these things shall be ; 
and the same voice apparently now apostrophizes the holy apostles and 
prophets, calling upon them to rejoice over Babylon, for the vengeance 
executed by God upon her on their account. ‘This voice can be no other 
than that of Jesus himself, as we may infer from the whole purport of the 
fourth and fifth verses. Can we suppose that he who wept over Jerusalem, 
(Luke xix. 41—44,) notwithstanding all her rebellion, would, in any thing 
like a literal sense, call upon his apostles and prophets to rejoice over the 
desolation of a city, the character and fate of which so much resembles that 
over which he mourned ? 

There is a difference here in some of the Greek editions. According 
to those followed by our common version the term holy is applied to apos- 
tles and prophets; according to others, as in the text we have adopted, it 
forms a distinct class—holy ones, or saints. This difference is not material 
according to our mode of interpretation :. as we consider saints, apostles, and 
prophets, figurative appellations of elements of a scheme or exhibition of a 
scheme of divine government spoken of as the heaven ; apostles, prophets, and 
saints, bearing the same relation to the figurative heaven as the inhabiters of 
the earth bear to the earth or to the world. The rejoicing called for, is not 
that of a class or classes of human beings over the downfall of a city, but itis 
the rejoicing of certain classes of truths over the downfall of a system of 
error: these holy apostles and prophets, with their company of saints, constitu- 
ting the band of sealed ones—elements of scriptural revelation—elsewhere 
represented as the one hundred and forty-four thousand ;—heaven, as we have 


THE ANATHEMA, 453 


supposed, being the display of the wonders of divine administration in spirit- 
ual things, corresponding with the display of natural wonders afforded by the 
physicalheaven. As the prophets and apostles were literally the instruments 
of revealing these spiritual wonders, so they are appropriately employed as 
figures of the elements of that revelation ;—as if it were said, laying aside 
the figure, ‘Let the scriptural revelation of the divine economy of salvation 
and government, with all its elements, both of the Old and New Testaments, 
now rejoice over, or concerning, the detection and destruction of this mis- 
chievous mixed system of doctrinal errors, this perversion of gospel truths.’ 

‘For God hath avenged you on her ;? quoniam judicavit Deus judicium 
vestrum de illa—since God has judged your judgment concerning her. 
Literally, the prophets and apostles are vindicated by a manifestation of the 
coincidence of divine judgment, in all that they have proclaimed or uttered 
against the false doctrines in contemplation. Spiritually, the elements of 
the Old and New Testament revelation are vindicated or avenged, by a like 
manifestation of the correctness of the testimony borne both by the law 
and the gospel to the fallacy of this great refuge of lies, 

There is joy in heaven, and amongst the angels of heaven, over one 
sinner that repenteth. Even Nineveh was spared, because, besides human 
beings, the city contained much cattle ; and Paul had continual sorrow for 


his brethren according to the flesh, who were in error, and even in absolute > 


unbelief. Here saints, prophets, and apostles, are called upon to rejoice over 
the distress and destruction of the whole population of an immense city ; 
the conflagration of Babylon, involving, as may be presumed, the loss of 
life on the part of most of her inhabitants, as is implied in the call to the 
objects of divine mercy to come out of her. | 

It is evident that the passage will admit of no other construction than 
that which We have given to it—the overthrow of some immense system of 
false doctrine, ruinous to the souls of men, and hostile to the glory of God 
The destruction of such a system may well furnish occasion for rejoicing to 
all interested in the promulgation of truth, and in the eternal welfare of their 
fellow-beings. 


Vs. 21-23. And a mighty angel took 
up a stone like a great millstone, and 
cast (it) into the sea, saying, Thus with 
violence shall that great city Babylon be 
thrown down, and shall be found no more 
at all. And the voice of harpers, and 
musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, 
shal! be heard no more at all in thee; and 
no craftsman, of whatsoever craft (he be,) 
shall be found any more in thee; and the 
sound of a millstone shall be heard no 
more at all in thee; and the light of a 
candle shall shine no more at all in thee; 


Kat ἦρεν εἷς «ἄγγελος ἰσχυρὸς λίϑον ὡς 
μύλον μέγαν, καὶ ἔβαλεν εἰς τὴν ϑάλασσαν, 
λέγων: οὕτως ὁρμήματι βληϑήσεται Βαβυ- 
how ἡ μεγάλη πόλις, καὶ οὐ μὴ εὑρεϑὴ ἔτι. 
Καὶ φωνὴ κιϑαρῳδῶν καὶ μουσικῶν καὶ 
αὐλητῶν καὶ σαλπιστῶν οὐ μὴ ἀκουσϑῇ ἐν 
σοὺ ἔτι, καὶ πᾶς τεχνίτης πάσης τέχνης οὐ 
μὴ εὑρεϑῇ ἐν σοὶ ἔτι, καὶ φωνὴ μύλου οὐ μὴ 
ἀκουσϑῇ ἐν σοὶ ἔτι, καὶ φῶς λίχνου οὐ μὴ 
φανῇ ἐν σοὶ ἔτι, καὶ φωνὴ νυμφίου καὶ νύίμ- 
φης οὐ μὴ ἀκουσϑῇ ἐν σοὶ ἔτι" Ore οἵ ἔμ- 


) 


454 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET —SEVENTH VIAL. 


and the voice of the bridegroom and of ποροΐ σου ἦσαν οἵ μεγιστᾶνες τὴ γῆς, Ott 
the bride shall be heard no more atallin ag, τῇ φαρμακείᾳ σου ἐπλανήϑησαν πάντα 
thee: for thy merchants were the great ; 5 ΓΝ 

men of the earth; for by thy sorceries 
were all nations deceived. 


τὰ ἔϑνη. - 


§ 416. ‘And ἃ mighty angel,’ ὅζο. ; or,a strong angel, as the same word 
ἰσχυρός is elsewhere rendered; the strength of the angel corresponding 
with the magnitude of the stone taken up, although this appears hardly a 
sufficient reason for introducing the adjunct ; for, ifthe angel took up the 
stone and cast it, he was of course sufficiently strong to do so. The Latin 
rendering, unus angelus potens, would appear to attach importance to the 
circumstance that the operation was performed by one single angel. If we 
use the numeral εἷς, according to ἃ suggestion before made, (¢ 145,) as an 
ordinal, its employment here will carry us back to the first strong angel 
mentioned in the Apocalypse, (Rev. v. 2,) acting as a herald on the occa- 
sion of the opening of the sealed book; the same angel or messenger then 
calling for a development of the mystery, now announces the first important 
result of that development. 

An argument in favour of this construction is, that when the strong angel 
is mentioned the first time, as above, καὶ εἶδον ἄγγελον ἰσχυρόν, no article, 
either definite or indefinite, is used. On the second occasion, (Rev. x. 1,) 
the term another (ἄλλον) is employed also without an article. On this 
third occasion, therefore, the numeral εἷς, used as an article, would appear as 
unnecessary as it was in the first instance ; but if we consider it an ordinal, 
we then have a specific reason for its introduction—showing the connection 
between this account of Babylon and the sealed book, and reminding us 
that this angel had been watching, as it were, with peculiar interest, the 
whole development through which we have been conducted. 

‘A stone like a great millstone, and cast it,’ &c.—There may be an 
allusion here to the sentence pronounced, Matt. xviil. 6, against certain 
causes of offence—the casting of stumbling-blocks in the way of those seek- 
ing after truth, the little ones believing in Jesus. Babylon has proved a trap, 
or cause of offence, to multitudes of this character ; and now like a millstone 
she is cast down, never to rise again. A principal feature in this compa- 
rison, is the irrecoverable nature of the destruction illustrated : a stone cast 
into the midst of the sea; being utterly lost sight of, leaving no trace behind 
it, while it is incapable of coming again to the surface, either by its own or 
by any human power; the figure in this respect corresponding with the 
direction given to the messenger of the prophet, Jer. li. 63, 64: “And it 
shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt 
bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates ; and thou shalt say, 
Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring 


upon her.” 


THE ANATHEMA. 455 


Taking the sea also as a figure of the vindictive wrath of divine justice, 
this casting of the stone is a comparison equivalent to an exhibition of the 
result of an exposure of the mixed system of Babylon to the action of this 
element of infinite justice, showing how entirely the one must be swallowed 
up or ingulfed in the other; as we might say of any mixed system of 
salvation, that it is no more adequate to a satisfaction of the claims of the 
law than a millstone would be to a filling up of the abyss. 

‘Thus with violence,’ &c.—The word translated violence is applicable 
to a great vehemence or impetuosity of action. Our imagination is con- 
ducted by it to the velocity of accelerated motion with which any pon- 
derous body must descend from an immense height to the earth. The illus- 
tration corresponds with the swiftness of destruction (ταχιγὴν ἀπώλειαν) pre- 
dicted of certain false teachers and their heresies, 2 Peter ii. 1. This swift- 
ness also involving the idea of suddenness ; as it was predicted of Babylon, 
Is. xlvii. 10, 11, “ Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee ; 
and thou hast said in thy heart, J am, and none else besides me. Therefore 
shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth [the 
morning thereof, Heb.]: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not 
be able to put it off [expiate]: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, 
which thou shalt not know.” 

ᾧ 417. ‘And shall be found no more at all.’—We have seen Babylon 
in flames as a system—as a system tried by fire, and proving to be entirely 
of combustible materials. But even the site of Babylon is to disappear—the 
location of the city is nowhere to be found. ‘The smoke of her burning, it 
is said in the next chapter, shall rise up forever and ever; the evidence of 
the trial and destruction of the system will be eternal, but the system itself 
will no lenger have an existence. ἢ 

The sign of the future, shall, is employed here, as in the previous 
description of the conflagration. We may consider the events them- 
selves as synchronizing with the final destraction of the beast and false 
prophet, although in a literal sense the idea of time is not to be taken into 
consideration. The final destruction of Babylon and that of the beast 
happen simultaneously, because one is involved in the other; but the par- 
ticulars are related successively, no doubt that the narrative may be better 
adapted to human comprehension. ‘The declaration of the mighty angel, 
Rev x. 6, is ever to be kept in view: χρόνος οὐκέτι ἔσται, There shall 
be time no longer; our construction of this declaration (ᾧ 230) being con- 
firmed, especially by the use of the words οὐ μὴ ἔτι, no more at all, as we 
find them employed on this occasion. 

‘ And the voice of harpers,’ &c.—Here follows an enumeration of various 
characteristics of the happiness, prosperity, and increasing power of a king- 
dom or great city, of all of which Babylon is to be suddenly deprived. 

38 


456 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


There are four kinds of musicians mentioned, each of them probably capable 
of affording some peculiar illustration. The harp was the instrument of 
praise ; the musician (μουσικός) was the poet, or perhaps the vocal per- 
former ; the piper or flute player accompanied the dancers ; and the trumpet 
was the instrument of martial music: the four may thus furnish a figure for 
every species of music. Every indication of joy or gladness, of pride or of 
parade, is alike to cease. The craftsman of every craft (πᾶς τεχνίτης πάσης 
zéyvng) applies to every species of mechanics or manufacturers : every species 
of industry, every work of man, is at an end: the sound of the millstone is 
not heard, for there is no grain now to be prepared for food—the means of 
sustaining life are taken away. Even if bread were yet called for, Babylon 
could not furnish it. Illustrations from agricultural life are not introduced 
here, because they would not be compatible with the figure of a commercial 
city. The enumeration therefore is equal to a representation of the entire 
cessation of every human employment. Babylon being destroyed, the 
works of men are entirely at an end. In other words, the mixed system 
being abolished, all pretensions to salvation by works cease, or are found no 
more af all. 

‘And the light of a candle shall no more shine at all in thee.’-—Perhaps 
we may say, not even the light of a candle. Babylon is not mentioned as 
having enjoyed the light of the sun—the inhabitants walked probably in the 
light of the sparks of their own kindling. Even this light is no more to be 
seen: the voice of the bridggroom and of the bride is no more heard—there 
is no longer any marrying or giving in marriage. . 

AJl these particulars are to be taken for consequences, and not causes 
οὗ the desolation. Babylon being burned up, and no more found at all, the 
consequence is, that the voice of praise, of gladness, and of exultation, ill 
founded as it was, is now no more heard. ‘The mixed system being utterly 
destroyed, its pretensions to joy and rejoicing, its pretensions to works, its 
pretensions to furnishing the bread of life, and its pretensions to light or 
righteousness, or to the fruitfulness and privileges represented by the mar- 
riage state, all cease together. “The real causes of praise and joy, the real 
means of eternal life, the real privileges and blessings represented by the 
marriage union, never were to be found in the mixed system ; but it has its 
pretensions to these things. ‘The whole system, tried as by fire, being con- 
sumed, the fallacy of these pretensions is at once exposed, and no place is 
afterwards found for them. 

§ 418. ‘ For thy merchants were the great men of the earth.’—Here 
we have the reasons for the desolations just particularized ; and if we con- 
sider the conjunction and, at the commencement of the next verse, as con- 

necting the subject of that verse with the last clause of the present, we may 
then consider the whole as furnishing three distinct reasons for the destruc- 


THE ANATHEMA. 457 


tion of this great city. As if it were said, All these things have come upon 
thee, because thy merchants were the great men of the earth; because by 
thy sorceries all nations were led astray ; and (because) in thee the blood of 
prophets, &c., was found. This appears to be the sense most consistent 
with the whole tenor of the passage ; the last verse then appearing, as we 
suppose it to be, part of the angel’s declaration ; while, otherwise, we are 
at a loss to know by whom it is uttered. , 

The word translated great men, is applied to “ the leading persons in a 
state,” (Donnegan.) It is rendered, Mark vi. 21, by the term lords ; and 
Rev. vi. 15, itis classed next in order to kings. One reason we say, there- 
fore, why the mixed system is destroyed, is that its mercenary principles 
have become the leading principles of all that general system which is repre- 
sented by the earth; and that these mercenary elements have acquired their 
prominence through the nature of the mixed system. 

‘For by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.’—Quia veneficio tuo 
aberraverunt omnes gentes, (G. & L.) Because by thy poisonous prepara- 
tions all the nations (Gentiles) have gone astray. By thy pharmacy, (ὁ 
226,)—by thy practice of medicine—by participating in thy drugs, the 
nations have gone mad, as it is expressed by the prophet, (¢ 385) the 
figure corresponding in its purport with that of the wine of the harlot, by 
which the inhabitants of the earth are said to have been made drunk. 
Babylon is here represented as a great commercial city, dealing in medical 
preparations and drugs of a peculiarly deleterious character ; tlie nations 
using these compounds being so deluded by them as not enly. themsefves 
to be led astray, but also by their consumption of the commodities to give 
power and importance to the merchants dealing in them. The second cause 
of the destruction of the mixed system is, therefore, that its pretended means 
of propitiation—its abominable mixture, (the harlot’s cup,)—is of such a 
character as to pervert the principles of all systems ; leading their advocates, 
as we may say, into the madness or folly of a dependence upon human 
means of propitiation ; an amalgam before remarked upon, (Ὁ 332.) 

In respect to her pharmacy, Babylon stands in the light of a pretender 
to medical science, as opposed to the true Physician ; her drugs are oppo- 
sites of the balm of Gilead. The only remedy for sin, the only medicine 
capable of saving the sinner from eternal death, is the atonement of Christ. 
The atoning preparation of the mixed system, the result of the pharmacy of 
Babylon, is an opposite of this atonement of Christ ; yet such is its delusive 
character, that so long as this theory of redemption is sustained, so long the 
contents of the mixed cup of salvation will enter into the composition of 
every other system of redemption. At the same time, in the nature of the 
case, the mixture of supposed human merits, in these pretended means of 


458 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


propitiation, must necessarily give a leading prominence and importance to 
the mercenary principles of the system to which it is peculiar. 

We may here notice the reciprocal action between the mercenary motive 
and the pretended means of atonement. ‘The medical pretender, or the 
enchantress, as Babylon may be also styled, prescribes the performance of 
some great thing on behalf of the patient, as the necessary process of resto- 
ration. The performance of this great thing involves the acting from merce- 
nary or selfish motives ; and the mercenary and selfish motives entering into 
this performance, the latter is rendered an abomination, or a mixture of abomi- 
nations, in the sight of God. The deluded disciple supposes that the gift 
of God is to be purchased ; that the grace, or favour, of salvation is some- 
thing for which he is to give an equivalent: his eyes opened to his error, he 
finds himself in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity, (Acts 
vill. 20.) 

V. 24. And in her was found the blood = Kai ἐν αὐτῇ αἷμα προφητῶν καὶ ἁγίων 


se ie ‘ st 7B i ματα 
of prophets, and of saints, and of al that sigg9y καὶ πάντων τῶν ἐσφαγμένων ἐπὶ τῆς 
were slain upon the earth. Me 


ᾧ 419. “ And in her was found.’—We treat this according to the sug- 
gestion just now made, (¢ 418,) as a third reason for the destruction of this 
great city ; as if the mighty angel, after having assigned in his apostrophe 
to Babylon, two reasons for her demolition, added by way of explanation 
to the apostle the further reason, that in her was found the blood here 
described. This supposition, however, is not very material, as under any 
view this blood-guiltiness of Babylon must have been a reason for the judg- 
ment upon her. We cannot suppose the finding of the blood to have been 
a mere accident or incident, occurring unexpectedly after her destruction ; 
although we might perhaps suppose this third reason to involve the two 
preceding specified causes of her visitation ; as we may also suppose the 
apostle himself to have added the information contained in this verse, as 
received from some other source than the declaration of the angel. How- 
ever this be, the use of the future tense is here laid aside, the angel 
having finished his prediction, and the recital of the fact mentioned carry- 
ing us back to the state of the city as depicted after its fall, but prior to its 
being utterly consumed. 

‘The blood of prophets,’ &c.—Babylon literally was not notorious for 
shedding the blood of the prophets, although her monarchs were made the in- 
struments of punishing severely some of the Hebrew rulers for their impiety 
and contumacy towards God. The haughty Nebuchadnezzar was wrought 
upon, even to the acknowledgment of the true God, by the evidences of divine 
interposition in behalf of his Jewish captives. Belshazzar recognized, in 


BLOODGUILTINESS OF BABYLON. 459 


Daniel’s interpretation of the handwriting upon the wall, the peculiar share 
of divine favour enjoyed by that servant of the Most High ; and Darius the 
Mede was alike converted by the prophet’s deliverance from the mouths of 
the lions, Dan. vi. 25-28. On the other hand, we have abundant evidence 
of the hardness of heart of Jewish sovereigns, amidst the most miraculous 
displays of divine power, as well as of their presecution of prophets and 
saints, Rom. xi. 3. To this we may add the testimony of Christ himself 
concerning the Scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem, that they were the chil- 
dren of them which killed the prophets ; and that upon them was to come 
all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel to that 
of Zacharias, (Matt. xxiii. 31, 35.) 

Comparing these facts and this declaration with what is here said of the 
great city, we think the old Jerusalem of the apostle’s time, as a figure, 
must be identic with the apocalyptic Babylon ; for, if all the blood of the 
prophets was to come upon Jerusalem, it could hardly be said to be found 
in Babylon, unless the two were equivalent figures. 'The Pharisees were 
covetous or mercenary, (selfish,) and such is the character of the leading 
principles of the mixed system. Jerusalem, in the days of the evangelists, 
was in the hands of the Romans ; professing to be free, but really under 
the yoke of her Gentile conquerors ; she was Jerusalem in bondage, and 
was thus the figure of a perverted view of the economy of salvation ;—such 
is the mixed economy represented by Babylon. ‘The two are therefore 
identic, and both accordingly are guilty of the same blood of saints and 
prophets. 4 

§ 420. Blood is the figure of life. Holy prophets and saints are apoca- 
lyptically figures of elements of divine revelation ; prophets or interpreters 
being put for prophecies or interpretations, or doctrines taught by prophets 
and holy men. The natural life of man, we suppose to be a figure of the 
spiritual sense of these elements of revealed truth. To find blood in a city, is 
to find the city guilty of murder or manslaughter ; as blood in the skirts of 
the garment is a scriptural figure of evidence of bloodguiltiness, and as blood- 
guiltiness literally consists in the crime of having deprived a fellow-being of 
life. Thus the perverted view of the economy of redemption, whether 
symbolized by Babylon, or by Jerusalem in bondage, is guilty of the blood of 
saints and prophets, inasmuch as it has deprived the elements of divine 
revelation of their proper spiritual sense. It is by the suppression of this 
sense of revelation (its life) that the mixed theory is built up; and 
accordingly, when the real character of the system is exposed, it will be 
found to have been guilty of this suppression ; the manifestation of this truth 
being figuratively equivalent to finding the blood of saints and prophets in 
the place once the scene of their persecution. 

‘ And of all that were slain upon the earth.—The word translated slain 


460 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


is the same as that employed in describing the appearance of the Lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world. As we have before remarked, (ὃ 
161,) the term is especially applicable to the slaughter of animals for the 
purposes of sacrifice, differing in this respect from the verb ἀποχτείνω, whieh 
signifies merely to kill. It is not said that in Babylon was found the blood 
of all killed upon the earth, but of all slain or slaughtered ; we presume as 
in sacrifice. 'The term is also the same applied to the slaughter of those 
whose souls were under the altar, slain for the word of-God and for the 
testimony which they held. In a literal sense, the blood of all slain upon 
the earth, without qualification, as it is in the text, would be the blood of 
all, whether good or bad. Such cannot be the correct interpretation ; at 
the same time, this general appellation of a// must comprehend something 
more than the prophets and saints just spoken of. ‘These last, we suppose, 
may be contemplated as victims sacrificed or slain in the cause of truth ; as 
the souls under the altar were souls of the bodies offered upon the 
altar. As prophets and saints are figures of divine revelation, we suppose 
the other elements comprehended under the term all to be subordinate ele- 
rents of truth, occupying a relation analogous to that of followers of pro- 
phets and holy men: deductions from the doctrines of revelation, tending to 
sustain a correct view of the economy of grace, so long as their proper 
spiritual sense is understood ; but unable to do so when this sense is sup- 
pressed. The earth we suppose to represent an exhibition of the position 
of man dependent upon his own works. ‘To exhibit the maintenance of this 
position, it is necessary to divest all elements of revelation, and all doctrinal 
deductions from these elements, of their spiritual sense ; all of them, figura- 
tively speaking, must suffer martyrdom, in order that this earthly view may 
be sustained: and this view itself must be sustained, in order to sustain 
the mixed system. Therefore in Babylon, as the efficient cause of this 
slaughter, the blood of all of these elements, whether direct or subordinate, 
is to be found; the fact, as detailed here, being equivalent to the deela- 
ration that all perversion of Christian doctrine has originated in the nature 
of this system of adulteration—a system which we cannot better designate 
than by giving it the appellative of a simulation of the divine plan of 
redemption ;—the plan comprehending the principles of government (the 
kingdom) resulting from it. 


RETROSPECT. 


ᾧ 421. There seems to be a gradual development of the character of 
Babylon, or rather, of the economy*represented by her, in the relation 
of this and of the preceding chapter. In the first account (chap. xvii.) no 


RETROSPECT. ' 461 


intimation is given of the mercenary features of the system in contemplation ; 
nor is there any allusion to the pharmacies (sorceries) of Babylon, other 
than that presumed to be contained in what is said of her wine, and of the 
contents of her golden cup. 

In the first part of the present chapter, there is a gradual merging of the 
figure of the female sovereign into that of a commercial city. The illustra- 
tions drawn from the two figures are alternated, as if to guard against the 
possibility of mistaking them for representations of different subjects. As 
the dwelling-place of unclean spirits, Babylon is spoken of as a city ; as 
maintaining an illicit connection with the kings of the earth, she appears 
under the figure of a woman; while, as the cause of the opulence of the 
merchants of the earth, she is again alluded to as a commercial city. So, 
when the people of God are called out of her, the figure is that of a city ; 
while immediately afterwards her proud language appears to be that of a 
human being. 

Thus far we are brought to an acquaintance with the characteristics of 
impurity, adulteration, self-dependence and pride of this Babylonish system, 
together with its extensive influence as producing drunkenness or insanity 
in all partaking of it. But, except the slight allusion to the fact, noticed 
for the first time in the third verse of the chapter, that the merchants had 
waxed rich through the great luxury of the city, we have as yet no explicit 
declaration of the nature of the peculiar charges against Babylon calling 
for her immediate and utter destruction. Here the whole of the remainder 
of this chapter, from the eleventh to the twenty-third verses inclusive, is cal- 
culated to throw a new light upon the subject. 

As a city, Babylon is supposed to be the emporium of the commerce of 
the whole world. The whole world of course is subject to the influence of her 
commercial relations. As such a city, she is especially a place of trade, a 
place of mercantile calculation—a place where nothing is received or given 
without an equivalent. Asa city, or as a kingdom—for she is an imperial 
city—Babylon is represented as being ruled or governed by merchants only ; 
for the figure of a queen is here dropped. The figures may alternate, but 
they are not coexistent. ‘The city may assume to be a queen, but it does 
not profess to be under a queen, or a king, or under the dominion of any 
single individual. It 15 governed by a number of magistrates or rulers ; and 
these are all of them merchants. Such is the tendency of the commerce of 
this great city, that it not only gives a peculiar importance to the merchants 
of the earth, but that it causes its own merchants to be its rulers. ‘This 
great city is at length destroyed—utterly destroyed—and its merchant-rulers 
may be presumed to be destroyed with it. The world, however, has par- 
ticipated in its commerce ; the merchants of the whole earth have acquired 
opulence and importance by this commerce, and may be supposed in con- 


462 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVEN TH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


sequence to have a ruling influence wherever they make their appearance. 
Here then is the great cause of lamentation,—by the fall of Babylon, her 
commerce ceases, and all connected with it lose their importance and their 
influence. What is further remarkable is, that this very subject of uni- 
versal regret and mourning is itself the cause of the calamity so deeply 
deplored. 

In the few words at the close of the twenty-third verse, we have the 
key to the whole of this mysterious dispensation. Babylon has been 
utterly destroyed, because her merchants were the great men of the earth; 
because by her pharmacies (the medical preparations dealt in by these mer- 
chants) all nations were deceived. For her mischievous influence upon 
the rulers or kings of other countries, she was overthrown; for giving 
opulence to the merchants of the earth, she was made desolate; but her 
entire destruction, as a millstone cast into the sea, never to rise again, is a 
judgment especially for the fact that her merchants were the great men of 
the earth. 

How can such a relation as this be construed in a literal sense ; or what 
rational conclusion can we come to, with respect to it, other than that of 
considering this city, as we have done, the figure of a certain doctrinal sys- 
tem? The system is chargeable with errors peculiarly abominable in the 
sight of God, and with an influence as peculiarly contaminating upon other 
principles and other systems. It is subjected to scrutiny or trial as hy a 
refiner’s fire, and the cause of its peculiar errors proves to be, that it 1s itself 
a mercenary scheme, and that its ruling or leading principles are also mer- 
cenary. Not only so, the tendency of its errors, the contaminating influence 
exercised by it, is that of causing all views of faith bearing any relation 
to it to come under the control of like elements of a mercenary character. 
The peculiarly odious characteristic of these elements is, that they are 
directly opposed to the sovereignty of the divine principle of grace. For 
this reason, before God’s plan of salvation can be fully recognized, before 
his ruling principle of sovereign grace can overcome all others, these mer- 
cenary elements and the system to which they belong must be entirely 
destroyed. ‘To this crisis we have now arrived, in the order of the apaca- 
lyptic vision. One of the principal stumbling-blocks or obstacles in the 
way of the development of gospel truth is removed ; the others, as we shall 
see, very speedily experience a like fate ; after which we may expect an 
unveiling or revelation of the truth itself. 

Babylon was first exhibited as a harlot sitting upon many waters, repre- 
senting apparently the mixed economy, founded, as it is, upon various false 
and delusive views of the means of propitiation. She is next seen in the 
wilderness sitting upon the beast (se/f) with his seven heads, (fundamental 
principles,) and his ten horns or elements of the law. Thus sustained, she 


RETROSPECT. 463 


offers her cup of mixture in place of the true cup of salvation, her votaries, no 
doubt, not discerning the difference. Again, she is represented sitting upon 
seven mountains—the mixed system resting upon seven fundamental princi- 
ples of self-glorification, and at the same time exercising a perverting control 
over seven leading principles, spoken of as kings—this number seven repre- 
senting, perhaps, a totality ; seven leading or fundamental principles being 
put for all principles of that character. These three pictures represent 
Babylon in her glory—the mixed system in full operation. We next see 
the same individual torn to pieces and burned with fire by the ten horns— 
the mixed system entirely destroyed by the elements of law upon which it 
had been depending. Again, we see Babylon as a city the habitation of 
devils, and the hold of every unclean spirit—the mixed system laid bare, 
seen in its true character. And lastly, we have a prophetic description of 
the final destruction of the city as a great commercial emporium, as by fire, 
or as a millstone cast into the depth of the sea ;—these three figures of 
destruction corresponding in number with the three figures or pictures of 
elevation ; the three, however, in each case representing only different illus- 
trations of the same truths. 

The cause of the destruction by the ten horns is not assigned, except so 
far as it is attributed to the hatred of the horns, and to the will of God. 
We may presume, however, that the cause is the same as that assigned for 
the utter destruction of the city. The ten horns hate the harlot because of 
her mercenary character ; the law requiring the performance of every action 
from the pure motive of love to God, as a fulfilment even of the first com- 
mandment. So we may suppose the pretended means of propitiation offered 
by the adulterated scheme, and represented by the cup of the harlot, to be 
abominable and filthy in the sight of God, on account of the mercenary prin- 
ciples entering into its composition. Thus, having ascertained from the 
mighty angel the peculiar reason of Babylon’s entire destruction, we may 
apply this reason to all that we have previously learned of her character, 
and thence perceive the extreme hatefulness of every mercenary or covet- 
ous principle in the sight of God. 

As already intimated, we trust the time is not far distant when this test 
of doctrinal systems will be generally applied. In the meantime, it is for 
every disciple of Christ to examine his own heart, to search into the prin 
ciples and motives of his own conduct, and to inquire of himself whether 
he be not under the influence of the delusive cup of mixed ingredients 
here described ; whether his own motives of action be not of the mercenary 
character alluded to ; whether, in fine, his own system of faith be not of the 
adulterated character so extremely odious in the sight of God. 


*. 


+ 


464 


SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPE T—SEVENTH VIAL. 


CoA L CE Be XX 


CHORUS AND RESPONSES.—GOING FORTH OF THE 


WORD.—BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 


Vs. 1-3. And after these things I heard 
a great voice of much people in heaven, 
saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory. 
and honour, and power, unto the Lord 
our God: for true and righteous (are) 
his judgments ; for he hath judged the 
great whore, which did corrupt the earth 
with her fornication, and hath avenged 
the blood of his servants at her hand. 
And again they said, Alleluia. And her 
smoke rose up for ever and ever. 


~ ” « 1 , 
Mere ταῦτα ἤκουσα ὡς φωνὴν μεγάλην 
4 iin -: 2 = ΄ > 
ὄχλου πολλοῦ ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, λεγόντων" ἀλ- 
fee c ᾿ ar fon At ΄ 
ληλούϊα - ἡ σωτηρία καὶ ἡ dose καὶ ἡ δὺν- 
- - c ~ ao 2 A \ 
apis τοῦ ϑεοῦ ἡμῶν" ote ἀληϑιναὶ καὶ 
" eet γ΄ Ψ 
δίκαιαι αἷ κρίσεις αὐτοῦ" ὅτι ἔχρινε τὴν πόρ- 
᾿ ΄, « > ‘ sa > ~ 
yyy τὴν μεγάλην, ἥτις ἔφϑειρε τὴν γὴν ἐν τῇ 
- > ’ . ~ 
πορνείᾳ αὑτῆς, καὶ ἐξεδίκησε τὸ αἷμα τῶν 
, ~ 1 > ae 2 ΄ 
δούλων αὑτοῦ ἐκ χειρὸς αὐτῆς. Καὶ δεύτε- 
4 > Tos c 1 > 
ρον εἴρηκαν - ἀλληλούϊα - καὶ ὁ καπνὸς αὖ- 


- > , > ‘ I~ ~ 5 ΤΣ 
τῆς ἀναβαίνει ELC τους ατωνὰς THY KLWYOY, 


ᾧ 422. ‘ Ann after these things 1 heard,’ &c.—Thiat is, after hearing the 
prophetic accounts of the conflagration, and the entire destruction of Babylon. 
The change is not in what is seen, so much as in what is heard ; the atten- 
tion of the apostle is called to something very different from that with which 
it was before occupied. He had been listening to a description of the deso- 
lation and wo incident to the fall of the great city: he now hears only the 
language of praise, joy, and exultation, reminding us that an event so 
lamentable to one class of beings, is as much a cause of rejoicing with 
another. 

‘A great voice of much people,’ &c.; or, according to our Greek, a 
great voice, or sound, like that of a great multitude. The voice is not said 
to be that of much people, but it is compared to the sound of the voices of 
an immense number of persons. ‘The preceding denunciations were uttered 
as by a single voice, though sometimes said to be a great voice ; the utter- 
ance of gratulation in heaven is as a great voice of a great multitude. 
Whatever regret the demolition of a system of error may cause to some on 
earth, the rejoicing at the triumph of truth with the lovers of truth in earth 
and heaven must be infinitely greater. 

‘Saying, Alleluia,’ or, Hallelujah, according to our common mode of 
rendering the expression.—The Greek word occurs nowhere else in the 


New Testament, and in the Septuagint it is found only in the Psalms. In 


CHORUS AND RESPONSES. 465 


this chapter of Revelation, it is repeated four several times, and we may 
presume not without reason, compounded as it is of two Hebrew words, 
tn, glory, or $n, praise, and =, Jah or Jehovah—nomen veri Dei—the 
name of the true God, (Index Heb. et Chald. Trommii;) the whole 
expression signifying an ascription of praise or glory to God pre-eminently, 
as above all other objects of praise, (Ps. Ixviii. 4.) 

‘Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God.’— 
This may be taken as an amplification of the Hebrew words just noticed: a 
repetition laying a peculiar emphasis upon the designation of the supreme 
object of praise—the Lord our God ; the salvation, and the glory, and the 
honour, and the power of the whole work of redemption, being all ascribed 
to this one object, which is confirmed by the Alleluia, or Praise ye Jeho- 
vah, repeated at the close of this ascription ; this again being confirmed, as 
we shall see, by the Alleluia of the four and twenty elders, and of the four 
living creatures, as well as by their act of prostration and worship of the 
God sitting upon the throne. "ΤῸ this we may add the voice from the throne, 
giving the direction, Praise our God, all ye his servants, &c., (5th verse,) 
and the further response of the voice of a great multitude, or as of a great 
multitude reiterating the Alleluia, assigning the sovereignty of the Lord God 
as the reason for this praise. 

Prior to this, Rev. v. 18, and vii. 10, there had been two choral ascrip- 
tions of the praise of salvation, not to God alone, but to God and the Lamb. 
The peculiarity of the passage now under consideration is, that the Lamb 
is not mentioned as being a joint object of praise, as in the other instances. 
Connecting this peculiarity with the circumstance that the great system of 
error symbolized by the harlot, is now represented as utterly destroyed, we 
come to the conclusion that the present epoch of revelation corresponds 
with that alluded to by Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 28: “ When all things having been 
put under him, the Son also himself shall be subject unto Him that put all 
things under him, that God may be all in all.” This stage of the revela- 
tion may also be considered equivalent to a manifestation of the fulfilment 
of the prophecy, (Is. ix. 6,) ‘“‘ Unto us a child is born,” &c., “called the 
mighty God, the everlasting Father; so predicted, because he is now 
manifested to be identic with the Deity ;—the Father and Son in these 
ascriptions of praise being both addressed as one and the same sovereign 
God. 

It is true that, in the order of narration, the destruction of the beast, and 
of the false prophet, and of the accuser, is yet to be detailed ; but time, in 
the ordinary sense, (¢ 230,) is not to be taken into consideration ; and 
even if it were, that which is to be done on earth is spoken of in heaven as 
already done. ‘These heavenly elements may be said to see, in the destruc- 
tion of the harlot, the victory over all the other objects alluded to as the 


466 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


enemies of the Lamb; the demolition of error and the exhibition of truth 
being nearly interchangeable expressions. The representation of the destruc- 
tion of Babylon here, is accordingly equivalent to the exhibition of the holy 
city described in the two last. chapters of the book. Besides, we are to 
notice an important difference in the language of this chorus, and that of 
the voice from heaven, and of the mighty angel in the preceding chapter. 
The utter destruction of the harlot city is there spoken of as a thing to be ; 
here, it is spoken of as having already taken place. This scene in heaven 
may thus be considered something in anticipation of all that is afterwards 
described as taking place on earth ; the battles, of which we have a relation 
at the close of this and in the subsequent chapter, taking place in effect 
between the prediction of the mighty angel casting the millstone, and the 
utterance of these triumphant Alleluias. In confirmation of this view, we 
may further remark that, notwithstanding the extraordinary events related 
in the remaining chapters, the present is the last heavenly chorus of which 
we have an account; and as such, in a human dramatic composition, it 
would probably have its place at the close of the piece.* 

ᾧ 423. ‘For [because] true and righteous are his judgments ; for [be- 
cause] he hath judged,’ &c.—Here we have the reason given for this 
ascription of salvation to God; not that the destruction of the harlot is itself 
the means of salvation, &c., but that it is the means of showing to whom 
the honour of that salvation is due. As if it were said, Now it is manifest 
that Babylon is not a city of refuge, that the mixed system affords no hope 
of safety, that man has no share in the merit or glory of this work of redemp- 
tion ; consequently Jehovah alone is to be praised—His glory is not to be 
divided with another—corresponding with the uniform language of the 
prophets and the Psalmist: as it is said Is. xi. 2, “ Behold, God is my 
salvation ; I will trust and not be afraid: the Lord Jehovah is my strength 
and my song ;” and Ps. lxii. 7, “God is my salvation and my glory: the 
rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.” ‘The trial to which Baby- 
lon has been exposed has resulted in exhibiting the falsehood of her system, 
and thus the truth and justice of divine judgment in its destruction is mani- 
fested. With the words rendered judgment and judge, we associate espe- 


* The first choral ascription of praise may be viewed as anticipating the develop- 
ments of the six seals, reaching to the close of the sixth chapter; the second like 
ascription anticipates the developments of the seventh seal, extending to the termina- 
tion of the eighteenth chapter ; while the third and last choral ascription anticipates 
all the remaining narrative, even to the close of the book. The last, therefore, reaches, 
as we have observed, that stage of revelation where God is manifested to be all in 
all. God, manifest in Christ, being no other than “Jehovah our righteousness.” This 
we think must be the reason for the reiterated utterance of the Alleluia by the great 
voice in heaven, and the responsive Allelwias of the four and twenty elders and four 
living creatures, and of the voice or voices described in the sixth verse. 


ε 


CHORUS AND RESPONSES. 467 


cially the idea of discrimination. The line of discrimination has been drawn 
and manifested between the system of the harlot and that of error,,and the 
result of this manifest discrimination is now the cause of praise. 

‘Which did corrupt the earth,’ &c.—Whatever the harlot system be, 
it must have, or must have had, a very extensive influence ; spreading itself 
over the whole surface of the ordinary view of revelation, adulterating and 
corrupting the doctrines of Christianity, destroying all sound principles 
coming in contact with it; as amass of putrefied matter will engender 
putrefaction in a sound body immediately exposed to its action. 

‘ And hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hands ;’—or, more 
strictly, has vindicated the blood of his servants out of her hands. To 
avenge is not necessarily to revenge. The idea of revenge does not appear 
to be that intended to be conveyed by the text ; it is rather that of a rescue 
or restoration, as the Greek term ἐχδικέω is employed, Luke xvii. 3: &di- 
κησόν μὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀντιδίκου μου, (cause my property to be restored to me out 
of the hands of him by whom it is unjustly held,) vindicate my rights, cause 
justice to be done to me, (Donnegan.) So too, Rev. vi. 10, ἕως πότε οὐ 
xpiverg καὶ ἐχδικεῖς τὸ αἷμα ἡμῶν ἀπὸ, x.7.2.. until how long will thou not judge 
and vindicate our blood from, &c.* The blood of saints and of prophets 
had been found in Babylon after her fall. The finding of this blood was 
equivalent to its vindication, showing where the guilt of the loss of it lay ; 
or, as we construe it,($ 420,) this blood of the prophets, &c., being the spirit- 
ual sense of the elements of revelation, to find the mixed system guilty of the 
suppression of this sense is equivalent to a restoration or deliverance of it. 
So we suppose the finding and exposing, or bringing to light this suppressed 
spiritual sense of the prophets, to be equivalent to vindicating the blood of 
those whose souls were under the altar from the dwellers upon the earth. 
The servants of God, in the apocalyptic sense, are the elements of revela- 
tion serving him in the promulgation of wuth. Depriving these servants of 
their blood, (life,) was a withholding of the spiritual sense of their testi- 
mony, as if judged untrue ; avenging this blood is a vindication of the truth 
of this testimony in its proper sense, showing it to be just, and bringing it 
forth as from a state of confinement. The illustration afforded by the figure 
appears to be parallel to that furnished by the typical restoration of the 
Jews after their captivity. 


‘ And her smoke rose up for ever and ever ;’ or, Her smoke rises up for 


* Ἐχδικέω, ex ἐκ et δίκη, vindico pass. vindicor, (Suiceri Lex. et Trom. Concord. 
et Lex. ad Hexapla.) Véindico ; to restore, vindicare libertatem Gallia: to claim, 
Familiam pene ab interitu vindicasti: Vindicie ; the asserting or clearing a thing from 
controversy ; discernere vindicias secundum lbertatem : Vindicta ; a rod laid upon 
the head of a servant, (slave,) when he was made free, (Ainsworth.) [Ὁ vindi- 
cate ; to justify, to maintain as correct or true, ( Webster.) 


468 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


ever and ever; the Greek verb being in the present tense. This clause 
appearssto be thrown in by way of explanation ; as if to apprise us that the 
conflagration in the last chapter had actually taken place, and that all now 
remaining of Babylon was the evidence of her total destruction. The fire 
of the revealed word of God acting upon the mixed system of error, and 
completely destroying it, affords also a perpetual testimony of that destruc- 
tion. This evidence itself, as it prevents any resuscitation of the delusion, 
furnishes a guarantee of the fulfilment of the prediction, that the system, 
once demolished, shall be found no more at all, Rey. xviii. 21. 


Vs. 4,5. And the four and twenty el- 
ders and the four beasts [living creatures] 
fell down and worshipped God that sat on 
the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. And 
a voice came out of the throne, saying, 
Praise our God, all ye his servants, and 
ye that fear him, both small and great. 


Kut ἔπεσον ot πρεοβύτεροι οἵ εἰκοσιτέσ- 
σαρὲς καὶ τὰ τέσσαρα ζῶμ, καὶ τροσεκύνη- 
σαν τῷ ϑεῷ τῷ καϑημένῳ ἐπὶ τοῦ Foovov, 
λέγοντες " ἀμήν" ἀλληλούϊα. Kat φωνὴ ἐκ 
τοῦ ϑρόνου ἐξῆλϑε λέγουσα" αἰνεῖτε τὸν 
ϑεὸν ἡμῶν, πάντες οἵ δοῦλου αὐτοῦ καὶ οἱ 


2 ΕΣ ΄ c \ Ἁ ¢ la 4 
φοβούμενοι αὐτὸν, Ob μικροι καὶ OL MEYU-AOL, 


$424. ‘And the four and twenty elders,’ &c.—The four and twenty 
elements of the Old Testament revelation, ($ 121,) or of the old and new, 
and the four attributes of divine sovereignty, ($ 125) virtually respond to 
this ascription of salvation, glory, honour, and power, to God, as the all in 
all ; a response indicated more especially by their Alleluia. In fact, these 
twenty-four elders and the four living creatures give all honour and glory 
to the Lord God Almighty from the beginning. They rest not day nor 
night in doing so, (Rev. iv. ¢,) although they also join with the myriads 
of angels round about the throne in ascribing worthiness to the Lamb, 
(Rev. v. 12.) The four and twenty elders prostrated themselves, as here 
described, on the sounding of the seventh trumpet, (Rev. xi. 16-18,) rejoic- 
ing then that the time had come for doing that which they now rejoice over as 
having been done. There is no difference, however, of time between these 
two prostrations ; the difference is only in the progress of the developments. 

‘ And a voice came out of the throne,’ &c.—The throne being a symbol 
of sovereign power, ($ 118,) this voice from the throne must be equivalent to 
a virtual call of the sovereignty of God to adore him—to direct all praise to 
him. 

The servants of God being, apocalyptically, the elements of truth, the 
call on these to praise the Lord, is equivalent to the requisition that all ele- 
ments of doctrine should begin and end with the purpose and effect of 
glorifying God. It is the sovereignty of God which enables him to save by 
grace ; itis his sovereignty which enables him to form and to accomplish 
the work of salvation by grace. The Lamb is the visible operator in the 
work, but the sovereignty of God is the element of divine power by which 


the Lamb operates. This sovereignty therefore is appropriately represented 


CHORUS AND RESPONSES. 


469 


as calling upon all elements of doctrine (small and great) to give glory to 
God—that is, ultimately, as at the epoch when the Son gives up the king- 


dom unto the Father. 


Vs. 6,7. And [heard as it were the 
voice of a great multitude, and as the 
voice of many waters, and as the voice of 
mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for 
the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let 
us be glad and rejoice, and give honour 
to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is 
come, and-his wife hath made herself 
ready. 


ssi ε ‘ ” ~ \ 

Καὶ yxovea ὡς φωνὴ» ὑχλου πολλοῦ καὶ 
« ‘ , 4 = ‘ 
ὡς φωνὴν ὑδάτων πολλῶν καὶ ὡς φωνὴν 


~ ~ , fae ͵ 
ϑροντῶν ἰσχυρῶν, λεγόντων" ἀλληλούϊα, ὕτι 


3 ' , « . « ΄ 
ἐϑασίλευσε πυρὶ ὁ ὕεος ὁ Buditea ne 
Χαίρωμεν καὶ ἀγαλλιώμεϑα, χαὶ δῶμεν τὴν 
88300 αὐτῷ, ote ἦλϑεν ὃ γάμος τοῦ ἀρνίου 
καὶ ἡ γυνὴ αὐτοῦ ἡτοίμασεν ἑαυτήν, 


ᾧ 425. ‘And I heard,’ &c.—This is a response to the voice from the 
throne—the call from the element of divine sovereignty. Like the voice 
spoken of in the first verse, although not termed great, it is compared to the 
voice of much people, or of a great multitude, the term in the Greek being 
the same in both cases, (ὄχλου πολλοῦ.) This last voice, however, is not 
said to be in heaven, being apparently of a universal character. [115 also 
compared to the sound of many waters, and to that of mighty thunderings. 
These voices we suppose to be put for the expression of doctrines ἢ the 
waters being an allusion to doctrines pertaining to means of atonement of a 
judicial character, and the thunderings to the threatening principles of the 
Jaw ; all elements of justice, of propitiation, and of justification, combining 
virtually to give praise and glory to Jehovah, especially for the reason 
assigned, viz., his sovereignty—glory to Jehovah for, or because, (ὅτι,) the 
Almighty God reigneth—not merely because he is, but because he reigns. 
Glory is now given to God because he has manifested his sovereignty in 
subjecting all things, or principles, to the operation of salyation by grace, 
through Christ. ‘The fact having been always the same from the beginning, 
the rejoicing is a consequence of the manifestation of the facts; all things 
having been manifested to have been made subject by the Almighty God to 
Christ, the Son gives up the kingdom unto the Father, and God himself 
(the triune God) receives the whole praise. 

‘Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honour to him, for [because] the 
marriage,’ &c.—As the ascription of praise to Jehovah is because of his 
sovereignty, so the reason for the gladness, and rejoicing, and giving of 
honour, is because this sovereignty is, or is about being manifested in a cer- 
tain mode—a mode compared to that of a public celebration of the nuptials 
of parties previously espoused. The plan of redemption having been formed 
and determined upon in the divine mind from the beginning, although not 
actually manifested till the whole mystery is revealed, this revelation is a 
cause of joy and rejoicing, in a literal sense, to the believer ; for which reason 
it is termed the gospel, or glad tidings: but in the figure before us all the ele- 


470 SEVENTH SEAL--SEVENTH TRUMPET —SEVENTH VIAL. 


ments of divine government are represented as rejoicing ; even the element 
of justice rejoices that the time has now arrived for the exhibition of that 
plan by which the hitherto apparently conflicting attributes of infinite per- 
fection are shown to be reconciled. 

The word rendered marrage (γάμος) applies primarily to the marriage 
solemnity, or nuptial entertainment—the feast usually given on the occa- 
sion of a marriage, (Donnegan ;) in which sense it appears to be generally 
used in the Scriptures. According to the Septuagint, the term occurs but 
three times in the canonical books of the Old Testament. 

On the occasion of Jacob’s marriage with Leah, (Gen. xxix. 22.) Laban 

athered together all the men of the place, and made a feast, (καὶ ἐποίησι 
γάμον.) ‘The parties to the feast (γάμος) were not Jacob and Leah, but the 
men of the place. ‘The relation affords us a hint of the original design of a 
feast on such occasions. In those days there were no priests or ministers of 
religion, OF magistrates, to give certificates of marriage ; nor were there any 
parish records ; the proofs of the validity of the union depended upon those 
etween the contracting parties—the husband on one 
f the bride on the other: the bride being brought 
into the assembly, yeiled no doubt according to the custom of the country, 
was in this state given by the father to the husband elect, in presence of 
the company. Laban, aware of the grievous disappointment incident to his 
purposed deceit, and anticipating the possibility of a dispute between himself 
and his intended son-in-law, took care to assemble as many witnesses as 
possible on the occasion, and witnesses too upon whose aid he could calculate, 
in case of a controversy with the stranger ; 10 which light Jacob was probably 
considered by these men of the country. The design of the feast (γάμος) was 
therefore to manifest the union—to place the fact beyond dispute. This 
Laban, as we may SUPpose: did not consider as necessary in the case of 
Rachel, Jacob’s partiality for her being a sufficient guarantee that the fact 
of the marriage would not be controverted. 

The term afterwards occurs only in the plural, (γάμοι,) being applied 
(Est. 1. 18) to the feast or feasts made by king Ahasuerus, subsequent 
to the crowning of bis queen, apparently to give publicity to the distinction 
enjoyed by her ; and, ix. 22, to the annual feasting of the Jewish people, 
on the fifteenth day of the month Adar, in commemoration of their deliv- 
he power of Haman ; manifestation and commemoration being 


erance from t 
gly in the time of the LXX the peculiar ideas to be associated with 


who were witnesses b 
side, and the father ὁ 


accordin 


the term. 
In the account given (Matt. xxii. 2-12) of the marriage, as we have 


translated it, made for a king’s son, the term γάμος, which occurs eight times 
in the passage, 1s expressed both in the singular and plural, an equal number 
of times each, feast and feasts,—the feasting usual on such occasions, 


———— νον ΎΨΨΗΘΒΟΑΛ ΝΗ 


THE BRIDAL ARRAY. 471 


continuing for a certain number of days in succession. [{ is also employed 
in the plural, Matt. xxv. 10: Those that were ready went in with him (the 
bridegroom) to the feasts,—the marriage itself having, as we suppose, 
already taken place ; the feasting being something consequent to the marriage, 
and not the marriage itself. In Mark the substantive does not occur. In 
Luke it is met with but three times, and only in the plural. In two of 
these instances the idea of a marriage does not necessarily forma part of the 
subject in contemplation. Luke xii. 36, servants are required to be ready 
for their master when he returns from any feast, or all feasts; and Luke xiv. 
8, the rule is applied to all festal occasions : ‘ When thou art bidden of any 
one to feasts, sit not down in the principal seat,’ &c. Luke xvi. 18, and 
Heb. xiii. 4, the term appears to be used in the secondary sense, as appli- 
cable to the state of marriage generally. John ii. 1, 2, the γάμος is very 
evidently a feast subsequent to a marriage. 

The importance of this distinction may appear more plainly when we 
come to consider the declaration in the ninth verse of the chapter. In the 
_ meantime we are to bear in mind that the cause of joy and rejoicing, on the 
part of the elements represented by these voices, is the approach of the 
marriage feast. ‘The Lamb may be considered as having been previously 
united with his bride, but the time has now come for giving publicity to this 
union, or for iis manifestation. 

‘ And his wife hath made herself ready ;’ or, rather, his woman.—The 
term rendered wife here, ἡ γυνὴ, is the same as that translated woman, Rey. 
xvii. 4, and xii. 1. Both the harlot and the bride are denominated women ; 
but the important question is, whose woman each or either of them may be. 
The one now spoken of is the woman of the Lamb. The one spoken of in 
the seventeenth chapter may be said to be the woman of the beast, or of the 
seven kings, represented by the seven heads of the beast. The woman of 
the Lamb has made herself ready: that is, ready for the feast ; for the cele- 
bration of the nuptials ; for the festal occasion which is to give publicity to 
the union—a union in fact necessarily existing from all eternity. The bride 
is now ready for the manifestation of this union. The next verse will show 


us in what manner she has been prepared. 


V.8. And to her was granted that she καὶ ἐδόϑη αὐτῇ, ἵνα περιβάληται βύσσ:- 
should be arrayed ἿΩ fine Hine oon and | say λαμπρὸν xudugdr τὸ γὰρ βύσσινον τὰ 
white : lor the fine linen is the righteous- δικαιώματα τῶν ἀχέων ἐστί. 
ness of saints. 

§ 426. ‘And to her was granted : or, it was given to her.—She is 
ready, because her bridal dress is given to her—her preparation is a matter 
of gift. Not merely that permission is given her so to array herself, but 


this is the portion allotted her’; a provision made for her marriage settlement. 
39 


A472 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


an arrangement made not merely for the occasion, but one previously made, 
to endure as long as the union endures. 

It does not appear whether this announcement is part of the utterance 
of the voice, declaring the readiness of the woman, or whether it is added 
by the apostle by way of explanation, as information obtained by him from 
some other source. If we read the words, And to her it has been given, 
they would appear a continuation of the declaration in the seventh verse ; 
otherwise they are introduced in the same manner as the sentence above, 
concerning Babylon, “ And her smoke rises up,” &c., or as the explanation 
at the close of that chapter, “‘ And in her was found the blood,” &c. With 
either of those explanatory clauses the present is strikingly antithetical. 

‘That she should be arrayed ;’ or, clothed, as the word is elsewhere ren- 
dered.—The verb περιβάλλω, of which the expression here is a form of the 
middle voice, (Rob. Lex.,) appears to be almost exclusively applied to the 
putting on of an outer garment, or something corresponding with it; as 
Acts xii. 8, “ Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me ;” and as Jesus, 
by way of mockery, was clothed by Herod with a gorgeous robe, Luke 
xxiii. 11. The mighty angel was so clothed with a cloud; the two-wit- ᾿ 
nesses with sackcloth ; the woman in heaven with the sun; the harlot in the 
wilderness with purple; and even Babylon, in her glory, with fine linen. 
The idea to be associated with the term is that of the appearance exhibited. ; 
as the woman in heaven appeared clothed with the sun, or arrayed in the 
glory of the Sun of righteousness, so it is given to the bride to appear in 
public as here described. . 

‘In fine linen, clean and white;’ or, according to our edition of the 
Greek, white clean, or rather shining clean (λα ἱπρὸν καϑαρόν) ;—the word 
rendered white being the same as that rendered clear when applied to the 
water of the river of life, (Rev. xxi. 1,) and bright when applied to the 
morning star, (Rev. xxii. 16,) λαμπρὴν. To her was given to be clothed 
in fine linen of resplendent purity. Babylon had been clothed in fine linen, 
but her linen. was purchased of the merchants; the fine linen of:the bride is 
the gift of the Father of the Lamb, and its appearance differs as much from 
that of Babylon, as does the mode by which it has been obtained, or the 
source whence it is received. The fine linen of Babylon has none of this 
transparent, lucid purity. 

‘For the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.’-—The righteous- 
nesses (plural) or the justifications of the saints, (τὰ δικαιώματα τῶν ἁγίων,) 
the means by which the saints are justified, (¢ 352.) This shining white 
fine linen being the righteousnesses of the saints, it is given the bride to ap- 
pear in it as her peculiarly appropriate bridal array for the contemplated 
feast ; this array being a consequence and not a cause of her marriage. 

As yet this woman of the Lamb is only spoken of as a person to make 


THE GUESTS AT THE FEAST. 473 


her appearance ; we know that she is a bride only by inference; the term 
itself (νύμφη) not having yet occurred in the Apocalypse in relation to her ; 
nor has she been previously alluded to, unless under the character of the 
woman clothed with the sun, or under the figure of the New: Jerusalem. 
We delay at present, therefore, any further definition of what we suppose to 
be represented by her; bearing in mind only that she must be an opposite 
of the woman in the wilderness, and that her array is an opposite of that of 
the harlot, as the saints are opposites of the inhabiters of the earth. 


V.9. And he saith unto me, Write, Kai λέγει μοι" γράψον - μακάριοι οἵ εἰς 
Blessed (are) they which are called unto df eee 7 dione 


‘ ~ ~ , ~ > ' 

ι ( τὸ δεῖπνον ἰτοῦ γάμου τοῦ ἀρνίου κεκλημέ- 
the marriage-supper of the Lamb. And ee ee a ee δὰ δὲ λόνοι ἀλ ou 
he saith unto me, These are the true say- 9 7° ~~ ree 7 ω 
jngs of God. εἰσι tou ϑεοῦ. 


§ 427. ‘And he saith unto me, write,’ &c.—The apostle on a previous 
occasion (Rev. xiv. 13) was told, in a similar manner, to write. It was 
then also a cause of blessedness of which he was to write, although appa- 
rently a kind of blessedness very different from the present. It was then 
said, ‘‘ Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.” Now, those are said to 
be blessed who are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. We 
suppose these to be only two different figures of the same cause of beatitude. 
To die in the Lord is to be identified with Christ, (¢ 337,) or to be so 
accounted in the sight of God—dead indeed as to the matter of sin or con- 
demnation, but living to God in Jesus Christ, (Rom. vi. 11.) | So, to be 
called to the supper of the feast of the Lamb, (marriage feast understood,) 
is equivalent to partaking of the elements of that feast, the bread and the 
wine, the flesh and the blood, or the righteousness and the atonement of 
Christ; the guest being accounted, quoad hoc, identified with the host, so 
long as the two dwell together, (¢ 110.) 5 

Here, however, we suppose principles, and not disciples, to be prima- 
rily alluded to. ‘This marriage supper, or feast, is a manifestation of the 
union between the Lamb and that which is represented by the bride. 
Marriage is a rite pre-eminently identifying two parties, the husband and 
wife, making of both one. Such was the original purpose and effect of the 
institution, as we are informed by the inspired writer, (Gen. i. 24.) Such 
was contemplated to be its purpose and effect in the times of the apostles, 
and by Jesus Christ himself, and such has been the universal construction 
put upon this mysterious connection, legally and practically, throughout the 
world. The celebration of a marriage feast is the manifestation of this 
identity ; the guests at the feast bearing their testimony to the fact that the 
parties have been thus lawfully united—that henceforth they are to be 
accounted identic, being no more twain but one flesh. 


474 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL, 


Those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb apocalypti- 
cally, we accordingly suppose to be those elements of doctrine, or of reve- 
lation, bearing testimony to this identity of the Lamb with his bride. They 
are personified as human guests invited to a marriage feast, for the purpose 
of illustration, and are therefore termed blessed or happy. So, as if antici- 
pating the question from the apostle, Who are these blessed individuals? his 
angelic companion informs him, ‘These are the true sayings of God.” 
The true sayings of God being the words or elements of divine revelation, 
all these words, elements or doctrines, (as we have them in the sacred Scrip- 
tures,) are the chosen, selected instruments of proclaiming and bearing testi- 
. mony to the mystic union in contemplation ; and, as such, are spoken of as 
persons called or invited to a feast: probably the same elements as those 
represented by the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed ones, with 
the name of the Father of the Lamb written in their foreheads. 

We are confirmed in this suggestion by the consideration that no part of 
sacred Scripture can be more true than another ; neither can truth itself, as a 
predicate of matters of revelation, be subject to degrees of comparison. All 
the sayings of God, as we have them in his written word, must be true, 
although clothed in the language of fiction; and if we would draw any dis- 
tinction in this respect, the terms employed in relation to this marriage-sup- 
per of the Lamb are as evidently figurative as any other portion of the book. 


V.10. And I fell at his feet to worship = Kui ἔπεσον ἔμπροσϑεν τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ 
him. And he said unto me, See (thou πρρορκυγῆσαι αὐτῷ: καὶ λέγει μοι" ὅρα μή- 
do it) not: Tam thy fellow-servant, and "Ὁ ἢ 
of thy brethren that have the testimony 
of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony phi 
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. προςκύγησον. ἡ γὰρ μαρτυρία τοῦ ᾿ΙΠησοῦ 

ἐστι τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς προφητείας. 


4 , > \ \ Ὁ Ὁ 2 

σύνδουλος cou εἰμὶ καὶ τῶν ἀδελφῶν σου τῶν 

> 7 ‘ el ~ ~ ~ 

ἐχόντων τὴν μαρτυρίαν τοῦ Πησοῦ" τῷ ϑεῷ 
, 


§ 428. ‘And I fell at his feet,’ &c.—That is, apparently, at the feet 
of the angel, mentioned Rev. xvii. as one, or as the first of those having 
the seven vials; this angel being now about to quit the apostle, although 
perhaps to reappear, as we find from Rey. xxi. 9. The present scene 
is drawing to a close, preparatory to the presentation of a different 
spectacle. ‘The mistake of the apostle in his act of prostration, and the 
admonition of the angel, may be intended to place in a prominent point of 
view what may be called the definition of the testimony of Jesus. The 
angel describes himself to be a fellow-servant of the apostle, especially as 
being with him an instrument of developing the mysteries of the gospel. 
The messenger is put for the message—the revelation of truth, represented 
by the pouring out of either of these vials, is a message bearing testimony to 
the character and offices of Christ in his works of redemption. The same 
may be said of all prophecy, and of all interpretation of prophecy ; the 


THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS. 475 


prophet or the interpreter being put for the message or development made 
through his instrumentality, the real messengers, or angels, are the truths 
revealed. ‘The spirit, or true meaning of the prophecy, is the testimony to 
be relied upon—the testimony of Jesus; the messenger, whether angel, or 
prophet, or teacher, is himself nothing. It is the testimony only which he 
bears, that is to be the subject of consideration. This testimony is entitled to 
reverence only so far as it emanates from God ; and this, for the reason that 
God only is to be worshipped: all other beings are but instruments of 
revealing his will. 

So it may be said of every expounder or commentator of the sacred 
volume, that he is but a servant in the same cause. It is the message (not 
the messenger) that is entitled to attention ; and this only so far as it is that 
testimony of (concerning) Jesus which is in accordance with the spirit of pro- 
phecy, and in conformity with the word of God. As it is expressed by another 
fellow-servant, (2 Cor. iii. 5, 6,) ‘* Not that we are sufficient of ourselves 
to think any thing, as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who 
hath made us able ministers of the new testament ; not of the letter, but of 
the spirit : for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” The spirit, espe- 
cially of prophecy, as distinguished from the letter, is the testimony of Jesus: 
Babylon being held guilty of the blood of prophets and saints, inasmuch as 
she had suppressed this spirit, or testimony, (¢ 420.) 

The testimony of Jesus must be the things concerning him and his doc- 
trine : as, in his walk to Emmaus with two of his disciples, before alluded 
to, he showed them all that the prophets had spoken of his sufferings and 
his glory, expounding and explaining no doubt the design of these sufferings 
and the nature of this glory ; and this, in a manner to warm their hearts 
with the recital, or rather with the application of it; for of the facts they 
had themselves been eye-witnesses. ‘That he was wounded for their trans- 
gressions, and bruised for their iniquities, was a view of the subject entirely 
new to them; the spzrzt, and not the letter of this testimony, causing their 
hearts to burn within them as he opened to them the Scriptures, (Luke 
Xxiv. 32.) 

Corresponding with our views of this whole book of Revelation, as an- 
nounced at the commencenient of these remarks, (ᾧ 2,) we take it for 
granted that this testimony of Jesus is not a matter of church history, or a 
prophetic narration of events, political or ecclesiastical, in the bringing about 
of which men are to be the principal actors. It is an exhibition of the 
doctrine of Jesus. An illustration of the doctrine of God’s plan of salva- 
tion. The apostle’s mistake may be supposed to have arisen from the ap- 
prehension that the angel had been revealing those secret things which 
belong only to the Most High, and that consequently he must be himself a 


476 


SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


personification of the Deity, God manifest in Christ, on which account it 15 
that he falls down to worship ; for we cannot suppose him intentionally to 
have bowed down to worship any other being than God.* 


THE BATTLE ‘OF ARMAGEDDON. 


Vs. 11-18. And I saw heaven opened, 
and behold, a white horse; and he that 
sat upon him (was) called Faithful and 
True, and in righteousness he doth judge 
and make war. His eyes (were) as a 
flame of fire, and on his head (were) 
many crowns [diadems]; and he had a 
name written, that no man knew but him- 
self. And he (was) clothed with a vesture 
dipped in blood; and his name is called 
The Word of God. 


na as ‘ > 1 > , > 
Kai εἶδον toy orguvor ἀνεῳγμένον, καὶ 
ξδ΄ ἀρὰ , ee cas ΄ εὐὐν 
ἰδου ἵππος λευχὸς, καὶ ὁ χαϑήμενος ἐπ 
τς (ἢ , \ YB ΄ ν 
αὐτὸν χαλουμενος πιστὸς xe ἀληϑινος, καὶ 
ἐν δικαιοαύνῃ χρίνει χαὶ πολεμεῖ" ob δὲ 
2 ἐν 5 ~ σ΄ ᾿ξ , x 3% 
opFuhuot αὐτοῦ ὡς phos πυρὸς, καὶ ἐπὲ 
‘ ‘ 2 - ΄ ΄ 2» 
τὴν χεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ διαδήματα πολλά" ἔχων 
ὄνομα γεγραμμένον, 0 οὐδεὶς οἷδεν εἰ μὴ 
> ΄ “": ' c ΜΔ 
αὐτός, καὶ περιβεβλημένος ἱμάτιον βεβαμ- 
' ' ~ A ” 
μόνον αἵματι" καὶ καλεῖται τὸ ὄνομα αὖ- 


τοῦ " 0 λόγος τοῦ ϑεοῦ. 


ᾧ 499. “And I saw heaven opened.”-——We are now to carry our 
thoughts back to the state of things as they appeared on the pouring out of 
the sixth vial, (Rev. xv. 14-16.) We then left the kings of the earth 
gathered together, as im battle array, in a place called in the Hebrew tongue 
Armageddon. The gathering was brought about through the instrumen- 
tality of the spirits unclean as frogs from the mouths of the dragon, of the 
beast, and of the false prophet ; but the efficient cause of the assemblage 
was the purpose of the Almighty God. We were then told, too, that He 
(the Lord) was to come as a thief—+that is, to meet these powers of the 
earth in the battle of the great day. After this, our attention was called to 
the effects of the pouring out of the seventh vial—the earthquake, the thun-~ 
der, and the hail, the fall of the cities of the nations, and the falling asunder 
of the three parts of the great city. All these may be considered _concom~ 
itants of the preparation for the great battle, adding, as we may imagine, 
desperation to the purpose of the kings, whose cities are thus overthrown, 
and whose subjects are blaspheming God on account of the exceeding great 
plague of the hazl. 

We were not however then made acquainted with the arrangements of 
the force to be brought against these kings ; we could only presume that such 


* This verse should have closed the chapter ; the recital of the destruction of the 
falso system, represented hy the Harlot and Babylon, having here terminated with 
the choral scene of rejoicing, in which a sommary view 15 taken of the blessed results 
of this triumphant manifestation of truth. We consider the seventh and eighth verses. 
of this chapter as bringing us up to the eve of the marriage celebration, for. which the 
Lamb’s bride is said to be prepared ; nearly equivalent in the pracess ef develop~ 
ment to the first and second, verses of the twenty-first chapter. 


HEAVEN OPENED. 477 


arrangements were in preparation. Nor did we then learn the character 
and power of the champion destined to lead this opposing force ; we were 
only admonished that his coming would be sudden and unexpected. 

In this stage of the revelation, our minds were summoned away with 
the apostle to the wilderness ; and we have since been occupied with the 
episodical narrative of the decline and fall of Babylon in the duplex char- 
racter under which she has been placed before us. | We suppose, figura- 
tively speaking, her final destruction, unless the two figures are equivalents, 
to synchronize with the issue of the great battle now about to be witnessed, 
although in the account we have had of her no allusion at all is made to 
that battle. If we were to sketch a representation of the scene as we sup- 
pose it should be depicted, while we place in front of the picture the rout of 
the forees under the command of the Beast, and the victorious career of the 
Rider of the white horse, we should give in the background a view of the 
burning city, with the smoke of its ruins, amidst the lamentations of the 
spectators, rising up forever and ever. 

On former occasions the apostle had seen a door opened in heaven—he 
had seen the temple and the tabernacle opened in heaven, and he had seen 
different exhibitions as from heaven, or in heaven; but this is the first time 
in which he tells us that he saw heaven opened. ‘This expression we ac- 
cordingly consider the designation of an extraordinary revelation or develop- 
ment of truth. 

Henceforth (ἀπάρτι), from this time, it was said to Nathaniel, ye shall 
see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the 
Son of man. ‘To see heaven opened is, we apprehend, as before suggested, 
($114,) to enjoy a spiritual discernment of the whole view of divine govern- 
ment presented by revelation. ‘To see the angels of God ascending and de 
scending upon (concerning) the Son of man, is to enjoy a like discernment 
-of the gradual development of the mystery of Jesus ; as tosee the Son of man 
descending from heaven, is to see Jesus in his true character as the Lord 
our righteousness, So we may consider the opening of heaven, in the pres- 
ent passage, to be a revelation of the character and attribates of Christ as 
he is here described, under the figure of a warlike champion issuing forth to 
a contest, of the result of which He has no occasion to be doubtful, 

§ 430. ‘ And behold a white horse,’ &c,—At the opening of the first 
seal (Rey. vi. 2) a white horse was also seen, and he that sat upon him 
was said to go forth armed with a bow and furnished with a victor’s crown, 
conquering and to conquer. In the present case, although the rider is dif- 
ferently described, we can have little doubt but that the two figures refer to 
the same champion. In both, the sustaining power, the horse, is of the same 
appearance ; this animal being the war-horse or charger, (ᾧ 146,) and, 
as such, a part of the equipment or armour of the combatant. In this, as 


4185 SEVENTH SEAL._SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


in the first case, we suppose the white horse to represent the power of 
divine righteousness ; this righteousness being the same, whether exercised 
in the work of salvation, or exhibited in the manifestation of that work. 
The sinner is saved, and saved only through the intervention of the merits 
of Christ, by the imputation of which he is justified in the sight of God; 
and the error of self-justification—the error of the whole system of the reign 
of self—is to be overcome by a just exhibition of the process of this inter- 
vening nghteousness. 

There are two kinds of contest contemplated in this Apocalypse, in which 
Christ is engaged, as we have before intimated: one in which the element 
of propitiation overcomes the powers of the law. Here he is more particu- 
larly represented as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world; 
although he is also represented, in the war in heaven, as Michael the con- 
queror of the accuser—overcoming the power of the accuser, and overcom- 
ing the powers of the law, being nearly equivalent figures. The other con- 
test is that, in which the manifestation of the truths pertaining to this salva- 
tion is to overcome all opposite errors upon the subject, and especially the 
errors represented by the kingdom of the beast, (self,) and of all connected 
with the monster. 

This last contest we suppose to be that m which the rider of the white 
horse is now about to engage; the exhibition of the saving power of divine 
righteousness being as necessary to overcome the errors of self-exaltation, 
as the exercise of that righteousness in behalf of the sinner is necessary to 
overcome the powers of condemnation: accordingly, the figure of the white 
horse is equally appropriate in both representations. 

‘And he. that sat upon him (was) called Faithful and True.’—That is, 
such are his attributes ; his name beg spoken of afterwards—as it is said, 
1 John i. 9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our 
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The faithfulness and 
even the justice of Christ (of God in Christ) is manifested by his fulfilment 
of his own free and gracious promises of pardon. An unjust magistrate 
might induce the confession of a criminal by promises of mercy, and after- 
wards use that confession against him for his ruin. But Jesus is faithful. 
He calls upon the sinner to unburden himself of his guilt by a free 
admission of it, and he has promised rest (relief) to all who thus lay their 
burden at his feet. 

He is true—he is the truth itself. In Christ there is a fountain opened 
for the washing away of all sin and uncleanness, and all that come unto 
this fountain shall be washed and cleansed. This is the truth as it is in 
Jesus; and to come unto Christ, is to come to this truth—to come te that 
which is pre-erminently true. 

As in any ordinary contest hetween two contending parties as to the 


- 


THE CONQUEROR. 479 


validity of their rights, it is all-important that they should each establish a 
character for veracity; so here the champion is represented to be going 
forth to a contest (a contest in effect between truth and error) with the 
important qualification of a character of fidelity and trath—so much so 
as to be known especially by the dtle, “ Faithful and True.” 

‘ And in righteousness he doth judge and make war.’—Or with, by means 
of (ἐν) righteousness or justice, shall he discriminate and contend ; for it is 
a polemical exhibition that is about to be made; as it is said, Is. xxviii. 
17, “ Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plum- 
met.” As the plummet in the hand of the architect, so is righteousness 
with this combatant the instrument or means of discrimination—not only of 
judging, but of manifesting judgment. The effect of exhibiting the character 
and nature of true righteousness, is to show the deficiency of all that comes 
short of it; so, by showing the extent of that righteousness which the law 
requires, the impossibility of fulfilling this legal requisition by human merits 
is exhibited, and the call for bringing in an everlasting righteousness is made 
manifest. 

§ 431. ‘ His eyes (were) as a flame of fire.’—The figure of the cham- 
pion is here identified with the form of the Son of man seen in the midst of 
the golden candlesticks, Rev. i. 13; his eyes of flame (ᾧ 30) indicating 
instruments of trial: the eyes of Him that looketh upon the heart—of Him 
who trieth the motive of the action, as well as the deed itself. 

‘ And on his head (were) many crowns ;’ or rather, diadems, (δῷ 272, 
294 ;)—the word translated many signifying not merely several, hut a 
Jarge number, a multitude. The dragon bore seven diadems, the beast ten, 
the rider of the white horse a multitude. ‘The two first had certain limited 
tokens of sovereignty ; the tokens or evidences of supreme power of the last 
are unlimited, infinite. A warrior going forth upon his charger could not 
be spoken of as seated upon a throne. In place of this figure, therefore, 
the infinite number of his diadems sets forth his attribute of sovereignty ; 
and this attribute is one of the weapons by which he maintains the contest, 
and obtains the victory: he could not do either without it. So, without a 
just exhibition of the sovereignty of God, the truth of salvation by grace 
cannot be manifested, nor the errors of self-justification overcome. 

‘ And he had a name written, that no man [no one] knew but himself.’— 
Not his own name, but a name perhaps peculiarly cherished and known 
only to him. His own name is expressly announced in the next verse. The 
diadem was a band or fillet, capable of having a name embroidered upon it. 
We suppose, although it is not so expressed, this name to be written upon 
the multitude of diadems—the same name upon all of them; as the beast 
from the sea had the one name of blasphemy upon his seyen heads, The 


480 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


name blasphemy, was characteristic of the pretensions of the beast: the 
name upon these diadems must characterize something intimately connected 
with these numerous evidences of sovereignty. There may be an allusion 
to this name in the prediction, Isaiah Ixii. 2,3: ‘ And thou shalt be called 
by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name ;” the wearing of 
this name in the diadem being also a figure equivalent to that indicated by 
the expression, Is. xlix. 16: “Ihave graven thee upon the palms of my 
hands.” So the high priest was to bear not his own name, but the names 
of the children of Israel upon his two shoulders, (Ex. xxviii. 9-12, and 21.) 
There may be also an allusion to the same name, Jer. xxxiii. 16, as the 
name granted to the peculiar object of divine favour. As the name, how- 
ever, is declared to be known only to Him who knoweth all things, we 
cannot be expected to define it. On the other hand, we do not suppose 
the mention of it to have been introduced without the design of encouraging 
our investigations with respect to it. The name, as well as its opposite, that 
of the beast, must remain for the present untold, 

ᾧ 432. ‘And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood.’—Some 
light may be thrown on this passage by comparing it with a corresponding 
picture presented by the prophet Isaiah, (Is, Ixiii. 1-4.) 

“Who is he that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? 
This that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his 
strength ? 

“1 that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. 

“Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him 
that treadeth in the wine-fat ? 

“1 have trodden the wine-press alone ; and of the people [nations or 
Gentiles, τῶν ἐθνῶν, Sept.] there was none with me: for 1 will tread them 
in mine anger, and trample them in my fury ; and their blood shall be sprin- 
kled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment, For the day of 
vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.” 

It seems strange that He who thus speaks of himself as mighty to save, 
should immediately afterwards declare his determination to destroy, and 
this with vengeance and fury ; while, at the same time, the reason given 
for this exhibition of wrath is, that the year of the redeemed has come. 
We can adopt no other construction than that of supposing this vengeance 
to be directed, not against the sinner, (the subject of redemption,) but 
against the principles of error misrepresenting the work of this redemption ; 
and thus throwing a stumbling-block in the way of disciples, and robbing 
God of the glory especially due to Him as a Saviour. 

This appears more distinctly by referring to a previous passage, (Is. lix. 
14~17,) where the prevalence of error is particularly the subject of com- 


THE WORD OF GOD. 481 


plaint ; and seems to be assigned as the cause of a manifestation of truth, 
of the same character as that under consideration. .‘ And judgment,” it 
is said, “is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth 
is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter; yea, truth faileth, and he 
that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey,” (‘is accounted mad,” 
margin ;) ‘and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no 
judgment :’—because there was no discrimination between truth and error, 
ὅτι οὐκ ἦν χρίσις ; and therefore, apparently, it is added, “ he put on righteous- 
ness as a breastplate, and a helment of salvation upon his head,” &c. ‘The 
exhibition of the means by which God’s work of salvation has been 
wrought, being the weapon for overcoming and destroying the errors in 
contemplation. 

As the name Edom signifies red, earthy, or bloody,* and as Bozrah 
was a city of Edom, we suppose the figure of coming from Edom to be 
equivalent to a coming from man’s position under the law ; the position of 
the sinner obnoxious to the penalty of the broken law. To come from 
Edom with garments dyed red, must be equivalent to bearing the evidence 
of having endured this penalty. The prophet, accordingly, is supposed in 
spirit to be addressing the Redeemer subsequently to the completion of his 
propitiatory work: a work performed by him alone—a work in which no 
element of human merit, no Gentile power, had a part. As he says of the 
nations, or Gentiles, there was not a man with me, τῶν ἐθνῶν οὐκ ἔστιν ἀνὴρ 
wet ἐμοῦ, (Sept.) And yet it would appear that these very Gentiles, or 
self-righteous principles, claimed the glory of the work ; and for this reason 
are represented as making war against the Redeemer. ‘Therefore it is, that 
after having trodden the wine-press alone, the year of his redeemed being 
come, when the truth of salvation by grace is to be manifested, the Author 
of that salvation now goes forth to vindicate the truth ; putting on for this 
purpose the garments of vengeance for a clothing, and being clad with zeal 
as a cloak ; exhibiting at the same time his dyed garments as the evidences 
wherewith to vindicate his title to the glory of the only Redeemer. We 
suppose the circumstances, and attributes, and object of the Rider of the 
white horse, in this passage of the Apocalypse, to be parallel with this repre- 
sentation of the prophet. The work of redemption has been accomplished ; 
the vesture dipped in blood bears testimony to it. But the nations, (the 
Gentiles,) the elements of self-righteousness—pretended powers of human 
merit—these claim the glory of the work of salvation for the beast} (self.) 
They have arrayed themselves under his standard, and, led by their ruling 
principles, (the kings of the earth,) they are now set in order of battle on 
the field of Armageddon against the Lord, and against his Anointed. The 


* Edom pis Rufus, sive terrenus, aut sanguineus, (Onomas. Leusden.) 


482. SEVENTH SEAL._SEVENTH TRUMPET —SEVENTH VIAL. 


very peculiarity of the array—the enemy being summoned by unclean 
spirits from the mouths of the accuser, the beast and the false prophet, 
and, as we shall find, being headed by the beast—affords evidence that the 
object of the expedition now describing, is to vindicate truth and to sup- 
press error. ' 

§ 433. ‘ And his name is called the Word of God,’ (ὁ λόγος τοῦ ϑεοῦ.) 
—This appellation, as we have already noticed, (¢ 147,) is peculiarly 
adapted to a personification of the Deity ; the Word of God being put for 
the decision of the divine mind, as the word of man expresses the decision 
of the human mind. The going forth of the Word of God may be put for 
the act of execution, or for that of revelation. By the word of the Lord 
were the heavens made, and all of the host of them by the breath of his 
mouth: here the word went forth in its execution—the work of creation :— 
as it is also said, Heb. xi. 3, The worlds were framed by the word of God. 
There is a like going forth of the mind of God in the works of his provi- 
dence, upholding all things by the Word of his power. “He sendeth forth 
his commandments, and his word runneth very swiftly.” So, in the work 
of redemption, the same Word went forth, when He who was the express 
image of the Father was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us ;—when he 
died for our sins, and was raised for our justification. Or, rather, this was a 
going forth in the work of manifestation: the Word of God virtually going 
forth in the work of redemption, in every instance in which his righteousness 
is imputed to the objects of his mercy for their justification. 

Besides this, the Word of God goes forth in every revelation made of 
the decision of the divine mind. The promulgation of the glad tidings of 
salvation is a going forth of the Word of God. The peculiar inspiration with 
which prophets and apostles have been favoured, is a going forth of the Word 
of God. The editing and circulation of the sacred Scriptures—from the 
line first committed to writing, to the stereotyped millions of copies which 
now cover the earth—are a going forth of the Word of God. So the expo- 
sition and development of the true meaning of these Scriptures, wherever 
these are made, and whatever may be the instrumentality, are a going forth 
of the Word of God. This last we suppose to be more especially that 
going forth contemplated in this representation of the Apocalypse ; the 
development of the peculiar truths of the mystery of redemption constituting 
that going forth of the Word, which is here represented by the action of the 
Rider of the white horse. 

We must judge of the nature of the going forth by the occasion on 
which the figure is employed. Here, the occasion is a contest with the 
beast and false prophet, and the forces under their command ; a contest 
between truth and error. A peculiar revelation of the decision of the 
divine mind, in reference to the plan of redemption, is the display of sove- 


= σ  ἉΨΑ)ι ΦΉΣ ΣΝ - 


THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. 


483 


reign power here called for. The work of salvation has been accomplished ; 
it remains only to manifest its truth by a development necessarily resulting 
in the destruction of every opposing error. 


Vs. 14-16. And the armies (which 
were) in heaven followed him upon white 
horses, clothed in fine linen, white and 
clean. And out of his mouth goeth a 
sharp sword, that with it he should smite 
the nations: and he shall rule them with 
arod of iron; and he treadeth the wine- 
press of the fierceness and wrath of Al- 
mighty God. And he hath on (his) ves- 
ture and on his thigh a name written, 


KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF 


- av J , ‘ , ~ " 
Kul τὰ στρατεύματα τὰ ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ 
> , > - ae [- υ bi 
yxohovdse αὐτῷ ἐφ᾽ ἵπποις λευκοῖς, ἐνδεδυ- 
μένοι βύσσινον λευκὺν καϑαρόν. Kur ἐκ 
- , ? - > ’ « ’ 
TOU στόματος αὐτοῦ ἐκπορεύετα 
ru « M > " )- Be ‘ 7 ibid 
Osta, wa sy χυτὴ Matusy τὰ ἔϑνη" καὶ 
> ‘ ~ ? ‘ ᾿ © ~ 
αὐτὸς ποιμανεῖ αὐτοὺς ἐν ῥάβδῳ σιδηρᾷ, 
Ἢ «δὲ ἐν ~» A sd ᾿ = 
καὶ αὐτὸς πατεῖ τὴν ληνὸν τοῦ οἴγου τοῦ 
~~ - > - - - - 
ϑυμοῦ τῆς ogyig τοῦ ϑεοῦ τοῦ παντοχρά- 
ee ) ‘ , 5 
τορος. Καὶ ἔχει ent τὸ ἱμάτιον καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν 


LORDS. 


μηρὸν αὑτοῦ ὄνομα γεγραμμένον" βασιλεὺς 
βασιλέων καὶ κύριος κυρίων. 

$434. ‘ And the armies,’ &c.—As the Lamb slain from the founda- 
tion of the world, the Word of God accomplished the work of redemption 
alone. What we have now to contemplate, however, is not the work itself, 
but the revelation of it. In this revelation all the powers of heaven are repre- 
sented as being engaged. , All the elements of the representation of divine 
government, figuratively termed heaven, co-operate with the going forth of 
the Word in the manifestation and vindication of evangelical truth. Both 
the leader and his armies are sustained by the same exhibition of divine 
righteousness ; the auxiliary elements of gospel truth depending upon the 
principle of salvation by imputed righteousness for their own efficacy and 
power, as the warrior depends upon his horse. 

So too they appear clothed in the same imputed perfection ;* the exhibi- 
tion of this raiment being to them an armour or means of defence ; as every 
element of doctrine belonging to God’s plan of salvation depends for the 
evidence of its verity upon this characteristic, that it tends to exhibit the 
interposition of divine righteousness in behalf of the sinner, as the efficient 
instrument of justification. 

The Leader is arrayed in a blood-red garment, while his followers are 
clothed in white robes. So Christ assumes the penalty, and wears the garb 
of the transgressor, in order that his followers may be clothed in the white 
robe of his righteousness ; as it is said of the multitudes spoken of, Rey. vii. 
9-15, These are they who have washed their robes, and made them white 
in the blood of the Lamb ; and as, on the other hand, Jesus was arrayed by 


* The heavenly armies are arrayed not merely in fine linen, but in fine linen white 
and clean, or white clean. The term (λευκὸν xa ϑαρόν) is not so significant of resplen- 
dent transparency, as that applied to the array of the wife of the Lamb, (λαμπρὸν 
χαϑαρόν :) and which is also employed in describing the attire of the seven angels 
from the temple, Rev. xv. 6; although their pure and white linen (λίνον,) is not the 
fine linen (βύσσινον) said to be the righteousness of the saints, (Rev. xix. 8.) 


484 SEVENTH SEAL..-SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


the soldiers prior to his execution in a purple robe, in mockery on their part, 
but, according to the counsel of God, apparently to typify the penal conse- 
quences, of which he assumed the burden when he was “ wounded for our 
transgressions,’ and when ‘the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all,” 
([5. lit. 5.) The evidence of this transmutation, as we may call it, is itself 
a weapon with which the advocates of truth go forth to contend with their 


> 


opponents, the beast, the false prophet, and his forces. 

The term translated armies is said (Rob. Lex. 707) to signify some- 
times, by implication, the body-guard of the commander-in-chief. In this 
particular the armies in heaven, as followers of the Word of God, may be 
equivalent to the one hundred and forty-four thousand attendants of the 
Lamb, (ὁ 326,) a chosen band of principles, the elements of the com- 
bined testimony of the old and new dispensations. 

‘ And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword.’—The sword of the Spirit— 
the revealed word of God, (Eph. vi. 17.) Not merely the decision of the 
divine mind, but the revelation of that decision ; the one being put for the 
other. The sharp sword out of the mouth of the Word of God, we suppose 
to be the written word of God, in its proper spiritual sense ; according with 
the idea already adopted of the nature of the controversy here represented— 
a manifestation of the true principles of redemption, through the instrumen- 
tality of the written word, brought to act upon the elements of an opposite 
system or systems. In the contest between the divine purpose of mercy 
and the requisitions of the law, the Lamb (the element of propitiation) is 
the instrument by which the latter is overcome, (Rev. xvi. 14,) and the 
accuser of the brethren is overcome by the blood of the Lamb, (Rev. xi. 
11 :) but, in the contest between truth and error, the revealed word is the 
weapon of the conqueror. ‘The written word, even as ordinarily under- 
stood, may be said to be the sword of the Lord; but its sharpness is its 
spiritual sense. Indeed, unless understood in this latter sense, it can hardly 
be said to be unsheathed to human apprehension, (Ezek. xxi. 1-17, 28.) 
The sword from the mouth of the rider of the white horse is a sharp sword, 
drawn from its scabbard; it is the revealed word properly understood, 
piercing to the dividing asunder—discriminating between the natural and 
the spiritual meaning ; or rather, when fully displayed, carrying with it 
these two meanings, corresponding with the action of the two-edged sword 
out of the mouth of the one like unto the Son of man, (Rev. 1. 16.) 

§ 435. ‘That with it he should [or may] smite the nations.’—Strike 
down or beat down—zearesow by implication sometimes. signifying to kill ; 
as, Acts vil. 24, πατάξας τὸν “Τἰγύπτιον, He smote the Egyptian. What the 
nations represent, may be gathered from the character of the weapon em- 
ployed against them. They are to be smitten with the revelation of truth, 
the revealed word of God. They are not, therefore, political bodies, or 


> 


| 


THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. 485 


assemblages of human beings, but powers, as we have heretofore supposed 
them to be, of a system of error—the earthly system. The nations to be 
smitten are powers under the control of the kings or chiefs summoned 
together by the three spirits unclean as frogs. They are now gathered 
together at the place appointed, where they are to be met and smitten by 
Him, out of whose mouth the sharp sword proceedeth ; an oral weapon : it 
is not even represented as wielded in the hand, or girt upon the thigh. In 
the employment of this weapon man may be an apparent instrument, but 
the power really in operation is the Word of God ; as it is said, (Is. xl. 4,) 
“ He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of 
his lips he shall slay the wicked’’—* that Wicked, whom the Lord shall 
consume (as it is also said) with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the 
brightness of his coming,” (2 Thess. ii. 8.) This last expression referring, 
as we apprehend, to the spiritual sense in which the word of divine revela- 
tion is to be understood ; the same operation being sometimes represented 
as that of a fire, at others as that of an oral sword; as, (Is. ix. 6,) “For 
every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in 
blood ; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire ;’ and, (Is. Ixvi. 15, 
16,) “ For behold the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a 
whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire ; 
for by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh, and the slain 
of the Lord shall-be many.” 

If we render the term nations by Gentiles, (ᾧ 80,) the illustration will be 
the more obvious ;—Gentiles standing in relation to the inhabitants of Jeru- 
salem figuratively, as elements of all human systems of doctrine stand in 
relation to the principles of the divine economy of salvation. All elements 
not belonging to this true economy, must be smitten, destroyed, or overcome, 
when the truth is finally and fully manifested. 

‘And he shall rule them with a rod of iron.—The word rendered rule 
having a pastoral allusion, (ᾧ 83,) the whole expression carries us back to 
the promise given to him that overcometh, (Rev. ii. 27.) The Saviour 
there promises to give to rule ashe had received of his Father; we now see 
what he has received, (for this word of God is the same Word that was 
made flesh and dwelt among us, John i. 14.) We have before considered 
this rod as an emblem of complete and perfect sovereign sway. To say 
that the Deity, as such, has control over the nations of the earth, in the 
ordinary sense, would be the assertion of a mere truism. [{ is a position to 
be disputed by none but an Atheist. Taking these nations or Gentiles, 
however, as powers or elements of doctrinal systems, and contemplating this 
rod as some peculiar principle of the divine system of government, there 
seems to be a reason for revealing to us the fact that to this controlling prin- 


Φ 


486 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


ciple all others shall be manifested to be subordinate: as much so as a flock 
of sheep would be when under the guidance and direction of a shepherd 
leading and controlling them with an iron rod or staff. ‘This staff in the 
hand of a shepherd we suppose to be equivalent to a sceptre in the hand of 
a king, (ᾧ 276 ;) and, as it is said of the Most High, “ A sceptre of right- 
eousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom,” so we suppose this principle, em- 
ployed as an instrument in controlling all other principles, to be what we 
term the element of imputable righteousness, or something of the same char- 
acter; this element, so peculiar to the economy of grace, being that which 
manifests most directly the sovereignty of God. 

§ 436. ‘And he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of 
Almighty God.’—Or, according to our Greek, He treadeth the wine-press 
of the wine of the vehemence of the wrath of God; this fierceness, or 
vehemence bearing, as appears from the Septuagint, the same signification 
as the term fury, in the picture presented by the prophet of the warrior 
In that description the treading of the wine-press is spoken of 
in the past tense as something done, finished. Here, it appears to be some- 
thing doing. The verb is in the present tense. If the allusion be to the 
Saviour’s work of atonement, this also may be spoken of, both as a thing 
done, and as continually being done. ‘The interposition of the merits of 
Christ in behalf of the sinner is something continually in operation, as it is 
said, (Heb. vii. 25,) ‘ Wherefore he is able also to save them to the utter- 
most that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession 
for them ;” this intercession being not a mere oral pleading, but a vertual in- 
tercession—the atonement and righteousness of Christ virtually and perpetu- 
ally pleading for the pardon and justification of his people. In this sense 
he treadeth continually the wine-press of wrath, and performs the work 
alone; but we cannot suppose him to be represented on the present occa- 
sion as doing the same thing, or about to do the same thing with the aid of 


from Edom. 


the armies of heaven. 
In the contest with error, the fact of the continual virtual intercession of 


Christ, as above set forth, is an argument calculated to overcome a certain 
portion of the pretensions of self-justification ; as if we supposed the polemical 
champions on the side of the beast to admit a full and sufficient atonement to 
have been once made by the Lamb, and the disciple on his first conversion to 
have availed himself of it; but subsequently to this they say, whatever sins 
he commits, he must atone for them himself. Here is an error to be com- 
bated by an exhibition of the truth, that this treading of the wine-press is a 
process, in the sight of God, in continual operation. ‘The Leader of the hea- 
venly armies, therefore, goes forth with this qualification. As his blood- 
stained garment, and the white robes of his followers, show the work of sub- 


S 


THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. 487 


stitution to have been once accomplished ; so the fact, that the operation is 
continual, is equally a weapon of the advocates of the truth. We prefer 
this construction as most in keeping with the figure. 

The warrior is going forth to the battle, and the enemies’ forces are known 
to be assembled in a certain position; but the two parties are not yet re- 
presented as having encountered each other. The WORD has the sword 
of the Spirit, that he may,* or with which he shall, strike the nations: that 
is, when the great conflict takes place; but he already treads the wine- 
press—which, indeed, is part of his preparation for the coming contest ; 
although it is not a part of the contest itself. 

We suppose the only other construction would be, that this treading of 
the wine-press represents the execution of divine wrath, that the Word of 
God is here represented as the executive officer of infinite Justice, and that 
as such he is now going forth to execute wrath upon the enemies’ host. If 
this be correct, this host is still that of the beast and the false prophet—of 
the evil principle se/f, and the delusive element, false interpretation. The 
forces under these two commanders (the beast and his aid) are erroneous 
principles, and not human beings ; and it is accordingly against these prin- 
ciples that this wrath is directed in the representation here made. There 
is no reason to suppose that the battle about being described represents the 
judgment, or the punishment to be administered in a future state of exist- 
ence ; still less a defeat and slaughter of certain military forces of this world, 
in the ordinary sense of the term. 

§ 437. ‘And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written.’ 
—The same vesture as that said to be dipped in blood; the garment 
with the name upon it thus serving the warrior for a cuirass. The thigh, 
with the wrestler as well as with the treader of the wine-press, was proba- 
bly considered the limb most calculated for an exhibition of strength. The 
Greek term (μηρόν) may apply in this case to the upper part of the thigh, 
to which the sword was usually attached ; the girding of the sword upon 
the thigh being indicative of equipment for battle. Here the warrior, 
instead of a sword, exhibits his all-powerful name, or title—corresponding 
with the language of the Psalmist, ‘The name of the God of Jacob defend 
thee.” *‘In the name of our God will we set up our banners.” ‘Some 
trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the 
Lord our God.” Ps. xx. 1, 5, 7. And Prov. xviii. 10, “The name of the 
Lord is a strong tower.” So the miracles performed by the apostles of Jesus 
Christ were done in his name—by the power or virtue of his name. 

‘King of kings, and Lord of lords.’—We have already had occasion to 
remark upon this name, (ὃ 395,) considering it, when applied to the Lamb, 


* Πατάσσῃ, according to some editions. Y. 
40 


- 


488 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


expressive of the ascendency of the element of divine propitiation over 
every principle or element of legal requisition ; the fact that the Lamb is 
Lord of lords and King of kings, being assigned as the reason for his over- 
coming the ten horns, (Rev. xvit. 14.) But there is still a further peculiari- 
ty of this name here developed. This title of the Lamb is asserted to be 
also the name of the Word of God: the name which is to serve in the 
present contest as the means both of offence and defence. 

According to our usual association of ideas, the term Lord of lords 
appears to be something subordinate to that of King of kings, as we have 
ourselves before considered it only as equivalent to Master of masters; but 
it may have here a more important signification. The word Κύριος, (Lord,) 
although applied in the Septuagint promiscuously to God and man, is almost 
uniformly employed also to express the proper name of the true God, (Je- 
hovah*)—a name which the Jewish compilers of that version prebably 
considered too sacred to be incorporated into a heathen language. ‘They 
accordingly made use of the noun Κύριος to express the proper name Jah, 
and Jehovah, and Adonai-Jehovah, although on some occasions the term 
ὁ ϑεός (God) was sometimes used by them for the same purpose. It might 
be said of the Greeks in the times of the apostles, as it was said even of the 
early patriarchs, (Ix. vi. 3,) although they had, learnt something of the true 
God, by his name JEHOVAH he was not known to them. 'The name was 
not known in the Greek language, and for this reason, perhaps, it does not 
appear in the New Testament. We cannot but suppose, however, that 
there is in that portion of the sacred writings an equivalent for it. Such an 
equivalent we think may be found in the name borne upon the vesture and 
the thigh of the rider of the white horse. It is the all-powerful name of 
Jehovah of Hosts, which gives to the blood-stained garment its protecting 
quality, and exhibits itself as an irresistible weapon on the thigh of tie con- 
queror. 

The representation here given us of the going forth of the Word of God, 
appears intended to illustrate the mysterious truth, that Jehovah our right- 
eousness is the power by which the wine-press of wrath has been trodden ; 
and that it is by the manifestation of this truth that the errors opposed to a 
just exhibition of the economy of grace are to be overcome. As it is said, 
(Ps. xliv. 5,) “ Through thee (Jehovah) will we push down our enemies ; 
through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.” ‘The 
all-prevailing argument in favour of the economy of grace, is this important 


m1 nomen vert Der (Rad. min vel AN), κύριος, Dominus. κ Index Ἠοὺ.. 
asin Idem (Rad. A57 yivoum, sum), ᾿ἀδωναὶ κύριος, Idem. Set Chald. 
See also Concord. Tromm. Tom. I. 944. 


* κύριος, Dominus, W", passim omnes. Lex. Gr. ad Hexayla. 
Tromm 


THE HERALD OF DEFIANCE. 


489 


truth, that the name of the perpetual Intercessor, Substitute, and Redeemer, 
is JEHOVAH of Hosts, the King of kings. | 


Vs. 17, 18. And I saw an angel stand- 
ing in the sun; and he cried with a loud 
voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in 
the midst of heaven, Come, and gather 
yourselves together unto the supper of 
the great God; that ye may eat the flesh 
of kines, and the flesh of captains, and 
the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of 
horses, and of them that sit on them, and 
the flesh of all (men, both) free and bond, 


- ; ” ~ ~ 
Kat εἶδον ἕνα uyyshoy ἑστῶτα ἐν τῷ 
Cae \» - , ᾿ ~ 
ἡλίῳ: καὶ ἔχραξε φωνὴ μεγάλη, λέγων πᾶσι 
~ 3 ’ ~ ' » J 
τοῖς ὀρνέοις τοῖς πετομένοις ἐν μεσουρανή- 
~ ’ » ~ , 
ματι" δεῦτε, συνάχϑητε εἰς τὸ δεῖπνον τὸ 
᾿ ~ - ᾿ , , ᾽ 
μέγα τοῦ ϑεοῦ, ἵνα φύγητε σάρκας ϑασιλέων 
\ ’ ΄ \ ΄ πω 
καὶ σάρκας χιλιάρχων καὶ σάρκας ἰσχυρῶν, 
ἈΝ ’ \ ~ ' , 
καὶ σάρκας ἵππων καὶ τῶν καϑημένων ἐπ 
δ. τῷ , , , " 
αὐτῶν, καὶ σάρκας πάντων ἐλευδέρων τὸ Kot 


both small and great. δούλων, καὶ μικρῶν καὶ μεγύλων. 


ᾧ 438. ‘ And I saw an angel,’ &c.—Having completed a description of 
the heavenly force with its divine Leader, and the earthly powers having been 
previously set forth, (Rev. xvi. 14,) we now come to what may be termed 
the proclamation of defiance, as by the voice of a herald, on the eve of a 
general engagement. 

The appearance of the sun we suppose to be symbolical of a manifesta- 
tion of Christ, the Sun of righteousness. An angel or messenger, standing 
in the sun, may be supposed to be equivalent to the revelation of some 
principle of truth—some element of doctrine indicating the approaching 
destruction of the errors, and systems of errors, represented by those whose 
flesh is thus to be devoured or consumed. The crying of the angel with a 
loud voice. is indicative of the powerful nature of the revelation made. 

‘ Saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven ;’ or, in the mid 
heaven, (δ 205.)—The birds thus addressed are carnivorous birds, (dgreor.)) 
As such they would appear to be of the same genus as the unclean and: 
hateful bird domiciled in the ruins of Babylon, but there may be a differ— 
ence between these birds encaged in that city of desolation, and those flying 
in the midst of heaven. If we consider the mid-heaven a revelation equiva- 
lent to that of the legal dispensation, or to an exhibition of divine govern- 
ment peculiar to that dispensation, we may then consider these birds of prey 
as legal elements, principles of law, by which all pretensions of human merit 
are necessarily tried. ‘The unclean and hateful birds of Babylon are legal 
elements, nourished by and confined to a mixed system.* 

‘Come, gather yourselves together to the supper of the great God ;’ or, 
according to some editions, Come, assemble to the great supper of God. 
‘The supper of the ancient Hebrews being the principal meal of the day, 


* The birds flying in the midst of heaven, or birds of the air, may be such as the 
eagle, vulture, &c.; carnivorous birds flying at a great height from the earth. The 
- unclean hirds dwelling in Babylon may be such as the owl, the pelican, and the bat, 
anima's οἵ ἃ mixed character, keeping near the earth. Both are unfit for food, but 
the latter are especially an abomination, Lev. xi. 13-20. 


490 SEVENTH SEAL.—_SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


($110.) The word γάμος, indicative of a feast, is not here employed. The 
supper is a feast to these mid-heaven elements, but the oceasion is not that 
with which the idea of festal enjoyment can be associated ; it is an opposite 
or converse of the marriage feast. At the same time, as to cause and 
effect, the two occasions are identic ; the manifestation of truth causing the 
destruction of error, and the destruction of error being a means of the 
exhibition of truth ; the same result affording a festal scene to one party and 
an occasion of dismay and despair to the other. 

‘ The supper of the great God’ may be considered a term in contra- 
distinction to the supper of the Lamb ; the difference being equivalent to 
that between the attribute of divine justice and the attribute of sovereign 
mercy, or between the wine of the wrath of God, and the new wine of pro- 
pitiation. 

‘That ye may cat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains,’ &c.— 
This figure reminds us of the action of the ten horns in the destruction of 
the harlot, (Rev. xvii. 16;) as it is said, they shall eat her flesh, &c. 
Flesh we suppose to be a figure of righteousness or moral perfection—merits, 
either real or pretended, as means of justification in the sight of God, (ᾧ 397.) 
The word in the original is m the plural, corresponding with the prophet’s 
term of righteousnesses, and with the δικαιώματα of Paul, (Rom. ii. 27.) 
The use of the term here is evidently applicable to false pretensions, such 
as cannot withstand the requisitions of the law. ‘These kings, captains, 
mighty men, horses and their riders, men bond and free, small and great, 
apparently represent false doctrines, or principles of such doctrines, of every 
grade and variety ; their fleshes being the means of justification they seve- 
rally profess to furnish. The time has now come when these erroneous 
principles are to be put to the test; the day of the LORD’S vengeance, 
and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion, (Is. xxxiv. 8 ; ]xii. 
4 :)—the ereat day of discrimination, the period of retributive discrimination, 
“Ἡμέρα χρίσεως Κυρίου, καὶ ἐνιαυτὸς ἀνταποδόσεως κρίσεως Σιών. 

The trial about to be represented as a great battle, is identic with that 
elsewhere spoken of as a trial by the agency of fire; the birds of prey are 
such as are usually known to accompany large armies on their march, and 
especially to hover over them on the eve of battle, and during the conflict. 
The language of the herald is a figure of speech expressive of the certainty 
with which the speaker contemplates the defeat and slaughter of the enemy ; 
the giving of the flesh to birds of prey implying the previous slaughter of 
those whose flesh was to be thus given—‘‘ Come to me,” said the boasting 
Goliath, ‘and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts 
of the field.” So, in the curses for disobedience, (Deut. xxviii. 26,) “The 
Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies,” . . . ‘and 
thy carcass shall be meat unto all the fowls of the air, and unto the beasts 


THE GATHERING OF ARMAGEDDON. 49] 


of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.” The implied prediction 
of the herald that the flesh of these armies shall be entirely consumed, im- 
plies, also, the previous slaughter by the sword out of the mouth of the 
Word of God. The crisis here contemplated is sarcastically spoken of as 
a supper. As such it may be considered an opposite of the feast of fat 
things alluded to Is. xxvi. 6. So far, however, we have only reached the 
summons to these mid-heaven elements, to prepare themselves for the exer- 
cise of their peculiar functions ; their appellation (carnivorous birds) remind- 
ing us of the answer to the question, “‘ Where, Lord?” in reference to the 
coming of the Son of man, (Luke xvii. 37.) ‘“ Wheresoever the body is, 
thither will the eagles be gathered together,’’—wherever the error prevails, 
there will be the contest for truth, and there the elements of falsehood will 


“ 


be consumed. 


V.19. Andi saw the beast, and the Kai εἶδον τὸ ϑηρίον καὶ τοὺς βασιλεῖς 
kings of the earth, and their armies, gath- τῆς γῆς καὶ τὰ στρατεύματα αὐτῶν συνηγ- 
ered together to make war against him 
that sat on the horse, and against his 
army. 


' ~ f- 1 ~ ΄ 

μένα, ποιῆσαι πόλεμον μετὰ τοῦ καϑημένου 
Σ ~ , ~ , 

ἐπὶ Tov ἵππου καὶ μετὰ τοῦ στρατεύματος 
’ ~ 

αὐτοῦ. 


ᾧ 439. ‘And I saw,’ &c.—immediately after the pouring out of the 
sixth vial, the apostle learned the fact (Rev. xvi. 14, and 16) that the kings 
of the earth and of the whole world, summoned through the instrumentality 
of certain unclean spirits, were collected together by Almighty power into 
a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. He did not then see 
this gathering. His eyes are now open to behold the whole battle array. 
{n this array the beast appears as commander-in-chief; for the dragon had 
given his power unto the beast, (Rev. xiil. 2 ;) and although the principal 
instigator of the war, he (the dragon) may be said to aet in this scene only 
ἴῃ the beast: not appearing himself personally. ‘The false prophet (the 
grand vizier and acting commander) is supposed of course to accompany 
his master; a supposition confirmed by the statement in the subsequent 
verse. 

As we take the beast to be a principle in the heart of man virtually set- 
ting itself up in its pretensions in opposition to Jehovah, and as we suppose 
the false prophet to represent a false construction of revelation, sustaining 
this blasphemous principle in man, so we consider the kings of the earth and 
their armies as subordinate powers of the beast, with their auxiliary princi- 
ples,—standing in relation to the beast as earthly kings or chiefs might be 
contemplated in relation to a leader of tmperial dignity. The kings are 
subordinate to the beast, though ruling in their respective spheres; as the 
seven heads of the beast might be resolved into seven leading principles of 
self-exaltation, constituting the element which, for want of a more significant 


492 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


appellation, we denominate self. The seven heads, as we have before 
observed, may represent a totality. ΑἸ] the kings of the earth, that is, all 
kings of a certain kind—or, if this were not understood of the number seven, 
the same idea of totality might be derived from the expression employed in 
the sixteenth chapter—the kings of the earth, and of the whole world. 

‘Gathered together to make war against,’ &c.; or, to make battle— 
ποιῆσαι πύλεμον----ποῖ merely to take counsel, but to fight ; the crisis haying 
now arrived for an actual collision. The apostle had accompanied, in 
vision, the armies of heaven until they reached the spot where the enemy 
was to be encountered; the conflict itself may be presumed to take place 
immediately afterwards. 


Vs. 20, 21. And the beast was taken, Καὶ ἐπιάσϑη τὸ ϑηρίον, χαὶ ὃ μετ αὖ- 


and with him the felse prophet that τοῦ ψευδοπροφήτης ὃ ὃ ποιήσας τὰ σημεῖα 
wrought miracles before him, with which oe Αν αὐτοῦ, ἐν οἷς ἐπλάνησε τοὺς λαβό 

. . 1 ᾿ - 
he deceived them that had received the - ep Piel Hise 
mark olf the beastandthemthatworshipped τας τὸ χάρυγμα τοῦ ϑηρίου καὶ τοῦς προς- 
his image. These both were cast alive χυγοῦγντας τῇ εἰκόνι αὐτοῦ" ζῶντες ἐβληϑη- 
into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. guy οἵ δύο sig τὴν λίμνην τοῦ πυρὸς τὴν 


And the remnant were slain with the χαιομένην ἐν ϑείῳ. Kat οἵ λοιποὶ ἀπεκτάν- 


sword of him that sat upon the horse, ΤΠ τ τ - 
which (sword) proceeded out of his ~! 1. eos ta i F 


mouth: and all the fowls were filled with τοὺ ὑτποῦ, τὴ ἐξελϑουσῃ OU eas 
5 = y ΄ > ΄ 
their flesh. αὐτοῦ, καὶ πάντα τὰ OQVER ἐχορτασϑησαν 


ἐχ τῶν σαρκῶν αὑτῶν. 

ᾧ 440. “ And the beast was taken,’ &c.—In the account of a human 
victory, in proportion to its magnitude, we should have a minute detail of 
the manner in which the battle was fought—the manceuvering of the hostile 
parties, with the alternations of success and defeat, in different portions of 
the battle-ground. Here nothing of the kind is to be met with. The mix- 
ed multitude of earthly opponents, with their earthly leaders, have to con- 
tend, as in a pitched battle, with the chosen band of the King of kings, led 
on by their divine commander. It is unnecessary to relate the issue, or to 
state on which side victory declared itself; the only inquiry to be made 
being such as may relate to the fate of the vanquished. ‘The seatentious 
brevity of the Roman, veni, vidi, υἱοῦ, would contam on this occasion a 
redundant particular. As in the beginning God said, Let there be light, and 
there was light, so no sooner is the Word of God revealed, as. here repre- 
sented, than all the powers of darkness are overcome. 

The Greek term rendered z¢aken, is one applied to the taking of wild 
beasts in a snare. The beast and false prophet are both taken as in ἃ 
snare. Of the nature of this snare we may form some idea by comparing: 
the result of this battle with the language of the prophet, (Is. xxiv. 17, 18:) 
«Fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth, 
εἰμί δ Sage for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of 
the earth do shake.’ The opening of these windows from on high can be 


THE VICTORY OF ARMAGEDDON. ; 493 


nothing else than a peculiar revelation of truth, and it is such a revelation 
or exhibition of divine truth that operates as a snare in taking these leading 
elements of error. Their true character—the character of the system they 
advocate—is manifested by a counter manifestation of the opposite system 
of truth. Thus, like the wicked, they fall by their own snare, (Ps. ix. 16 ;) a 
crisis apparently alluded to Luke xxi. 35: ‘ For as a snare shall it (the king- 
dom of God) come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth,”— 
the inhabiters of the earth ; not because there is a deception in it, but because 
the destruction is sudden and unexpected, like that ofa snare. ‘These false 
principles or elements, (the beast and false prophet,) whatever they may be, 
are taken by a manifestation of the Word of God, with the peculiar attri- 
butes of that Word; and the weapon with which they are overcome, is the 
sharp sword out of the mouth of that Word. We cannot suppose this nar- 
ration to be capable of any other construction than that here put upon it, 
viz., taking it as detailing the effect of a peculiar revelation of religious truth 
upon an opposite system of errors. This construction corresponds with that 
applied to the fate of the harlot, and of the great city ; and we suppose this 
battle to be but another figure of the same crisis. 

‘And with him the false prophet that wrought miracles,’ &c.—There 
is a particular recurrence here to the mischief produced by this instrument 
of false interpretation, as if to give a reason why the same fate should be 
experienced by both of these elements ; the power of the one depending 
upon, or being carried into effect by the delusive practicgy of the other. 
The remarks already made on the subject render it unnecessary to enlarge 
further upon it here. 

‘These both were cast alive into a lake burning with fire and brim- 
stone.’—The beast with seven heads and ten horns, and the false prophet 
or beast with two horns, are not human beings, neither are they animals in 
a literal sense ; they are figurative things, and being so, the lake into which 
they are cast must be something figurative. Our common version employs 
the indefinite article in designating this lake, as do also the Geneva, Cran- 
mer, and Tyndale versions: ‘“‘ These both were cast into a ponde of fyre 
burnynge with brymstone,”’ as if governed by the consideration that no such 
lake had been previously mentioned. 'The original, however, uniformly, we 
believe, has the definite article, with which the rendering of Wiclif accords: 
«< These tweyne werun sent quyk in to the pool of fier brennynge with brym- 
stoon.”’ So, also, the version of Rheims, as if referring to a lake previously 
known to exist. 

There is no previous mention of a lake of this description, either in the 
Apocalypse or in any other part of the Old or New Testament ; but there 
is a preparation of fire and brimstone alluded to Rey, xiv. 10, 11, as the 


494 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET —SEVENTH VIAL. 


instrument of the never-ending torture of those that worship the beast and 
his image, and receive his mark in the forehead or in the hand ; and with 
this preparation we may identify the lake here spoken of. We have 
already defined our idea of the action of fire, in the apocalyptic sense, in 
trying the truth or falsehood of elements of doctrine ; and have given our 
reasons for supposing brimstone or sulphur, when spoken of in connection 
with fire, to indicate the eternal and perpetual action of this trial. On the 
present occasion, immediately upon the signal defeat of a great army, a lake of 
fire and brimstone is more in keeping with the whole figure than a furnace | 
would be, and it may be for this reason that the term lake is here adopted. 
A lake or pond signifying a large stagnant body of liquid, such a body 
of fire and sulphur is equivalent as a figure to an immense furnace of 
unquenchable fire—a refiner’s fire unceasingly and eternally in action ;— 
a fire representing, we apprehend, the continual test of the revealed word 
of God (the law and the testimony) rightly understood. To such a test 
the errors represented by the beast and false prophet are to be perpetually 
exposed, after having been once detected and overcome, through the instru- 
mentality of the revelation implied in this action of the sword proceeding 
out of the mouth of the Word of God. In fine, we suppose the “ lake of 
fire and brimstone” to be identic with the fire which ts to try every man’s 
work ; a figure to which we have repeatedly had occasion to advert. 
Whatever this lake be, it must be something into which the element repre- 
sented by theybeast with seven heads and ten horns. and that represented 
by the false prophet or beast with two horns, as well as death and hell, 
(Rev. xx. 14,) are capable of being cast: of course, we cannot but sup- 
pose it to be something else than that which is ordinarily understood as the 
place of future punishment in the usual sense of the term. 

ᾧ 441. ‘ And the remnant were slain [killed] with the sword of him that 
sat upon the horse, which (sword) proceeded out of bis mouth.’—There is 
a peculiar exactness of expression here, as if intended to guard against the 
possibility of misconception. ‘The instrument of destruction is particularly 
designated as the sword, which came out of the mouth, τῇ ἐξελϑούδῃ & τοῦ 
στόματος. Had this not been specified, it might have been surmised that 
the conqueror had some other sword besides the one thus mentioned. A 
sword in his hand might have implied a different kind of destruction from 
that here in contemplation ; but we are now expressly restricted in our ideas 
of this sword to the action of an oral weapon ; that is, to the effect of a 
divine revelation—a peculiar exhibition of truth. This remnant, tnerefore, 
whatever it be, must be something destructible by such a weapon ; it must 
also consist, of course, of the kings of the earth and their armies, their 
captains and their mighty men, with all their forces, from the highest officer 
to the meanest camp follower. There seems to be no exception; all are 


THE VICTORY OF ARMAGEDDON. 495 


destroyed, not by the sword of man, or by a weapon wielded by human 
power or might, but by an emanation of divine wisdom ;—a manifestation 
of the werd or purpose of God, bearing with it the evidence of the work of 
propitiation and justification of Him who has trodden alone the wine-press 
of divine wrath ; and who, even in doing so, has manifested himself to be 
King of kings and Lord of lords—Jehovah our righteousness ;—the element 
of perfect infinite sovereignty, and the source of sovereign grace. 

* And all the fowls were filled with their flesh ;’ or, with their fleshes.— 
The term translated filled is one applicable to the feeding or foddering of 
cattle ; it does not necessarily imply satiety. These pretended righteous- 
nesses or means of justification, are not to be presumed to be enough, and 
more than enough to satisfy the legal elements; on the contrary, the birds 
here alluded to may be considered still the same ravenous animals as before 
their feast. Something like this seems to be in contemplation in the pro- 
phecy of Ezekiel, of which this battle of Armageddon may be a fulfilment : 
** And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God, Speak unto every feath- 
ered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves and come, 
gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice, that I do sacrifice for you, 
even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, 
and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood 
of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all 
of them fatlings of Bashan. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink 
blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. 
Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty 
men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord Gop,” Ezek. xxxix. 17-20. 

The feathered fowl, or rather, the winged or flying fowl of Ezekiel, as 
distinguished from domestic birds, may be presumed to represent the same 
legal elements as those symbolized by the birds flying in the mid-heaven of 
the Apocalypse. The only sacrifice, strictly speaking, adequate to the 
satisfaction of these legal elements, is the great sacrifice offered once for all 
in Christ Jesus. There may be some question whether the prophet alludes 
to the evidence of the sufficiency of this great sacrifice ; or to what we may 
term the preliminary evidence of the insufficiency of all human means of 
propitiation. It would not be here the place for a discussion of this point ; 
but there can be no hesitation in ascribing to the flesh and blood alluded to 
in the prophecy, the same symbolical character as that imputed to the flesh 
of the armies of the kings of the earth ; the doubt being only whether Eze- 
kiel refers to real or to pretended merits.* 


* There is a similar use of the figure (flesh) ultimately in view, we apprehend, 
in the prophevs vision of dry bones, Ezek. xxxvii. 1-9. When we look at man in his 
position under the law, entirely without a merit of his own, the question unavoidably 


496 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


We are thus brought to a conclusion of the history of the beast and of 
the false prophet, with their forces ; but some further details of the result of 
this great contest are to be found in the three first verses of the next chap- 
ter ; on which account, the division of the chapters in this place appears to 
have been injudicious. The allied forces just defeated, were called together 
by the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. The final destruction of 
the two last we have learned: they are cast alive into a lake of unquench- 
able fire. As alive, the evil disposition and tendency of these two elements 
may remain for ever in action ; but being cast alive unto a lake or furnace 
of sulphureous flames, (¢ 440,) the fiery trial to which they are exposed 
must be equally eternal. ‘These errors may be said to remain in existence, 
but they are so under the continual and perpetual counteracting influence of | 
the trying element destined for ever to manifest their fallacy. The subor- 
dinate auxiliary principles of error can hardly be said to remain ; their pre- 
tensions are entirely consumed ; and if there be any evidence of their former 
existence, it is only such as is afforded by the whitened bones of slaughtered 
armies which have been bleaching for ages on the field, once the scene of 
bloody contention. We naturally ask, however, what becomes of the third 
party to this unholy conspiracy, and for a reply to our inquiries, are obliged 
to wait the developments of another chapter. 


RETROSPECT. 


§ 442. The first part of this chapter should have been set off separately, 
as describing a choral scene having both a retrospective and a prospective 
allusion. Retrospective, as regards the destruction of the harlot city or 
system ; and prospective, as relates to the result of the important conflicts 
detailed in the subsequent narrative: results presumed to have been con- 
templated by the chorus, especially in the ascriptions of praise to Jehovah, 
on account of his sovereignty ; for this sovereignty could hardly be said to 
be manifested while two rebellious armies remained unconquered. 'Time, 
however, is not to be taken into consideration ; and accordingly, the events 


occurs, Can these dry bones live ? Can one so utterly destitute of merit or righteous- 
ness have any hope of eternal life ? 

When we contemplate the same being adopted of God, and clothed with the im- 
puted merits of the Son of God, or, which is the same thing, with the imputed right- 
eousness of God himself, we discern the possibility of giving life (eternal life) to that 
which was entirely dead by nature. The sinner being raised to a new position of 
life by an operation of sovereign grace, bone comes to its bone, the strength of divine 
merit is substituted for the weakness of the man; and the covering of divine imputed 
perfection substituted for man’s unworthiness, in like manner clothes these dry bones 
with flesh. 


RETROSPECT. 4907 


hereafter detailed are to be viewed as occurring simultaneously with the 
destruction of Babylon. 

The order of development may require an exhibition of the fallacy of 
the system of error before its opposite truth can be unfolded. For this 
reason, perhaps, no hint is given in the Apocalypse of the existence of the 
bride or Lamb’s wife, until the final destruction of the harlot has been 
announced ; as if this event were a necessary prelude to the manifestation 
of the union of the Lamb with his betrothed. It may, indeed, be considered 
an essential part of the preparation for the appearance of the bride, as at a 
marriage feast. 

Having been brought to this point, (the preparation for the bridal feast,) 
the thread of the narrative is broken off as far as it pertains to this figure, 
and we are taken back to that portion of the narration in which an account 
is given of the counter-preparations made by the beast and kings of the earth 
to oppose the will of the Most High, in this same manifestation of truth. 
Here we have the opportunity of knowing more of the character of these 
hostile powers, and of the nature of their opposition, by the description 
given of the champion destined to overcome them. 

There can be no doubt of the identity of the Lamb of God with the 
Word of God, but there appears to be a peculiar meaning in the manner in 
which the same divine power is spoken of under different appellations, 
according as it is brought to act against different objects. The Lamb is 
represented to be the antagonist of the ten horns, (legal elements ;) while the 
Word is the opponent of the beast, (the spirit of error,) with his auxiliaries. 
The chief weapon of the Word, (the interpreter of his will,) is the sharp 
sword out of his mouth—the sword of the Spirit; the chief agent of the 
beast is the false prophet, (the two-horned beast like a lamb ;)—the differ- 
ence between these two instruments corresponding with that between a 
spiritual or true construction of divine revelation, and a carnal or false 
interpretation of it. ‘The Word of God exhibits his vesture dipped in blood, 
and appeals to the work of atonement to which his garments bear testimony ; 
the beast may be supposed to appeal to the image of himself, (self-righteous- 
ness,) fabricated at the instance of the false prophet. ‘The Word displays 
his multitude of diadems, and urges the claims of divine sovereignty ; the 
beast relies upon the power of his ten horns, and points to the diadems with 
which they are crowned, as the argument for their supremacy. ‘The Word 
is sustained by the white horse, (his own perfect righteousness ;) the 
beast has no support but his vain pretensions, his leopard skin, his bear’s 
feet, and his lion’s mouth. ‘The Word, in its manifestation, is attended by 
an exhibition of the elements of divine perfection ; the beast summons to his 
aid all that earth can furnish of pretended human merit. The Word bears 
upon his vesture, and upon his thigh, the all-powerful name of King of 


498 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


kings, Jehovah of hosts; the beast opens his mouth in blasphemy against 
God, and against his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell therein. 
The result of the collision is known ; ‘the beast and the false prophet are 
taken and cast alive into the lake of unquenchable fire. 

It is plain that this contest between the Word of God and the beast 
must be something different from that necessarily taking place between the 
elements of the law (divine justice) on the one side, and the element of pro- 
pitiation (the Lamb, or divine mercy) on the other ‘The last pertains to 
the work of Christ itself; the other to the manifestation of that work—the 
placing of that work in its true light, and destroying the errors opposed to a 
right understanding of it. 

We are still at a loss for a better appellation of the beast than that 
already given him, (self ;) but we fee] no hesitation in affirming, that man, 
when relying upon his own merit, and when asserting his own sufficiency to 
secure his eternal salvation, places himself in the position of this blasphe- 
mous animal. He is virtually guilty of all that is described in the conduct 
of the beast. So, that construction of the written word of divine revelation 
which induces the assumption of this attitude on the part of the creature, 
(man,) must richly deserve the appellation of a false prophet—a false inter- 
preter of the will of the Most High. The fallacious character of such 
an interpretation must be the more obvious in proportion as it induces the 
formation in the mind of man of an imaginary goodness or merit, to which 
he may impute, as to an efficient cause, even his eternal happiness, and 
which, consequently, becomes in his mind an object of worship; the sub- 
ject of this error, who would start perhaps with abhorrence at the idea of a 
worship of himself, being actually deluded into a practical worship of his 
own fancied merit or righteousness. 

We can imagine no cure for this delusion, no remedy for the error, but 
that of a perfect development of the revealed word of God in its true spirit- 
ual sense, and the constant, perpetual, never-ending application of it; such 
a test alone being capable of purifying every element of doctrine submitted 
to its action, like a refiner’s fire, and like the fire which is to burn as an 
oven, (furnace.) ΤῸ ἃ test of this character, we have seen the element 
represented by the beast finally subjected ; and in this result we may be 
said to behold the fulfilment of the prediction of the fate attending the eighth 
king, (Rev. xvii. 11 :) “ And the beast that was and is not, even he is the 
eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” The beast taken in 
this conflict with the Word, must be the same beast as that spoken of in the 
seventeenth chapter of the book; and the being cast alive into the lake 
burning with fire and brimstone, must certainly be equivalent to going into 
perdition. 

The whole of this illustration is probably applicable to some general 


‘RETROSPECT. 499 


development of truth, and consequent general destruction of false doctrine, 
taking place in the Christian world at a certain period yet to come ; but 
whether this be so or not, every Christian disciple—and the revelation is 
addressed particularly to such—in examining his own views, and calling to 
mind his own doctrinal experience, as he has advanced in the knowledge of 
the gospel, must perceive himself to have within his own mind a kingdom 
like that of the beast; a certain principle or disposition within his heart 
ever ready to claim the merit of his own salvation—to urge his dependence 
upon his own strength or works ; and in doing so to appeal to the continued 
requisitions of the law. 

Every such disciple must perceive, too, that while there is in man a 
natural disposition to vainglory and self-dependence, a certain misconstruc- 
tion of the language of the sacred Scripture may strengthen him in this 
delusion ; in which respect-he may be said also to be influenced by the false 
prophet within him. How far this influence has extended every one may 
judge by comparing the state of his own mind in matters of faith with the 
effect said to be produced by the intervention of the ten-horned beast. 
Does he regard himself as, in effect, the source to which he is to be in- 
debted for his own eternal happiness? Does he create in his own mind an 
image of his own goodness, or holiness, or righteousness? Does he look to 
this as to the efficient cause of his future well-being? Are the actions of 
his life, or the sentiments of his heart characterized by the mark of selfish- 
ness? What is the chief motive of his conduct? [5 it his own glory that 
he has in view, or the glory of his God? Is he actuated by a regard for his 
own interest in his religious conduct, or is gratitude (love) to God in return 
for his great salvation the moving principle of his actions? According to 
the result of this examination he may ascertain whether the kingdom of the 
beast, or the kingdom of God, be within him—whether his views are influ- 


enced by the false prophet, or by the sharp sword proceeding from the 
mouth of divine wisdom. ᾽ 


500 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


CHAPTER XX. 


SATAN CONFINED.—THE FIRST JUDGMENT.—THE FIRST 
RESURRECTION.—-THE THOUSAND YEARS.—SATAN 
RELEASED.—THE LAST CONFLICT.—THE LAST JUDG 
MENT.—THE BOOK OF LIFE.—THE LAKE OF FIRE. 


Vs. 1-3. And I saw an angel come = Kui εἶδον ἄγγελον καταβαίνοντα ἐκ τοῦ 
down from heaven, having the key of the οὐρανοῦ, ἔχοντα τὴν κλεῖν τῆς ἀβύσσου καὶ 


bottomless pit and ἃ great chain in his 4c ely δ Gal ite! hw Wide 
hand. And he faid hold on the dragon, i Aca pone Ee Sete 


5 , 1 ΄ ’ 32, ι 2 
that old serpent, which is the Devil, and ®*Q@T79& τὸν δράκοντα, τα POE Be 
5 ~ a > ἣν - Ν 
Satan, and bound him ἃ thousand years, χαῖον, ὃς ἐστι διάβολος καὶ σατανᾶς, καὶ 
And cast him into the bottomless pit, and ἔδησεν αὐτὸν χίλια ἕτη, καὶ ἔβαλεν αὐτὸν 


shut him up, and set a seal upon him, εἰς τὴν ἄβυσσον, καὶ ἔκλεισε καὶ ἐσφριίγι- 


that he should deceive the nations no δεν Unidos oieek wo Mee Deen 
more, till the thousand years should be ὁ ΤῊ ion 


fulfilled : and after that he must be loosed 9%, ἄχρι τελεσϑῇ τὰ χίλια ἔτη" καὶ μετὰ 
a little season. ταῦτα δεῖ αὐτὸν λυϑῆναι μικρὸν χρόνον. 

ᾧ 443. < Anp I saw,’ &c.—Setting aside the division of chapters, we 
are here to imagine the apostle witnessing the termination of the great 
battle, in which the Kine or xrnés is so signally victorious; the enemies 
of the Worn, (the beast and false prophet, with all their forces,) having 
been entirely overthrown. There is no pause in the narrative. The succes- 
sion of events is as rapid as thought, or rather, the incidents themselves are 
contemporaneous ; one event being involved in or growing out of another. The 
destruction of the mercenary or mixed system, the overthrow of the kingdom 
of self, the exhibition of the fallacies of scriptural misconstruction, all contri- 
bute to manifest the fate attending the accuser, as it is now about to be de- 
scribed. 

The scene is unchanged—heaven is still opened—the smoking ruins of 
Babylon, and the devastation of the battle-field are still in view ; while a 
further development of truth (another angel) exhibits another result of the 
recent contest. 

‘ Having the key of the bottomless pit. —As the keys of the kingdom 
of heaven are the means of unlocking or developing the mysteries of that 
kingdom, (ᾧ 37,) so the key of the bottomless pit, as before suggested, 
(§ 207.) are the means of developing or opening the mystery of the abyss. 
On a former occasion, Rev. ix. 1, this key was used for the purpose of 
exhibiting the destructive principles emanating from the system represented 


———_  υΔΑΝΝΝ 


SATAN CONFINED. 501 


by the prt ; now, a like opening or development takes place to show the 
further important truth, that when the mixed economy is destroyed, and the 
reign of self has ceased, and the false construction of revelation is set aside, 
the power of Satan must be manifestly confined to the position created by 
this baseless system. The triumph of the Word of God over the powers of 
the earth, as just now represented, may itself afford the key, figuratively 
spoken of as that of an angel or divine messenger. 

‘And a great chain in his hand.’—As the angel represents a revelation 
or messenger, we suppose this great chain to be the figure of a powerful 
concatenation of gospel truths—a chain of scriptural arguments—important 
elements of doctrine indissolubly connected ; showing in what manner the 
power of the accuser is bound, or restricted in the nature of the case, by 
the elements of divine sovereignty peculiar to the economy of grace. As 
when the apostle Paul sets forth his position, that there is no condemnation 
to them that are in Christ Jesus, (Rom. viii. 1,) by a chain of deductions 
from the helpless, hopeless state of man by nature, ,.(as a sinner under the 
law,) to the fulfilment of that law by Christ himself, in behalf of those justi- 
fied ἐπ Aim. In like manner, the angel’s chain may show it to be only those 
out of Christ, and consequently in the bottomless pit, who are subject to 
the power of the accuser. ᾿ 

As in the science of architecture, the chain is said to have been the 
origin of the arch, the arrangement of principles constituting the plan of 
redemption, elsewhere represented as an arch, of which grace is the top or 
keystone, (Zech. iv. 7,) may be here spoken of as a chain ;—the structure 
supporting the way of salvation, and exhibiting the triumph of the Re- 
deemer, being equally mighty in restraining or binding the power of legal 
accusation. 

§ 444. ‘And he laid hold on the dragon,’ &c.—The variety of appel- 
lations given to this one object, cannot be without meaning. They are all 
of them, no doubt, intended to recall ideas respectively associated with each, 
besides identifying the personage here spoken of with that of which so 
much was related in the twelfth chapter of the book:—the great fiery-red 
dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his 
heads, whose tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven; who stood 
ready to devour the man-child ;—the antagonist of Michael and his angels, 
‘the persecutor of the woman and of her offspring, (ὁ 269-291 ;) the same 
dragon that gave his power, and throne, and great authority to the beast, 
after having been driven from heaven to earth, (ᾧ 297 ;)—one of the parties 
to the league, by which the kings of the earth were summoned to the battle 
of Armageddon, and the only one of those parties not yet disposed of; not 
having himself appeared personally in the field, but aiming rather to com- 
pass his ends through the beast and false prophet. 


502 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


As the old serpent, we are again reminded by this dragon of the delu- 
sive spirit bringing our first parents into the position of condemnation, under 
the pretext of making them as gods—a delusion to which Paul adverts in a 
passage of his Epistles, in which he aims particularly at cautioning those 
whom he addresses against glorying otherwise than in the Lord: “ But I 
fear,” he says, “ lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve, through his 
subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in 
Christ ;’ the tendency of this arch-deceiver’s efforts from the beginning 
being that of prompting man to go about to establish his own righteousness, 
by fulfilling the law for himself, that he may have “ wherewith to glory.” 

The appellation the devil (the accuser) we have perhaps already suffi- 
ciently enlarged upon, (§ 282 ;) but it is important for us to bear in mind 
that this agent of the law, although a false accuser of the elements of the 
economy of grace, (the brethren,) is not a false accuser of man, in charging 
him with sin. Here the accusations of the devil are but too well founded ; 
and it is for this reason that his power is to be dreaded by the disciple, so 
long as the latter feels himself out of Christ. Neither are we to look upon 
the devil merely as a tempter, leading man to the commission of moral evil, for 
“every man is tempted,” it is said, (Jas. i. 14,) ‘ when he is drawn away 
of his own lusts and enticed ;” a trial, as experience teaches us, continuing 
through life. We have no occasion to go out of ourselves to find a tempter. 
The scriptural view of the functions of the devil (διάβολος) we apprehend 
to consist especially in bringing the sinner to condemnation after the temp- 
tation has been yielded to. 


The meaning of the Hebrew appellation Satan, or, as it might be ren- / 


dered, the Satan, (ὁ σατανᾶς.) confirms our view of this individual’s character. 
The term is not a proper name, as we are apt to suppose it ; it is a common 
noun, a title, and should be used with the article. It is applied in the Old 
Testament to human as well as to superhuman beings ; its signification, 
an adversary, or the adversary, may be spoken of an enemy in the field, 
or of an adversary in a court of justice—an enemy in a spiritual or in 
a natural sense: as Solomon had political adversaries, to whom this ap- 
pellation is applied, (1 Kings xi. 14, 23, 25,) while David employs 


the term to designate his spiritual enemies—the adversaries of his soul - 


—the powers opposed to his justification in the sight of God. Trommius 
gives several interpretations, both of the noun and verb, in his Heb. and 
Chald. Index, but the idea of temptation cannot be associated with either 
of them. The verb 32% whence the noun 123 (Satan) is derived, signi- 
fies primarily to resist, (oppose ;) employed judicially, it applies to the action 
of counsel for the prosecution, as, amongst other meanings, that of criminor 
(to accuse) is given to it by the author above quoted. “ Blessed,” (says 
David,) “is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.” The 


SATAN CONFINED. 503 


coming of this blessedness, we Suppose to be just the object of Satan’s 
resistance. We should, accordingly, render the expression under consider- 
ation here in Nb τ ee ‘‘ And he laid hold of the dragon, the old 
serpent, which is the accuser and the adversary.” 

§ 445. ‘And bound him a thousand years.’—We are now, it is to be 
recollected, contemplating the manifestation of the work of redemption, not 
_ the work itself. The present binding of Satan is a result of the conflict 
between the powers (errors) of the earth and the revealed Word of God, 
as distinguished from the contest between the Lamb and the dragon, (the 
accuser.) This Jast terminated once for all, when Christ once offered him- 
self to bear the sins of many, (Heb. ix. 28.) Here there can be no change ; 
the counsels of God are immutable. The blood of the Lamb slain from the 


foundation of the world has always been, and must always be triumphant. 
In respect to the exhibition of this truth, however, or to its influence upon 


any earthly scheme of doctrine, there may be said to be times when the. 


Word of God prevails ; and other seasons when error, such as is represented 
by the beast, may appear to predominate, 

It would not be difficult to imagine a period of a thousand years of such 
a manifestation of truth, as to show, in sight of all mankind, the power of 
the adversary (Satan) to be necessarily confined to a system figuratively 
spoken of as a bottomless pit. But when all the other parts of a passage 
in this book are to be taken ina spiritual or figurative sense, we see no 
reason for making the expression a thousand years an exception to the 
general rule. There is no reason why the term thousand, or that of years, 
should not be as figurative as the terms chain, key, pit, &c. In addition to 
this, we are to take into consideration the declaration of the mighty angel, 
(Rev. x. 7:) “There shall be time no longer ;”’ and we have as good 
reason for applying this declaration to the term of one thousand years here, 
as we have had for applying it to the twelve hundred and sixty days. We 
have no warrant for maintaining the distinction, that the years are literal, but 
the days are figurative. So, on the other hand, if we were to consider the 
twelve hundred gnd sixty days, or forty-two months, as days of years, and 
months of thirty years each, by the same rule we should consider the period 
now under consideration as one of three hundred and sixty thousand years, 
instead of one thousand. 

This is the only passage in the Apocalypse in which the term year or 
years occurs, except Rev. ix. 15, where we have assigned reasons for sup- 
posing the expression, hour, day, month, and year, to signify a time when, 
and not a period of duration. We are told, Ps. xe. 4, that a thousand 
years in the sight of God are but as yesterday ; and 2 Peter iii. 8, that 
one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one 
day. We have some warrant, therefore, for supposing a thousand years, in 

41 


4: 


504 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET —SEVENTH VIAL. 


mystic language, to be an interchangeable term for a day ; that is, time in 
a literal sense is not to be taken into consideration. The period here men- 
tioned, is to be considered as the figure of a state of things resulting from a 
certain manifestation of truth ; a stage in the progress of revelation, beyond 
which there is yet some further development to be made: as when we 
speak of the day of the Lord, we associate with this term the idea of a state 
of things of an indefinite duration, or a change in a state of things, and 
not merely the short period of twenty-four hours. This construction appears 
the more probable, as this period of a thousand years, whatever it may be, 
is supposed to have elapsed before the conclusion of the present chapter ; 
and the events taking place subsequent to its termination are related in 
the past tense, (vs. 9 and 10,) as if they were supposed to occur almost 
contemporaneously with those related in the first part of the chapter. 

The revelation showing Satan (the legal accuser) to be bound, exhibits 
a state of things, in which the law is no longer in operation, in a penal 
sense ; an arrangement of principles, placing the disciple in a position in 
which there is no room for his labouring to effect his own justification by 
works of the law. ‘This position is one of rest—a rest from servile labour ; 
not a state of inactivity, but an entire suspension of action from mercenary 
motives. Such a state resulting from the disciple’s position in Christ, we 
suppose to be represented, as already intimated, (ὃ 338,) by the Levitical 
Sabbath. A position, in which the believer is not only relieved from 
labour, but in which it is even unlawfal for him to labour, in the servile 
sense of the term; that is, a position in which it would be entirely incon- 
sistent for him to act from a servile, mercenary, or selfish motive. As 
this position of rest has been typically represented from the beginning by 
the seventh day of the week, so it appears to correspond with what is 
commonly called the millennium—the seventh day of a thousand years in 
the history of the world ;—the period supposed to be alluded to by the 
thousand years specified in this passage.* 

ᾧ 446. ‘And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up ;’ or, 
locked him up.—The key is still the instrument of confinement, as the word 
translated shut implies; not that the concealing of a mystery is part of the 
use of the key, but that this instrument, by opening the mystery, exhibits 
the condition of the individual confined. The angel (message or revelation) 


* Our world, according to the common chronology, has been created nearly six 
thousand years, (5848.) Another millennial period, alter the completion of the current 
sixth, would correspond with the seventh day of the week. We do not say that the 
occurrence of a thousand years of literal peace and quietness on this earth is neces- 
sarily to be expected ; but we say, If such a season should occur, jt would be like the 
Sabbath, a typical representation of that more important state of rest and peace 
which resulis from the disciple’s position in Christ, and from the binding of Satan, 
in our spiritual sense of the term. 


SATAN CONFINED. 505 


with his chain and key, manifests the restriction of the power of the accu- 
ser to a certain position; showing it to be only by those, who are in the 
bottomless pit with the adversary, that his accusations are to be dreaded, 

‘And set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no 
more, till,’ &c.—The design of sealing places of confinement (Dan. vi. 17) 
was, no doubt, to prevent their being opened illegally ; for, although a door 
may be locked by one key, it may be opened by another} (a false key.) [ἢ 
such case, tf sealed, the fraud would be discovered. his seems to have 
been a contrivance of early invention, being probably more necessary when 
the art of the locksmith was less perfected than it is at present. Here the 
seal appears intended to show the true character of the adversary, His 
power is not only manifestly confined to a certain position, but a seal is set 
over him in this position, that his influence may not be exercised under false 
pretences ; the sealing, as we apprebend, being especially with reference to 
the prevention of this influence. 

The term nations we take here, as elsewhere in the Apocalypse, to rep- 
resent-glements of dectrine—pow ers of the earthly system—subject to per- 
version, from a misuse of the accusatory character of the law ; the word 
translated here deceive, and elsewhere seduce, signifying a turning from the 
right way, (πλαγνάω, a recto itinere abduco—in errorem impello, Suiceri. 
Lex.) Satan is spoken of as deceiving the whole world, Rey. xii. 9, where 
he is said also to be cast out into the earth. Subsequently to this, those that 
dwell on the earth are said to be deceived (led astray) by the false prophet, 
(Rev. xiii. 14; xix. 20 ;) and again, to have been seduced (led astray) by 
the sorceries of Babylon, (Rev. xviii. 23.) We presume these two last deceiv- 
ers to be agents of Satan, the adversary acting upon the earth—deluding, 
deceiving—through their instrumentality. As their influence is now at an 
end, it is necessary only to arrest that of the accuser himself, acting in his 
own person, but when it suits his purposes transforming himself into an 
“angel of light”—in appearance a messenger of righteousness. In this 
character, if not chained, locked up, and sealed, he might now appear— 
using the law unlawfully, manifesting great zeal for its fulfilment, but in 
reality so misrepresenting the divine purposes of grace, as to undermine the 
faith of the disciple, and to deprive the Saviour of his glory. Τὸ prevent 
this a seal is set over him, showing his true character and his true position. 
So long as these are manifested, the opposite position of rest in Christ is 
also manifested, and a millennium, in a spiritual sense, exists in the doctrinal 
systems of those who enjoy this view of the privileges and blessings of the 
kingdom of Christ ; such, for example, as are depicted in the seventy-second 
Psalm, and in the eleventh chapter of Isaiah. This stage in the mani- 
festation of gospel truth, we suppose to be figuratively here spoken of as a 
thousand years. 


506 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET—SEVENTH VIAL. 


‘And after that he must be loosed for a little season.’—After the expi- 
ration, the ending of the thousand years, the adversary is to be released 
fiom his confinement for a little time. That is, time figuratively speaking— 
duration of time in a literal sense not being the subject of consideration, 
whether the space spoken of be long or short ; the same rule of construc- 
tion applying to “a little time” as to a thousand years, or to twelve 
hundred and sixty days. The seventh king was to “continue a short 
space,” (Rev. xvii. 10,) and. there may be some correspondence between 
these two short reigns—different figures, perhaps, symbolizing the same truth. 
We may understand the nature of this liberation better when we come to 
examine the effect of it, as set forth in the great battle detailed in a subse- 
quent part of this chapter, (vs. 7-10.) We notice here only that this 
confinement to the bottomless pit is represented to be something of a tem- 
porary character—something distinct from a final destruction, or a going 
into perdition ; the pit representing a system apparently identic with hades, 


which itself is a subject of destruction, (v. 14.) Satan is first cast from 


heaven to earth; secondly, from earth into the pit ; and_finally, (thirdly,) 


into the lake of fire. 


Vs. 4,5. And I saw thrones, and they 
sat upon them, and judgment was given 
unto them: and (I saw) the souls of them 


that were beheaded for the witness of 


Jesus, and for the word of God, and which 
had not worshipped the beast, neither his 
image, neither had received (his) mark 
upon their foreheads, or in their hands; 
and they lived and reigned with Christ a 
thousand years. But the rest of the dead 
lived not again until the thousand years 


i, Ὁ -- 


- Ἂν 3 ’ 
Kai εἶδον ϑρόνους" καὶ ἐχάϑισαν ἐπὶ 
2 , \ ΄ ro / 2 -" X ‘ 
αὑτοὺς, καὶ χρίμα ἐδόϑη αὐτοῖς καὶ τὰς 
ι - ' 
ψυχὰς τῶν πεπελεκισμένων διὰ τὴν μαρτυ- 
᾿ 2 5 \ ‘ 1 , πο oy 
olay ᾿Ιησοῦ καὶ διὰ τὸν λόγον tov ϑεοῦ, 
\ , > ΄ ᾿ 
καὶ οἵτινες οὐ προςεκύνγησαν τὸ ϑηρίον οὐδὲ 
‘ > ΓΑ >? ~ ? li 
THY εἰκόνα αὐτοῦ καὶ οὐκ ἔλαβον τὸ χάραγ- 
xP as ᾿ 1 -᾿ ἕω 
μα ἐπὶ τὸ μέτωπον καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν χεῖρα αὑτῶν, 
Ne > ae 
καὶ ἔζησαν χαὶ ἐβασίλευσαν μετὰ tov Χρισ- 
- ‘ “ ΒΩ 5 a ἢ ~ ~ 
τοῦ τὰ χίλια ἔτη. Οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ τῶν νεκρῶν 


were finished. This (is) the first resur- 
rection. 

ᾧ 447. ‘ And I saw thrones,’ &c.; or, I saw seats, &c., that is, certain 
tribunals of judgment.—We have just had an account of a great battle; we 
have had the particulars of the loss suffered by the vanquished ; their killed, 
and the prisoners taken ; the manner in which these prisoners were treated ; 
and, finally, the manner in which the instigator of the war is bound hand 
and foot and cast into prison. 


2 4 a ~ , 
οὐκ ἔζησαν ὄχρι τελεσϑῇ τὰ χίλια ἔτη" 
or ς ς [4 c , 
αὕτη ἡ ἀνάστασις ἢ πρώτη. 


Throughout this narration, the process com- 
mon in ancient times in the conduct of battles of extraordinary importance is 
supposed to be adopted. Asa marriage feast is one mode of illustrating 
certain mysterious truths, a battle is another means of representing other 
mysteries. In both cases the customs of the times are to be taken into 
‘consideration. 

Pursuing the analogy, the account being completed of the punishment 
to which the defeated rebels and their leaders have been subjected, we come 


next to a relation of the honours and rewards allotted to the victors. For 


THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 507 


the distribution of these rewards we may expect to see something like a 


tribunal of judgment. The figure, however, is Asiatic, rather than Greek » 


or Roman. With republics, or with aristocracies, and even with mixed 
monarchies, the seat of government is at home. A Grecian general would 
have submitted an account of his proceedings to an assembly of the people, 
and the meed of praise or blame would have depended upon the public 
voice. A Roman consul, or dictator, and even a Roman emperor, would 
have depended upon the action of a senate for a decree of triumph. But 
with the pure monarchies of the east, wherever the sovereign is to be found, 
there is also the seat of government. Ifa warlike sovereign takes the field 
himself, the tribunal of supreme judgment, as well as the legislative and 
executive power, is supposed to follow the commander-in-chief even on the 
battle ground. 

In keeping with this view of Asiatic customs, we have no occasion to 
imagine a pause in the succession of the scenes here presented. It is as if 
immediately after a great military contest, in which the sovereign had com- 
manded in person, seats of judgment were erected on the field bearing evi- 
dences of the recent triumph, for the allotment of rewards to those who had 
distinguished themselves, by judges appointed for the purpose. 

The apostle does not say how many seats or thrones he saw—perhaps 
this is not material ; whatever the number, we suppose these tribunals to 
represent something of the same character as that ascribed to the thrones of 
the twenty-four elders, (ὃ 121.) The law and the testimony are here, as 
elsewhere, the criterion of judgment : the testimony itself comprehending the 
whole evidence of divine revelation, whatever is judged must be judged by 
this standard; corresponding with the language of the prophet, Is. vii. 20, 
already quoted. 

§ 448. ‘And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded,’ &c.—The 
word translated beheaded is from the verb πελεκίζω, to strike with an axe. 
The kind of axe with which the blow is struck, must be gathered from 
the circumstances of the case. ‘The noun πέλεκυς may signify a common 
axe, a battle-axe, or the axes borne by the lictors amongst the Romans 
before their consuls, (Donnegan.) The term occurs nowhere else in the 
New Testament ; in the Septuagint it is applied to the instruments of stone- 
cutters and carpenters, or their uses. The custom of bearing axes by the 
γήδρμς | Ia arose from the previous very general use of the pole-axe in 
the fie 
bly now described is supposed to be called together immediately after a 


dof battle. ‘Taking into consideration the peculiarity that the assem- 


great military conflict, we think that the allusion here is to the use of the 
battle-ave. Our translators have employed the term beheaded apparently 
from associating with the Greek word the idea of the use of the axe by order 
of the civil magistrate only. 


508 SEVEN’TH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


If it had been said, I saw the souls of them that were slain, or of therm 
that were killed by the sword, the reference would have carried us back to 
the followers of the beast slain by the sword out of the mouth of the Word 
of God. ‘To avoid this misconstruction, the figure of a different weapon is 
employed for designating the wounded or killed on the side of the King of 
kings. The sword is peculiarly the weapon of the Holy Spirit, ‘The pole- 
axe is the human instrument of warfare ; the more appropriately so in this 
case, from having been first employed as an instrument of labour in the 
works of men, afterwards as a military equipment, and finally as a symbol of 
the power of the magistrate in carrying into effect the sentence of the law. 
In witnessing the late battle, the apostle saw the remnant of the beast-party 
(all except the two chiefs) slain by the sword. He now sees the souls 
of those on the other side that were slain by the axe, (bepennis, securis 
bellica.)* 

The term soul or souls is very frequently employed in Scripture, by way 
of periphrasis, for the being itself. Perhaps it would be sufficient to con- 
sider it so intended here,—‘‘ I saw those that were slain or killed. That is, 
I saw them restored to life—a restoration implied in the subsequent declara- 
tion, that this is the first resurrection ; although the having been struck with 
an axe does not necessarily imply death. ‘These souls might be taken as com- 
batants on the side of truth, severely wounded in the ¢ause, but not killed. 
Where the term soul is employed in contradistinction to that of body, we 
suppose it expresses the immortal part of the being ; where it is employed 
in contradistinction to the term spzrit, we take it to apply to something in 
a natural or physical sense, as distinguished from the same thing in a spirit- 
ual sense. There is nothing here, however, mdicating either of these con- 
trasts. If we consider the killing or beheading of these beings equivalent 
to a separation of the natural from the spiritual sense, their resurrection 
would be a reunion of these two senses; but perhaps such a supposition at 
present would be premature. 

‘For the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God.’—F rom this desig- 
nation of the cause, on account of which these souls had suffered, we pre- 


* We have the authority of a Roman poet for considering the battle-axe, so com- 
mon a weapon in ancient warfare, (that is, soon after the siege of Troy,) as to have 
been wielded even by female combatants. 


At medias inter cedes exultat Amazon, 
Unum exerta latus pugne, pharetrata Camilla, 
Kt nunc lenta manu spargens hostilia censet, 
Nune validam dextra rapit indefessa bipennem. 
* * * * *k * * 
At circim lecte comites. Larinaque virgo, 
Tullaque, et cratam quatiens Tarpeia securim, 
Itatides : AK, xi. 648-657. 


THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 509 


sume them to be the witnesses whose souls were seen under the altar. Not 
that this beheading, as it is called, is a second martyrdom, but that the two 
representations point to the same truth. The first series of developments 
terminated with the conclusion of the sixth chapter, immediately after the 
description of the coming of the great day of wrath. The revelation of 
the state of the souls under the altar formed part of this series. ‘They were 
then told that they should res¢ for a season, and white robes were given 
them. This position of rest, and enjoyment of white clothing, described in 
the sixth chapter, corresponds, we apprehend, with the reigning with Christ 
a thousand years, in the twentieth chapter. It might be said, indeed, that 
these souls of the beheaded are probably the brethren of those whose bodies 
were under the altar, and that the period alluded to, Rev. vi. 11, has now 
approached. We do not suppose these brethren to be literally such, or 
even collateral evidences or witnesses: we are rather inclined to consider 
them corresponding illustrations ; the witnesses under the altar, and the 
witnesses killed or wounded in the battle with the beast, being the same 
elements of revelation, bearing testimony to the truth as it is in Jesus. 

§ 449. ‘ Which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image,’ &¢.— 
These particulars may be necessary to contrast more pointedly the condi- 
tion of the individuals here spoken of, with that of the opposite class else- 
where described; the comparison serving to indicate the kind of enjoyment 
granted to these sufferers in the cause of truth. “They have no rest, day 
aor might, it is said, (Rev. xiv. 11,) ‘who worship the beast, and_ his 
image,’ &c.; the smoke of their torture ascending up for ever. On the 
other hand, those that do not worship the beast, &c., live and reign with 
Christ a thousand years ; consequently, as we conceive, this millennial state 
is the opposite of the state of no rest, and of continual torture, or trial as by 
a refiner’s fire. Corresponding with the idea before suggested, that this 
figure of a thousand years is intended to express a position; not a period of 
time in the ordinary sense. ease 

‘And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. —The 
accuser is bound and confined to the pit for a thousand years, and the ele- 
ments of truth live and reign with Christ for a thousand years. ‘This term 
of years thus, as in the case of the twelve hundred and sixty days, &e,, 
serves the purpose of a standard of equivalents, (¢ 240 ;) a scale of com- / 
parison, indicating the manifestation of the restriction of the power of the 
accuser to thexhottomless pit-position to be equal to a reigning with Christ, 
on the part of the elements of truth. ΤῸ be secure from the power of the 
accuser, Is to be in a position of rest as regards the works and requisitions 
of the law. Such is the position of those spoken of as not having wor- 
shipped the beast, because their position is the opposite of those which have 
worshipped him. 


510 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUM2ET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


‘ But the rest [remainder] of the dead lived not.-—The words rendered 
the rest here, are the same as those translated the remnant in the preceding 
chapter—oi λοιποὶ, the remaining ones. ‘These remaining ones cannot be 
those on the side of the Word, which had not suffered death ; because these 
could not be said to be of the number of the dead. The only remaining 
ones to which this reference can be made, are the dead slain by the sword 
of the Word, whose flesh was given to the birds. These, although entirely 
destroyed by the first death, are capable of being again, by divine power, 
restored to life. They do not share in the first resurrection ; but that there 
is another resurrection, in which they will share, is implied. They have all 
partaken, we may presume, of the worship of the beast or of his image, or 
they have received his mark in their foreheads, or in their hands ; for which 
reason they cannot live and reign with Christ, or participate in the position 
designated by this thousand years’ reign. They have a resuscitation to 
undergo, but it is something irrespective of this millennial position ; and is, 
therefore, described as not taking place till after the termination of the 
thousand years. In effect, where Christ reigns these elements of sub- 
serviency to the beast can find no place. So, too, in the nature of the case, 
they can find no place in the order of things, or in the arrangement of prin- 
ciples, constituting the first resurrection or position of rest, 


V.6. Blessed and holy (is) he that hath Muxvigios καὶ ὅγιος ὃ ἔχων μέρος ἐν τῇ 
part in the first resurrection: on such the : 
second death hath no power, but they 
shall be priests of God and of Christ, and ae ng ie eke Ce oe 
shall reign with him a thousand years. ται ἱερεῖς TOU ϑεοῦ καὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ 

βασιλεύσουσι μετ αὐτοῦ χίλια ἕτη. 


> , τ , ΜῈ ΄ - ΄ 

ἀναστάσει τῇ πρώτῃ ἐπὶ τούτων ὁ δεύτε- 
, > ” ae " 2 >» 

oo Suvutos ove ἔχει ἐξουσίαν, uhh ἔσον- 


ᾧ 450. ‘ Blessed and holy,’ &c.—Blessed are the dead which die in 
the Lord, it is said, Rev. xiv. 13; and the reason assigned for this blessed- 
ness is, that those thus dead rest from their labours, (ᾧ 338;) the same 
blessed position of rest being spoken of in one part of the Apocalypse as 
being dead in Christ, which in another part is termed a first resurrection. 
The disciple in Christ is accounted dead to the law, as if in Christ he had 
suffered the penalty of the law, and could therefore be no more obnoxious 
to its requisitions ; at the same time, in Christ he is also accounted justified, 
freed from the power of the law, and thus raised to a new position of life— 
a first resurrection. So it is said, (Rev. xvi. 15,) Blessed is he that watcheth 
and keepeth his garments ;—he that is always clothed with the garments of 
salvation—the covering of his Saviour’s merits, the robe of his Redeemer’s 
righteousness. He, too, in this state of readiness, (¢ 367,) is in a position 
corresponding with that of the first resurrection, as well as with that of rest. 

As with the disciple, so with the elements of the economy of grace 
personified as disciples, (ᾧ 427.) Blessed are those called to the marriage- 


THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 511 


feast ; those participating in the manifestation of the mystery of salvation 
by grace. We suppose the marriage-feast to be an equivalent of the first 
resurrection ; the blessedness of the same elements being represented by 
different figures. Those called to the marriage-feast, are evidently such as 
have not worshipped the beast or his image, or received his mark ; and, 
consequently, are such as live and reign with Christ, and participate in his 
rest. We apply this blessedness here to elements of doctrine personified 
as disciples, and not to disciples themselves directly, because the whole 
representation is connected with the conflict just decided between the Word 
and the beast ; a conflict of manifestation, resulting in an exhibition of the 
triumph of elements of truth over those of falsehood.* 

‘On such the second death hath no power.’—It was said in the epistle 
to the angel of the church in Smyrna, (Rev. il. 11,) ‘ He that overcometh 
shall not be hurt of the second death.” In remarking upon that expression, 
we have given our reasons for considering this second death a perpetual 
trial, to which systems and elements of systems are to be subjected, ($ 57.) 
We have seen no reason since to alter our views, and the construction then 
adopted applies here with equal facility. The elements enjoying the bene- 
fits of the first resurrection, are those which have borne witness to the truth 
as it is in Jesus, and which, in the great contest for truth, have been the 
advocates on the side of the Word of God: fighting, as it were, in the ranks 
of the Word, they have overcome the beast and the false prophet. They 
have been killed by the axe, indeed, but they now enjoy a resurrection from 
that death; and over them, as promised to him that overcometh, the second 
death hath no power, or they cannot be hurt by it, in the sense before attri- 
buted to this term, (¢ 174.) 

‘ But they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign,’ &e.— 
It was the peculiar office of priests to offer sacrifices ; both thank-offerings 
(sacrifices of gratitude and praise) and propitiatory offerings. Christ having 
once offered himself as a sacrifice for sin, this last portion of the priest’s ser- 
vice must be ended ; and we may presume it especially to be dispensed with 
in the position represented by the first resurrection; but the offerings of 
thanksgiving still remain to be made, and this forever. The elements of the 
economy of grace tending to exhibit the cause of gratitude and praise, are 
accordingly personified as those destined to be priests of God and of Christ. 
They are elements of truth, setting forth such views of God and of Christ 
as tend to make him the object of gratitude and praise ; they are thus, figura- 
tively, priests or sacrificators in this position of rest. 


΄ 


* We have not enlarged upon the term holy (ἅγιος) here, because applying it to 
principles or elements of truth set apart ; our views of its use in this place must be 
sufficiently obvious, from the remarks elsewhere made, (§§ 88, 262.) 


ae 


512 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


These elements of truth also predominate in the arrangement of princi- 
ples exhibiting the position of rest in Christ, for which reason they are said 
to reign with him a thousand years; the scale or standard of parallelism 
being here again employed, showing that to be priests, and to reign in the 
sense alluded to, is equivalent to enjoying the second resurrection ; that is, 
equivalent to entering into the composition of that arrangement or economy 
which affords the position of rest in Christ, the opposite of the condition 


of the worshippers of the beast, (principles sustaining the dominion of the 
beast.) 


SATAN RELEASED. 


Vs. 7,8. And when the thousand years Καὶ ὅταν τελεσϑῇ τὰ χίλια ἕτη, λυϑή. 
are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of 
his prison. And shall go out to deceive 
the nations which are in the four quarters ΣΉΝ: ; ie (heat We, 4 
of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather ταις τέσσαρσι yumiuis 17g YS, TOP ao, μὲ τῇ 
them together to battle: the number of τὸν Muyay, συναγαγεῖν αὐτοὺς εἰς πολε- 
whom (is) as the sand of the sea. μον, ὧν ὃ ἀριϑμὸς αὐτῶν ὡς ἡ ἄμμος τῆς 

ϑαλάσσης. 


c ~ ~ ~ c ~ 
σεται ὃ σατανᾶς ἐκ τῆς φυλακῆς αὐτοῦ, 

as ΄ ~ ‘ , 1 
καὶ ἐξελεύσεται πλανῆσαι τὰ ἔϑνη τὰ ἐν 


ᾧ 451. ‘And when,’ &c.—Here the chapter might have been very 
properly divided, something like a new series of illustrations being com- 
menced. The great battle of Armageddon has been fought; the fate of 
the enemy has been recounted, and the reward allotted to the faithful ad- 
herents of the conqueror has been set forth, including even a designation 
of the term or period for the enjoyment of this reward. ‘This term is now 
supposed to be expired; Satan is released for ‘a little season,” and the 
reign with Christ, or position of rest, ceases for a corresponding season. 
The expressions in these two verses, it is true, imply something to come, but 
the narrative gradually merges itself into a relation of something having 
already taken place ; a versatility of representation not inconsistent with 
the account of a dream or vision ; but, perhaps, hardly otherwise allowable. 
Admitted as it is here, the peculiarity serves to remind us that a literal con- 
struction in any respect is to be carefully avoided. 

‘Satan shall be loosed out of his prison ;’ released from custody or con- 
finement.—The accuser was not only cast into the bottomless pit, as into a 
prison, he was also bound with a great chain. He is now loosed, unbound, 
no longer confined in the pit, or by the great chain. The concatenation 
of doctrinal truths, as we have supposed it to be, (¢ 443,) is for a time lost 
sight of, and the adversary appears in full power; or, as we may say, when- 
ever the chain of evangelical truths, showing the confinement of Satan to 
the abyss system, is lost sight of, then the accuser appears to reassume his 
legal power, and the ‘position of rest is no longer discernible ; the thousand 


SATAN RELEASED. 513 


years serving to point out the parallelism (§ 240) in this verse as before, 
time being otherwise out of consideration. 

‘And shall go out to deceive the nations,’ &c.;—or, rather, to lead 
them astray, to pervert the doctrinal powers figuratively spoken of as the 
nations. 

‘In the four corners of the earth ;—that is, on all the earth, (¢ 172,) 
the earth being taken for a square flat surface. The recesses in each of the 
angles of a square being those parts at the greatest distance from the centre, 
to say that even these angles are reached, is a strong expression for reach- 
ing every portion of the square. Satan is thus represented as deluding the 
nations in every portion of the earth. 

On the former occasion, Rev. xvi. 14, the summons to battle was 
directed to the kings of the earth and of the whole world; and those 
under the command of the beast with the false prophet were supposed to 
gather together their respective forces. ‘There was a great variety in the 
grades or ranks of these forces, from their captains and mighty men down 
even to the slaves of the common soldiers. Still, these were only the mili- 
tary portion of the nations; every nation furnishing its quota of troops. 
Now, there is a general rally of the nations themselves—a levy en masse is 
to be imagined throughout the world ;—corresponding with a universal fall- 
ing away from the truth, or general perversion of all elements of religious 
doctrine ; and this, too,.not under the lead of the spirit of error, or under 
the influence of the false prophet, or of a misconstruction of divine revela- 
tion, but influenced and led on solely by the spirit of accusation—the legal 
adversary. ‘The blasphemous pretensions of self (the beast) have been 
overcome—the fallacies of misinterpretation or of literal interpretation have 
been exposed ; but the whole earthly scheme of doctrine is now led astray 
by the spirit of fear—the fear of legal accusation, the opposite of that love 
which casteth out fear. 

ᾧ 452. ‘Gog and Magog, to gather,’ &c.—These names appear to be 
put as an equivalent for the nations in the four quarters of the earth. The 
Gog mentioned in the Old Testament is said to have been the king of a 
people called Magog, inhabiting regions far remote from Palestine. Some 
suppose, by this name Magog, the ancients to have intended to denote 
northern nations generally, (Rob. Lex. 132;) and that the term is used 
in a similar sense in this passage. If this supposition be well founded, the 
use of these names here may be merely as an intensive, indicating the 
nations in question to be gathered from the utmost ends of the earth; the 
force now assembling being figuratively all that the earth can possibly fur- 
nish: all the elements of the earthly system, without exception, are per- 
verted to establish the power of legal accusation, or of the legal adversary. 

The names employed in the sacred writings, however, are not, we think, 


514 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 
© 


selected by the spirit of inspiration without reference to their meaning, 
although it may be difficult for us at present to ascertain precisely what this 
meaning is. So, too, it seems probable, that names occurring in the Old 
Testament are not cited in the New without the design of bringing about 
the collation of the passages bearing this index, and thus affording some 
additional illustration. The word Gog is said to signify a cover, or that 
which covers—tectum vel solarium ; and Magog, covering—tegens, tegulans, 
(Cruden, Leusden, and others.)* This meaning would apply to a multi- 
tude of people, covering, as it were, the face of the earth ; or it would apply 
to the multitude of pretensions to self-righteousness, professing to furnish 
garments or coverings of salvation, by man’s fulfilment of the law. This 
latter sense seems to us to be that in contemplation in the passage here 
under consideration. 

Corresponding with this construction, we put a like interpretation upon 
the language of the prophet, alluding apparently to the same manifestation 
of a general perversion of doctrinal principles, operating against that eco- 
nomy of grace, which constitutes the Christian’s asylum, or dwelling of rest, 
and of safety. ‘‘ Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus 
saith the Lord Gop, In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, 
shalt thou not know it? And thou shalt come from thy place out of the 
north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon 
horses ; a great company, and a mighty army. And thou shalt come up 
against my people of Israel as a cloud to cover the land ; it shall be in the 
latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may 
know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, Ὁ Gog, before their eyes,” 
Ezek. xxxvil. 14-16. 

The dwelling safely of the prophet, we suppose to be equivalent to 
what we denominate the millennial rest of the Apocalypse ; as it is said in a 
preceding verse of the same prediction: “ And thou shalt say, I will go up 
to the land of unwalled villages ; Iwill goto them that are at rest, that dwell 
safely; all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor 


gates,’ Ezek. xxxviii. 11; as if Gog had heard of the gracious prediction, 
Zech. ii. 4, 5, and had determined to test the power of the promised pro- 
tection: “ Jerusalem shall be as towns without walls... . - for I, saith 


the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory 
in the midst of her.” As the garment of salvation is to the disciple, so this 
wall of salvation is to the city—both figures representing the same protec- 
tion of imputed righteousness. Against this protection, as if to show its 
insufficiency, the powers of the earthly system (Gog and Magog) are now 
gathered together, under the conduct of the accuser. Their number is 


* 53 (Radix ipsa) δῶμα, Tectum. Tromm. Index Heb. et Chald. 


THE SIEGE OF THE BELOVED CITY. 515 
» 


hyperbolically represented “as the sand of the 8θὰ Ὁ and this, perhaps, 
because these elements are equally unstable, incapable of affording a foun- 
dation upon which to build a system of redemption. [{ is a little remark- 
able that these hostile powers should be described, as to multitude, by the 
same figure of speech as that applied to the promised multitude of the seed 
of Abraham, David, &c. Perhaps this may be designed to direct our atten- 
-tion to the fact, that the multitude of elements is the same, although in this 
latter representation they are in a perverted state ; corresponding with the — 
wayward character of the descendants of the patriarch. 


Vs. 9,10. And they went up on the 
breadth of the earth, and compassed the 
camp of the saints about, and the beloved Oa ΨῸΣ i β 
city: and fire came down from God out ΤΊ", 740 τῇ; ἠγαπημένη». καὶ κατέβη πῦρ 
of heaven, and devoured them. And the ἀπὸ τοῦ ϑεοῦ, ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ κατέ- 
devil that deceived them was cast into the φαγὲν αὐτούς. χαὶ ὃ διάβολος ὃ πλανῶν 
lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast αὐτοὺς ἐβλίϑη εἰς τὴν λίμνην τοῦ πυρὸς 
and the false prophet (are), and shall be χαὶ ϑείου, ὅπου καὶ τὸ ϑηρίον καὶ ὃ ψευ- 
tormented day and night for ever and ὃ 
ΒΦΗ͂Σ: omgop ἥπης, καὶ Bacay ισϑήσονται ἡμέρας 

καὶ εὐχτὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. 


Kai ἀν ἔβησαν ἐπὶ τὸ πλάτος τῆς γῆς, καὶ 
ἐχύκλωσαν τὴν. παρεμβολὴν τῶν ἁγίων καὶ 


ᾧ 453. ‘And they went up on the breadth of the earth ;’ or, upon the 
whole surface of the earth: the whole platform of earthly views of religious 
doctrine, as a multitude coming from the four corners of a square, however 
extensive, and spreading from side to side must necessarily cover the whole 
area. 


; And compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city .’— 
The camp of the saints, and the beloved city, may be nearly convertible 
symbolic terms—different figures of the same provision of safety: or the 
entrenchments of the camp may represent the same divine protection as the 
promised wall just now alluded to. So, in the case of a city without walls, 
when besieged its defenders fortify themselves in a camp round about it ; as 
it is said, Ps. xxxiv. 7, ‘The angel of the Lord encampeth round about 
them that fear him, and delivereth them; and, Zech. ix. 8, “I will en- 
camp about mine house, because of the army, because of him that passeth 
by, and because of him that returneth.”” Within the camp, or within the 
city walls, is the place of safety. So, amongst the Hebrews, without the 
camp, or without the gate, was the position for suffering the penalty of 
death. In Christ all is rest and quiet ; out of Christ there is no peace. It 
is, perhaps, just the truth of this doctrine that is now about to be assailed— 
all the elements of self-justification, under the command of the legal accuser, 
are arrayed against it. 

The issue now to be tried, we may say, is whether the beloved city, with 
its encampment, be sufficient to withstand all the earthly elements brought 
against it by this great adversary—whether the economy of grace, of which 


516 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


the merits or righteousnesses of Jehovah alone constitute ie defences, be a 
sufficient refuge from the wrath to come. 

We suppose the saints here, or holy ones, to represent holy principles, 
(elements of this economy of grace,) these being the subjects of attack, on 
the part of the adversary and his forces. This economy of grace we pre- 
sume to be termed the beloved city, because this plan of sovereign mercy is 
that in which divine goodness takes peculiar delight. As it is said, Ps. 
exlvii. 10, 11, “‘ He (the Lord) delighteth not in the strength of the horse ; 
he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man’’—he is not pleased with any 
means of salvation or deliverance other than those of his own providing : 
«The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his 
mercy.” The visitation of wrath is represented as his strange work, (Is. 
¥Xviil. 21,) while, on the other hand, it is declared he delichteth in mercy. 
For the same reason, apparently, Christ himself is declared to be the beloved 
Son of God ; not merely that he is divine, or that he is an only Son, but 
that he is the means of redemption—the instrument of mercy, in which 
God delights. He is beloved on account of his office ; on account of the 
functions of sovereign grace fulfilled in him. In other words, the work of 
redemption itself is God’s delight. He delights in being a Saviour, a Re- 
deemer. The economy of grace is that over which he rejoices, and for this 
reason it is termed beloved. The legal dispensation was something going 
first into operation from necessity—as it was said, perhaps typically, concern- 
ing the first wife of the patriarch, (Gen. xxix. 26,) “ It must not be so done 
in our country, to give the younger before the first-born’”’—something result- 
ing from the nature of things. The gospel dispensation, on the conffary, is 
something freely given, or, rather, something adopted of choice, and there- 
fore an object of delight with him by whom it has been thus prepared. 

Such being the beloved city and its camp, it is here represented as in a 
state of siege,—encompassed with armies. It is a town without walls, as 
supposed at present. Its only reliance is upon Jehovah of hosts; He is its 
only wall, its only defence. As we might say of the gospel plan of salva- 
tion, it depends entirely upon the element of divine sovereignty to sustain it. 
‘Tt is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man’—“ All 
nations,” says the Psalmist, “ compassed me about: but in the name of the 
Lord will I destroy them,” (Ps. exvill. 8, 9.) We suppose the cases to be 
analogous ; one representing the position of the disciple himself, the other 
the position of that plan of salvation upon which the disciple rests his hope. 
If the beloved city fall before its enemies, the last hope of refuge for the sin- 
ner flying from offended justice is cut off forever.* 


* This favoured city represents, no doubt, the same object as that symbolized by 
the holy city, (Rev. xi. 2,) although under diflerent circumstances; and also as that 


THE LAST CONFLICT. δι. 


ᾧ 454. «Απὰ fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured 


them.’—So it is said, (Ezek. xxxix. 6 and 9,) “ And I will send a fire on 
᾿ρορ ἡ ean and they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, 


and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the buck- 
lers, the bows and the arrows, and the hand-staves, and the spears, and they 
shall burn them with fire seven years.’’ The instrument of destruction in 
both cases is the same—the element of fire—the same consuming element as, 
that which destroyed the harlot—the great commercial city—(the merce- 
nary system.) 

The conflict here represented is between the exhibition of truth and that 
of error, the beloved city and the camp of the saints being figures of the 
plan of salvation as set forth in the gospel ; the hosts of Gog and Magog, 
on the other hand, representing the innumerable multitude of errors opposed 
to the truth as revealed in the Scriptures. The fire is the word of God— 
the revealed word, understood in its proper spiritual sense. Coming down 
from heaven, is its revelation ; and coming immediately from God, may indi- 
eate this peculiar revelation to be that of the element of divine sovereignty, 
a truth overcoming all opposition. Or, perhaps, to be more definite, we may 
say, heaven is the written word ; the fire out of heaven is the true or spirit- 
ual sense, educed from this written word. ‘The spiritual understanding 
(Col. i. 9) is the gift of God; for which reason it is represented as fire 
coming out of heaven, from God. On this occasion this fire may apply 
particularly to that portion of truth which counteracts the delusion of the 
accuser. The truth that God is a sovereign, and that this sovereignty is 
the principle of his government, once fully manifested puts an end to all 
cavilling on the subject of redemption by grace. He has a right to do as 
he pleases with his own—every thing is his; as he ts the only creator and 
preserver, so he is the only possessor and proprietor. There are none that 
can say unto him, What doest thou? ‘The question of what he ought to do 
cannot be mooted. The only question to be asked is, What is his will ? or, 
What has he declared to be his will? and, whatever that will may be, the 
only language for the creature to hold is, Let that will be done. No sooner, 
then, does God reveal, in a manher not to be misunderstood, the fact that 
salvation by grace is his will, than the plan of salvation represented 
by the beloved city is safe; every element hostile to it is devoured or 
consumed ; the armies of the aliens are put to flight. As the blood of 
the Lamb (the element of divine propitiation) overcomes the dragon and his 
angels, (the elements of the law,) so the fire from God out of heaven, the 


spoken of, Rev. iii. 12, (the city of my God;) but otherwise, this is the first intimation 
we have had of a city, the opposite of the great city, Babylon, just destroyed. 


518 SEVENTH SEAL._SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


manifestation of the truth as it is in Jesus, overcomes (devours) every prin- 
ciple of error. 

ς And the devil which deceived them was cast into the lake,’ &c.—The 
perverted views or errors, termed the nations, are represented as being all 
entirely destroyed. ‘The verb employed is one signifying to eat, combined 
with an intensive; the same verb as that rendered (Rev. x. 9) by eat up ;, 
and the same verb as that employed to express the intention of the dragon 
towards the male-child, (Rev. xii. 4,) to devour or to destroy it altogether. 
These errors, therefore, may be supposed to be completely annihilated. 
Nothing remains of them after the exhibition of truth here contemplated. It 
is not so with the leader of the hostile band: he, too, is exposed to the 
destructive action of fire, but he is not supposed to be annihilated. His 
destruction is represented as something continually and perpetually in ope- 
ration. He is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone: the element of 
sulphur being that giving perpetuity to the fire of the lake. The accusing 
spirit, the legal adversary, may thus be said to be ever in view. Those who 
are saved will have in contemplation, throughout eternity, the danger from 
which they have escaped—the adversary from whose power they have been 
preserved. Such contemplation, we may take it for granted, is necessary, 
and will be forever necessary, to perpetuate the gratitude of the redeemed 
for the great salvation they enjoy. ‘Throughout eternity the ransomed sin- 
ner will never forget the justice of his condemnation, and the freeness of that 
grace by which he has been saved from wrath, and made an heir of immor- 
tal happiness. 

‘Where the beast and the false prophet (are).’—This seems to be added 
to remind us that the lake of fire is the same in both cases. It is something 
capable of acting upon the subjects represented by the beast and false 
prophet ; and as these two elements are evidently things of a figurative 
character, so the lake into which they are cast is something of a like charac- 
ter; and, consequently, the torment of Satan here spoken of, must be of the 
same description as that undergone by these two first principles of error. 

«And shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever:’ or, as it 
might be rendered, And they shall be tormented, &c.; all three of them.— 
We were before told that the beast and false prophet were cast into this 
Jake, but it was not then said for what purpose; now we have the further 
information that they, together with the adversary, are to be exposed toa 
continual and perpetual trial, or torture, as by fire—the fire of the Word of 
God ; corresponding with the construction we have uniformly put upon the 
terms βασανίζω, Bacarouds, and upon the figures of sulphur and fire, and 
day and night. 


THE GREAT WHITE THRONE, 519 


‘ 
THE SECOND RESURRECTION.—THE SECOND JUDGMENT. 
—THE SECOND DEATH. 
V. 11. And I saw a great white throne, = Kal εἶδον ϑρόνον μέγαν λευκόν, καὶ τὸν 
and him that sat on it, from whose face i 


the earth and the heaven fled away ; and 
there was found no place for them. 


καϑήμενον ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῦ, οὗ ἀπὸ προςώπου 
ἔφυγεν ἡ γῆ καὶ ὃ οὐρανός, καὶ τόπος οὐχ 
εὑρέϑη αὐτοῖς. 

ᾧ 455. ‘And I saw,’ &c.—Comparing the commencement of this verse 
with the reference to him that sat on the throne, in the fifth verse of the 
next chapter, we perceive that the remainder of this chapter, together with 
the first eight verses of the next, constitutes the relation of one scene; the 
same throne, and the same occupant of the throne, being present throughout. 

This is the second judgment scene described in this chapter, but, besides 
the figurative interval of a thousand years, it differs very materially from the 
preceding. In the first exhibition the apostle saw several thrones, seats, or 
tribunals, and, as implied, as many judges, or occupants of the seats, to 
whom judgment was given. But before these tribunals the combatants on 
the side of the conqueror only appeared ; the functions of the judges seem- 
ingly being confined to the allotment of rewards to these followers of the 
victor. ‘The remainder of the dead (those slain by the sword of the Word) 
are expressly declared not to have been resuscitated at that time, nor were 
they to be so till after the expiration of the thousand years ; but as their 
resurrection at the end of that term is apparently implied, we may presume 
them to be now appearing at the second judgment. In the present exhibi- 
tion there is seen but one throne or one tribunal, and but one judge. To 
him judgment is not said to be given. He is himself the source of judg- 
ment—the fountain of justice. Nor is it only one class of objects that is here 
said to be judged; although the fate of but one class is set forth in this 
chapter. 

‘ A great white throne.—A waite throne is nowhere else mentioned in 
the Scriptures ; but the term white appears to be so universally applied in 
the Apocalypse, in connection with some manifestation of divine righteous- 
ness, that we feel no hesitation in considering the throne here described as 
a representation of that moral perfection which manifests the supremacy οἵ. 
the divine character ; the white throne, like the white horse and the white 
cloud, symbolizing that divine righteousness which constitutes at the same 
time the glory of the saints and the element essential to an exhibition of the 
sovereign power of Jehovah in the work of salvation. 

‘And him that sat thereon.’—The apostle seems intentionally to avoid 
stating who sat upon the throne, as if this were a mystery not yet fully 
developed. There can be no doubt but that this throne and its occupant 

42 


520 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


are those described Rev. iv. 3, the mode of manifestation only being 
different. As it is said, (Ps. xlvii. 48,) God sitteth on the throne of his holi- 
ness ; so we may say here, God is manifested upon the throne of his righteous- 
ness—that is, of his own righteousness—that righteousness by which he 
sustains himself, (Is. lix. 16 ;) allusion being made to the same throne in 
. the promise of the Saviour, Rev. i, 21: “'To him that overcometh will I 
Ὁ grant to sit upon my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with 
my Father on his throne.” The follower of Jesus is exalted by God’s 
vatighteousness® or holiness, and not by his own—corresponding with the 
otlissurance of the Psalmist, “In thy name shall they rejoice all the day, and 
itiny thy righteousness shall they be exalted,” (Ps. Ixxxix. 16.) 
sili ; The Son of God as the Lamb had overcome, (Rev. iii. 21 1) by his 
.\htood he had overcome, (Rev. xii. 11 ;) and as the Word of God he had 
eobvertome, (Rev. xix. 21;) and now the apostle sees the same divine Being 
otbnthel great white throne, manifested to be identic with the Father—exalted 
soardsupheld by the same righteousness. 
ΟἹ .2i¢Phis exhibition of sovereignty, and of the Lamb or Word of God as the 
sasupreme! Judge, may be considered virtually a result of the defeat of the 
-vacensepland his forces, of that of the beast and of the kings of the earth, as 
odw@lb asoofi the destruction of Babylon, and of the fiery trial to which the 
(hhe¥t atid'‘ifalse prophet and accuser are perpetually exposed. The fact of 
oithisisoveraignty must have been always the same, in the nature of things ; 
sicbistetherelis:a gradual development of the truth. ‘The extreme hatefulness 
seam fallacy:of the mercenary system must be exhibited before the claims of 
-idielésighteougness can be manifested to be groundless ; these claims must be 
οἷ Bhoyn{to; besextinguished before the power of the accuser can be manifestly 
-obwpr¢eme the complete subjugation of the accuser’s power must be exhib- 
giatedi before: the!eupremacy of Christ’s righteousness can be exhibited ; and 
either predémmanee of the merits of Christ (the righteousness of God in 
Christ) over every other principle opposed to the salvation of the sinner 
αἰ busbibeoshowh, -before the power of divine sovereignty can be exhibited. 
αἱ Aitadual development of this kind is indicated by the apostle Paul, (1 Cor. 
21 237i) 5 Hachcin its own order, (as the passage might be rendered ;) 
ὡς figstiCbristpthenothese that are of Christ at his appearance: then the end 
te whemoheu-shall zbavie. delivered up the kingdom to God and to the 
oijMathen :hwhenhé shall have caused to pass away all rule, and all authority 
joamd power ;ofonihe;gmust reign [his merits must be manifested to predomi- 
pate |.diktdigshath; putirall enemies under his feet: the last enemy that shall 
be destroyed is ἀθαῖῃ ἰδ; 
binve Thijs! exisisnxei haveoshe more reason to believe to be apocalyptically 
jxeaghed; in, this, pasnage, as we find the destruction of death (the last enemy) 
indgshmone; of the reswits-iofi this second judgment, (v. 14.) 


HEAVEN AND EARTH FLED AWAY. 521 


ᾧ 456. ‘From whose face the earth and the heaven fled away ; and there 
was found no place for them.’—This figure probably corresponds with 
what Paul terms the passing away or abolishing of all rule, and all authority 
and power. So we may say a manifestation of Christ as Jehovah our 
righteousness causes an entire change in all previous views of divine 
government, not even admitting of their continuance. And as such a mini- 
festation necessarily draws a line of discrimination between all that is true 
and all that is false in matters of religious doctrine, it is virtually a judging 
of these things; corresponding with the description in this passage of the 
great tribunal and its action—the great white throne and him that sat upon 
it, from whose sight even the heaven fled away. 

It was said, Rev. vi. 14, that the heaven departed, or was rolled vp 
(δ 161) like a scroll, and every mountain and island were moved out of 
their places, and (xvi. 20) every island fled away, and the mountains were 
not found. In the change now spoken of, the whole earth is said to flee 
away ; the representation differing in degree, but being the same in kind. 
We think the epoch in all these relations may be considered the same; the 
development of the truth only being progressive. At first the confidence of 
the sinner in earthly means of refuge (¢ 161) is shaken; mountains and 
islands are moved out of their places, and the refugees are flying from rock 
to rock, and from mountain to mountain, but they still call upon these vain 
objects of trust for shelter from the wrath to come. We next see a shaking 
of the whole earthly system, involving a dissolution of the mixed or merce- 
nary scheme of salvation : every island has fled away, and the mountains are 
not found,—the hail sweeping away the refuge of lies ;—the various shifts 
and devices of self-confidence are manifested to be mere illusions. And lastly, 
the whole scheme of man’s dependence upon any works or merits of his 
own, even the supposition of his being so placed under the law, is shown 
to be incapable of withstanding the judgment of Him who sitteth upon the 
throne. 

Not only the earth, the heaven also is seen to flee away; as it is said, 
Heb. xii. 26, (in allusion to Haggai ii. 6, and Is. xiii. 13,) “ But now he 
hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also 
” and as it is predicted, Is. xxxiv. 4, “ And all the host of heaven 
shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and 
all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine,” &c. ; and, 
2 Peter iii. 10, 13, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the 
night ; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the 
elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are 
therein shall be burned up. . . . . . Nevertheless we, according to his 
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous- 


ness.” 


heaven : 


\ 


522 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


In this last quotation we find a key to the reason why the heavens as 
well as the earth are thus the subjects of change, viz., that in the old heaven, 
as well as the old earth, righteousness does not dwell. ‘They cannot withstand 
the searching eye of Him who sits upon the throne, because in them no 
righteousness is found—they do not furnish it; yea, the heavens are not 
clean in his sight. 

The only true righteousness is that of Jehovah himself. ‘There is no 
other, in the strict sense of the term. Consequently, any plan of salvation, 
any exhibition of the position of man, or of the government of God, deficient 
in showing God’s righteousness to be the only righteousness—the only means 
of justification—must be incapable of meeting the approbation of the omnis- 
cient Judge and Sovereign. Every plan or scheme, without this requisite, 
must flee, as it were, from before his face. Such we suppose to be the 
earth and heaven spoken of in the description of this apocalyptic judgment. 
They are exhibitions of man’s position, and of God’s scheme of government, 
(including his plan of redemption,) of which the righteousness of God, as the 
only means of salvation, does not form an essential part. For this reason, 
there is no place for them, so soon as Jehovah is manifested on the white 
throne of his own righteousness ; as if it were argued, Since the Supreme 
Being himself must be sustained by his own perfect righteousness, how can 
man be exalted, sustained, or even saved by any other righteousness ? 

It may be difficult to define precisely the distinction between the exhibi- 
tion designated as heaven, and that designated as the earth; but it is very 
plain, from the manner in which the apostle Paul uses these figures, that he 
applies them both to a change from the legal to the gospel dispensation, as 
he says, in connection with the quotation we have just now made, (Heb. xii. 
27,) “ And this, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that 
are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be 
shaken may remain.” ' 

We suppose the things which cannot be shaken to be the things of the 
kingdom of God—the principles of the economy of grace, as they have 
existed in the divine mind from all eternity, and as they are revealed in the 
sacred Scriptures when these Scriptures are spiritually understood. All 
things short of these must be designed only for a temporary purpose—they 
were made to be shaken, and made to be changed. Such was man’s ori- 
ginal position by nature, and such was the legal dispensation ; and such must 
be any view even of the gospel dispensation, or of the whole word of reve- 
lation, not according with a just view of divine sovereignty, and of man’s 
entire dependence upon the unmerited favour of his Redeemer. 

We presume, of course, the heaven here seen to pass away, not to 
be the heaven into which John was permitted to enter in vision, nor that 
denominated by Paul the third heaven; both of these corresponding appa- 


THE SECOND RESURRECTION. 523 


rently with the new heaven mentioned in the next chapter. Something 
analogous to the Jewish idea of three heavens, one above the other, we sup- 
pose to prevail throughout the Apocalypse—three successive exhibitions 
of the truths of revelation ; the last, or spiritual, corresponding with the Jew- 
ish ethereal region, being that which is to remain ; the others, as of a tempo- 
rary and earthly or mixed character, are destined to be changed, dissolved; 
or to pass away. We judge of the meaning of this term, as in other cases, 
according to the circumstances and connection in which it is used. 

Whatever difficulty there may be in arriving at an exact analysis of this 
passage, as heaven and earth comprehend all visible objects, to speak of 
these as having fled away, must be equivalent to a representation of the 
disappearance of all previous views of the subject under contemplation, (the 
subject comprehended in the unveiling of Jesus Christ ;) these old views 
cannot withstand or abide (Mal. iii. 2) the manifestation now made. ‘The 
whole construction of the revealed word being changed, there is no longer 
room for them; as it is said in the next chapter, with reference to the same 
change, ‘‘ The former things have passed away,” and as Paul expresses it, 
Heb. x. 9, “ He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second ;” 
with this difference, however, that this last passage refers to the fact itself 
of the substitution of the new economy for the old or legal dispensation, 
while the language of the Apocalypse refers to a manifestation of this fact, 
through the right understanding of the revealed word—an understanding 
effecting such a change of views as to be compared to a perfect oblivion of 
the past: (Is. Ixv. 17,) “The former [heaven and earth] shall not be 
remembered, nor come into mind.” 


Vs. 12-15. And I saw the dead, small 


Kai εἶδον τοὺς vexgovs, τοὺς μεγάλους 
and great, stand before God; and the 


‘ , = are ~ 
καὶ TOUS μικρούς, ἑστῶτας ἐγώπιον TOU ϑρό- 


books were opened: and another book 
was opened, which is (the book) of life: 
and the dead were judged out of those 
things which were written in the books, 
according to their works. And the sea 
gave up the dead which were in it; and 
death and hell delivered up the dead 
which were in them: and they were judg- 
ed every man according to their works. 
And death and hell were cast into the 
lake of fire. This is the second death. 
And whosoever was not found written in 
the book of life was cast into the lake of 
fire. 


Ἧ 
you, καὶ βιβλία ἡνοίχϑησαν - καὶ ἄλλο βιβ- 
, > ' co > - - Ἁ > ’ 
hiov ἡνοίχϑη, ὃ ἐστι τῆς ζωῆς" καὶ ἐχρί- 
4 ~ 
ϑησαν οἵ νεκροὶ ἐκ τῶν γεγραμμένων ἐν 
~ ΄ ‘ a > _~ rN 
τοὺς βιβλίοις κατα τὰ ἕργα αὐτῶν. Kai 
΄ c ΄ ‘ ‘ 
ἔδωκεν ἡ ϑάλασσα τοὺς νεκροὺς τοὺς ἐν 
Thins %_e , 4s GF SF »” 
aut, καὶ ὁ ϑάνατος καὶ ὁ “dns ἔδωκαν 
1 ‘ ‘ c a 
τοὺς νεκροὺς TOUS ἐν αὑτοῖς " καὶ ἐκρίϑησαν 
o ‘ ‘ ΕΣ 2 ~ ng a ΄ 
ἕκαστος κατὰ τὰ ἕργα αὐτῶν. Kaito ϑά- 
c ει , ‘ 
vatos καὶ ὃ “One ἐβλήϑησαν εἰς THY λίμνην 
- ry ε ΄ 
τοῦ πυρός" οὗτος ὁ ϑάνατος ὃ δεύτερός 
© ~ - , 
ἐστιν, ἢ λίμνη τοῦ πυρός. Kai εἴ τις οὐχ 
c ’ ~ ~ ~ 
εὐρέϑη ἐν τῇ βίβλῳ τῆς ζωῆς γεγραμμένος, 
, . ~ 
ἐβλήϑη, εἰς τὴν λίμνην τοῦ πυρός. 


ᾧ 457. ‘And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God ;’—or, 
according to our Greek edition, ‘stand before the throne.’ The difference 
is not material, except that, as we apprehend, the Deity himself is not yet 


524 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVEN TH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


supposed to be fully revealed, as the occupant of the throne ; this is to be 
gathered from the subsequent narration. The Rider of the white horse, 
the King of kings, the Word of God, the Lamb slain from the foundation of 
the world, after having brought all enemies under subjection, may be now 
considered manifested upon this tribunal of judgment. On this account, we 
think our Greek to be here the correct reading. 

In the commencement of this chapter, (v. 5,) after speaking of the souls 
of those slain by the awe, the remainder of the dead were said not to live 
again until the termination of the thousand years. ‘The narrative then con- 
tinues without interruption ; in the course of which the thousand years is 
represented as having terminated ; and in the twelfth verse, after the inter- 
vening of six verses only, the dead are described as seen standing before the 
throne. This closeness of connection seems to leave us no choice, but to 
suppose the dead thus seen to be the remaining ones of the dead mentioned 
in the fifth verse ; and these, for the reason given, (ᾧ 449,) we suppose to 
be the dead slain in the great battle of Armageddon by the sword of the 
Word—the dead who did not rise till after the expiration of the thousand 
years. 

Those reigning with Christ during the thousand years cannot be the 
dead now seen, for, having had part in the first resurrection, having been 
pronounced blessed and holy, and having been declared exempt from the 
power of the second death, they must have been justified, and therefore no 
longer the subjects of judgment. Those overcome in the second campaign, 
(the attack upon the camp of the saints,) are said to be all destroyed by 
fire from heaven; and the action of fire appears to be uniformly in Scripture 
the figure of a final destruction. In addition to this, the terms “small and 
great” correspond with the description given of the forces of the beast, 
among whom there appears every variety of rank and grade; while the 
forces of Satan, in the assault upon the beloved city, are mentioned only as 
the nations of the earth. 

These dead, then, appearing at this second judgment, we apprehend to 
be the component parts of the forces of the kings of the earth, and of the 
followers of the beast. including perhaps some of them coerced into the 
service of the blasphemous despot; that is, they are the znhabiters of the 
earth—the ‘dwellers upon the earth—those against whom, with a certain 
exception, the three woes were pronounced. Apocalyptically, we suppose 
them to be all the elements or principles peculiar to the earthly system. 

All these followers of the beast, with the kings of the earth, were slain 
by the sword out of the mouth of the Word, and their flesh was given to 
the birds; but, notwithstanding this, it is implied that, like human beings 
slain in battle, they are capable of being resuscitated, and of appearing in 
judgment: their destruction on the field of Armageddon was not final. 


THE BOOKS OPENED. 525 


Their leader, however, (the beast,) with his azd, (the false prophet,) met 
with a different fate: they were both of them cast into the lake of fire, 
whence we do not afterwards hear of their being delivered, even for a 
season. 

As among the inhabiters of the earth, there were apparently some that 
did not worship the beast, and that did not receive his mark, (Rev, xiii. δ, 
and xvii. 8,) so it seems to be implied that, amongst those now said to be 
standing in judgment, there are some (exceptions to a general rule) to be 
found in the book of life—the trial itself turning upon this issue. 

ᾧ 458. ‘ And the books were opened: and another book was opened ;’ 
or, ‘ And books were opened.’—There being no article in the original in 
connection with the word books, we may understand it or not, as accords 
best with the sense. If understood, we seem to be directed to some books 
previously mentioned ; and in this Apocalypse we meet with no allusion to 
any other books than that opened by the Lamb, and the little book swal- 
lowed by the apostle, together with the book of life, (Rev. ili. 5, xii. 8, 
and xvii. 8,) and this book of Revelation itself; or, if we retain the article, 
we may suppose the books to designate the books of the Old Testament, 
received by the Jews as canonical, comprehending the law and the pro- 
phets to the time of the restoration. As the term is used in Eara vi. 1, 
“ς Search was made in the house of the books,” (margin ;) and Dan. ix. 2, 
“1 understood by books ;” that is, of course, the sacred books, called, 
amongst the Jews, probably by way of distinction, the books. 

Written without the article, however, we may suppose an indefinite plural 
to be put here for the dual number, (as in the use of the word times, Dan. 
xii. 7, and Rev. xii. 14;) the books opened being two books, and these two 
books, the law and the testimony, pre-eminently criteria in matters of doc- 
trine ;—as it was said of all pretensions to an interpretation of the divine 
will, Is. viii. 19, 20, “‘ When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that 
have familiar spirits,’ &c. . . . . . “Should not a people seek unto their 
God ti? λυ ack “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not 
according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” 

It will be perceived that, as we do not suppose this judgment scene to 
represent literally the trial of human beings, so neither do we suppose these 
books to represent records of the actions of such beings: they represent 
only something analogous to such records, and to things pertaining to such 
atrial. Elements of doctrine, compared with the law and the testimony, 
or with Moses and the prophets, are represented as human beings, tried by 
what is written of them in certain books of record. 

Corresponding with this view, we take the other book—the book of 
life—to represent the gospel; or, rather, all that belongs to that plan of 
salvation of which we have an account in the gospel. ‘This book of life, we 


596 SEVENTH SEAL._SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


presume to be the same as that spoken of on former occasions as the Lamb’s 
book of life; of which we have before remarked, ($$ 87, 305,) that its 
contents are not the names of human beings, in a literal sense, but the prin- 
ciples or elements of the economy of grace. The use of these two first 
books, accordingly, may be that of ascertaining whether the principles, 
doctrines, or systems tried, belong to God’s plan of salvation (the other 
book) or not. If not, they are given over to the exhibition of their true 
character, represented as a trial by fire—the action of the Word of God— 
as a perpetual test: an action compared to that of an immense furnace or 
lake of fire and brimstone ; the latter element representing the unceasing 
and perpetual character of this trial. 

‘ And the dead were judged out of the thmgs written in the books, 
according to their works.’—Principles of a certain character generate only 
what Paul terms dead works, (Heb. ix. 14;) works involved in those ele- 
mentary views which the disciple is exhorted to lay aside, as he advances 
in the knowledge of the truth, (Heb. vi. 1.) Opposites of these dead works 
are those of him who serves the living God. Faith in the atonement of 
Christ changes the character of these works, purging the conscience from 
apprehension of the penalty of guilt, and inducing a service of God from a 
sense of gratitude. The principles generating dead works, we take to be 
those impelling the disciple to action from mercenary motives—the dread of 
punishment and the hope of reward; the opposite principles are such as 
stimulate his obedience by a grateful remembrance of the unmerited mercy 
of God, in the salvation of his soul. The latter principles are those found 
in the Lamb’s book of life ; for in that there ts no room for the element of 
apprehension. ‘The other principles tried by the law and the testimony, 
are proved and manifested not to belong to this book of life ; and, conse- 
quently, are doomed to an endless exhibition of their condemnation. Both 
classes are judged according to what is written of them im the two books, 
the law and the testimony ; and by this trial, comparing their tendencies 
with what these statutes require, it is ascertained whether they belong or 
not to the third book. 

The dead here seen on trial we suppose to be of both classes ; all of 
_ them have been slain while in the service of the beast ; but when released 
from this service, some of them, like captives released from Babyloa, may 
prove to belong to the true view of God’s plan of redemption, (the book of 
life.) “The law is good, if a man use it lawfully ;” so the principles of 
the law are good, if lawfully used; in which case they may be said to be 
found written in the Lamb’s book of life; but if unlawfully used, they are 
in the service of the beast and of the accuser. It is then that they are slain 
by the sword of the Spirit, and that they are given over to trial by the Word 
of God as by fire. Some principles, however, are no doubt radically and 


THE SEA, DEATH, AND HELL JUDGED. 527 


altogether wrong ; they are incapable of serving God, or of promoting his 
glory ; and these, when tried by what is written in the law and the testi- 
mony, are utterly condemned. Such are all the elements of self-righteous- 
ness, self-dependence, pride, and vainglory, “small and great.” 

ᾧ 459. ‘And the sea gave up the dead which were in it.’—Three dif- 
ferent receptacles of the dead are described in this passage as simultaneously 
giving up their contents. In the ordinary sense, one of these (death) would 
comprehend the other two; those drowned in the sea, as well as those in 
the grave, or in hades, (hell,) being all the subjects of death. ‘The pecu- 
liarity of the classification is itself a caution against the adoption of any 
ordinary sense. 

The earth (the land) and the heaven having fled away, the first may be 
saii to have given up its dead, in the persons of those described as the 
remaining ones, (οἱ λοιποί,) dwellers upon the earth, elements of the earthly 
system. The sea, as distinguished from the land, we have taken to be the 
figure of juaictal wrath, (ᾧ 124) a system exhibiting the terrors of the law. 
As such it has its dead principles—principles extending no further than to 
influence the disciple’s conduct from motives of fear, being in themselves 
dead elements, and bringing forth only dead works. Some of these princi- 
ples may be contemplated, perhaps, like those of the law lawfully used, as 
bringing the disciple to Christ ; in which case they are found in the book 
of life—the action of the present judgment being, as we suppose, that of 
making the discrimination between them. 

‘ And death and hell gave up the dead which were in them.’ —We have 
already given our reasons for considering these terms appellations of doc- 
trinal systems, (δῷ 156, 157,) creating positions analogous to those usually 
imputed to death and the grave, or the state immediately subsequent. to 
death. Τὸ these inseparable companions (inseparable so far as the sinner 
out of Christ is subject to them) power was. given (Rey. vi. 8) over the 
fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword, with hunger, with death, and with 
the beasts of the earth, (δῷ 158, 159.) They may be now contemplated 
as called upon to give an account of their use of this power. Their dead 
may be those whom they have killed—the principles, motives, &c., which 
through their instrumentality are manifested to be dead works ; or their 
dead may be the elements of the systems by which their power has been 
exercised : perhaps the result under either construction would not materially 
differ. They are systems, in effect, of condemnation, sustained by the ele- 
ment of self-righteousness, (the green horse,) an opposite of the divine 
righteousness represented by the white horse. Their own elements, or i» 
subject to their power, are equally dead works. 

‘ And they were judged every man according to their works ;’ or, as the 
original may be rendered, ‘ They were judged each according to their works :ἢ 


528 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET —SEVENTH VIAL. 


Καὶ ἐχρίϑησαν ἕκαστος κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν. Et judicati sunt singuli secundum 
opera ipsorum, (G. and L.) ‘The words every man, in our common and 
other English versions, seem to have been introduced under a misapprehen- 
sion of the subjects in contemplation. The sea, and death, and hell, 
have given up their dead, and they are judged each* according to their 
works—according to what they have just given up. ‘These systems are 
judged ; the tendencies of their principles are examined—compared with 
what is written in the books (the law and the testimony.) ‘The sea is not 
said to be condemned—the law, lawfully used, may be found written in the 
book of life ; but the other two, as appears from what follows, have not a 
saving principle in them. 

We usually suppose hell to be the place of punishment after judgment 
and condemnation ; but here we see hell delivering up its dead to be judged. 
We cannot suppose punishment to be inflicted first, and judgment to be 
passed afterwards. Neither can we suppose the sea, in the ordinary sense, 
to have some dead to give up, and death some others, and hell some others ; 
out there is no difficulty in supposing them, as so many systems, to have 
each their respective principles or elements—their tendencies or works—by 
which they are now judged. 

§ 460. ‘ And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. —These 
two elements, according to the preceding verse, have just been tried ; sen- 
tence has been passed upon them, and they are now described as undergoing 
the execution of that sentence. The sea is not mentioned as exposed to 
the same fate ; apparently because, for the reason just given, (¢ 459,) it is 
not a subject of condemnation. It is besides correct in itself, and therefore 
has no fallacies calling for the action of fire to expose their true character. 

This lake is the same, no doubt, as that into which the false prophet, 
the beast, and the accuser have been cast: and the purpose with regard to 


* The Tyndale, Cranmer, and Geneva versions, employ the term every man; 
the Rheims version renders the passage, “and it was judged of every one.” Wiclif- 
uses the distributive pronoun each, but by his previous use of the expression dead 
men, it is evident that he takes the whole representation in the ordinary sense: “J 
saie deed men, greet and smale, stonding in the sigt of the trone: and bookis werun 
opened, and another book was opened: which is the book of iif, and deed men werun 
demed of the thingis that weren writun in the bookis aftir the werkis of hem, and the 
see gaf his deed men: that werun in it, deeth and helle gauen her deed men: that 
weren in hem, it was demed of eche: after the werkis of hem, helle and deeth 
weren sent into a pool of fier, this is the secunde deeth, he that was not foundun 
writun in the book of liif: was sente into the pool of fier.” 

The Greek term νεκρὸς, thus rendered dead in the singular, and dead men in the 
plural, might be more strictly rendered dead body or dead bodies ; the term in the 
Greek being commonly applied to human carcases—Vid. Donnegan—vezo0c, a dead 
body. In this sense it is used, Rev. xvi. 3, aipa ὡς νεκροῦ, blood, as of a dead body. 
So we find it employed by the LXX, in the account given, Gen. xxiii. 3-16, of the 


THE SECOND DEATH. 529 


death and hell must be the same as that before declared with regard to the 
other elements, (v. 10.) that they should be tormented day and night for ever 
and ever—tortured, tried, as prisoners on the rack, with the view of extorting 
confession, ($$ 210, 334.) The interpretation we have before adopted 
with regard to this lake, or furnace of fire, (Ὁ 440,) is the only one admis- 
sible here. 

Death and hell, apocalyptically, are systems, assemblages of doctrine. 
They cannot be, literally, affected by fire ; nor can they be sensible of pun- 
ishment; but their fallacies, as systems of salvation, or as exhibitions of 
man’s position, may be exposed. It may be shown, and forever shown, | 
that they are incapable of giving life; that their tendency is only that of 
eternal destruction—that of retaining the sinner in a position of hopeless con- 
demnation. This is to be manifested by a just application of the word of 
God to entire systems, as well as to their elements. The time for this pro- 
cess has now come: as systems they have been tried by the law and the 
testimony ; they have been found not to bring forth a single principle be- 
longing to the book of life, and they are now doomed to exhibit their perfect 
incongruity with the economy of grace, by an everlasting exposure to the 
action of the revealed word, spiritually understood—a word compared by 
God himself to a fire, (Jer. xxiii. 29,) and variously spoken of, according 
to the degree of its development, as the fire which is to try every work, 
(1 Cor. iii. 13,) and the fire which is to burn as an oven, acting as a re- 
finer’s fire, and as fuller’s soap, (Mal. iii. 2.) 

‘This is the second death : or, according to our Greek, ‘This is the 
second death, the lake of fire.—Death and hell are cast into the second 
death! the first death, apparently, is cast into the second death! Hades, a 
term in any sense applicable to something subsequent to death, is itself also 


negotiation of Abraham for a place to bury his dead (bodies.) The pagan notion of 
the semi-materiality of departed spirits, allowed of the employment of the term in de- 
scribing the supposed state of the soul in the lower regions: as γνεκροβαρής, laden with 
the dead, said of Charon’s boat, (Jones’s Lex.) Otherwise to speak of a soul as dead, 
would be a contradiction in terms. 

Dr. Jones supposes the Greek adjective νεκρὸς to be derived from the Hebrew 433 
Naker, signifying separate—“separated from the living ;’—with which we might 
associate only the idea of a separation of the spirit or soul from the body, and thus 
apply the term to either member of the union, But according to Trommius, 433 
signifies alienation—something regarded as foreign—as we may suppose the Gen- 
tiles were contemplated by the Jews. And as the bodies of dead persons, among the 
Hebrews, were set apart or separated as unclean, the almost uniform use of this term, 
therefore, appears to involve its application, as a figure, to something the opposite of 
what is spiritual; accordingly, we suppose these apocalyptic dead (bodies) to repre- 
sent principles, or doctrinal elements, depending upon a literal or carnal construc- 
tion of the language of revelation, as opposed to the spiritual understanding. 


530 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


exposed to the second death! ‘The anomaly presented by this figure must 
be intended to prove a bar to any interpretation approaching a literal con- 
struction. Whatever this second death be, it is something capable of acting 
upon death and hell, as well as upon the beast, the false prophet, and the 
accuser, while incapable of acting upon those beheaded for the witness of 
Jesus. It is at the same time something subsequent, in the order of revela- 
tion at least, to both the first and second resurrection ; although not so in 
every case, as we find the beast and the false prophet were exposed immedi- 
ately to the second death, without any reference to either of these resur- 
rections. 

We do not suppose this term second, however, to be employed in a 
literal sense. It is second as being greater in importance, and second, per- 
haps, as a spiritual understanding is to a natural understanding ; as it is 
said, 1 Cor. xv. 46, “ That is not first which is spiritual, but that which is 
natural, afterwards that which is spiritual.” So, this second death may 
apply to the final exhibition of revealed truth, in its spiritual sense, as we 
have considered the action of the fire from heaven upon the besiegers of the 
beloved city a final development of this character. 

The first death apparently corresponds with the state of the slain after 
the battle of Armageddon, whose flesh was given to the ravenous birds. It 
is characteristic of the peculiar helplessness and destitution of merit incident 
to the position of the disciple under the law ; as it is described by the apostle, 
Rom. vii. 9, When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. Hell, 
or hades, and death may be considered almost as interchangeable terms ; 
hell representing the position of hopelessness attributed to the bottomless 
pit. Thus Satan may be said to have suffered the first death when he was 
confined to the pit for a thousand years; as he was afterwards doomed to 
the second death in the lake of fire. 

By way of distinction, we may denominate the first death, perhaps, the 
legal system, and Hades the bottomless pit system. The action of the sword 
of the Spirit exhibits the destructive-eharacter of these systems to those 
dependent upon them : tne action of the fire from heaven, or of the lake of 
fire, exhibits the destruction of these systems themselves; death and the 
botiwmles= pit being both subjected to the perpetual test represented by the 
unquenchable fire of the lake. The first death, like Apollyon with his host 
from the pit, destroys the hopes of the disciple; the second death destroys 
the destroyer, as well as every element co-operating with him; while the 
casting of Hell into the lake of fire, is equivalent to casting the bottomless 
pit into that lake, both figures being equally incapable of a literal or ordi- 
nary construction. 

Whatever the lake of fire be, and however difficult it may be to define 
its action upon these two elements, it is evident that the power of death and 


THE LAKE OF FIRE. 531 


hell is here represented as having terminated : “ Death is swallowed up in 
victory.” A consummation is unfolded, enabling the reader to exclaim with 
Paul, in view of this happy result of the great work of redemption, “Ὁ 
death ! where is thy sting? O grave! (Hades) where is thy victory? The 
sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to 
God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Cor. 
xv. 55.) 

§ 461. ‘ And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was 
cast into the lake of fire. —The indefinite pronoun τίς, (any one,) translated 
here whosoever, and in some versions by he that, (Wiclif and Rheims,) 
does not necessarily refer to a human being. Death and hell in the Greek 
are nouns of the masculine gender, and zig may be put for any like noun of 
that gender—a system, or the element of a system. The case is similar to 
that in the preceding verse, where ἕκαστος, although masculine, may refer, 
as we have supposed it to do, to death or hell, as grammatically as it would 
do to man, if that were understood. The passage, accordingly, might be 
rendered, “ Whatever was not found written in the book of life was cast 
into the lake of fire ;” that is, every doctrinal principle proving, by the test 
administered, (the law and the testimony,) not to belong to the economy of 
redemption by grace, (the book of life,) is doomed to a perpetual exhibition 
of its incompatibility with that great object of divine revelation ;—the un- 
quenchable fire forever manifesting the destructible character of every prin- 
ciple hostile to a just exhibition of that economy. In this respect, we do 
not attach much importance to the grammatical distinction just noticed ; for 
if it were otherwise, and the word man were absolutely introduced, we 
should consider the figure of personification, so uniformly prevailing through- 
out the book, to be employed here as elsewhere ; doctrinal principles and 
elements being spoken of as human beings.* 

We had occasion to notice in the commencement of these remarks, 
($$ 38, 155,) the distinction between the Greek terms ἅδης, (Hades,) and 
γεέννα, (Gehenna,) both alike rendered in our common version by the word 
hell.. The latter (Gehenna) only being applied in other parts of the New 
Testament, where it occurs, to the state of future punishment. Even this 
is a figurative term, supposed to have been derived from a valley in the 


* Although this book of life is not to be taken as containing literally the names of 
human beings destined to be caved, the figure itself may be borrowed from the prac- 
tice of some of the Roman emperors, who are said to have furnished the magistrates 
with lists of proscription, designating those to be condemned; under the colour 
indeed of an administration of justice, but really with reference only to the will of the 
despot. The difference, however, in the two cases is, that one is exactly the converse 
of the other; the book of life exhibits the objects of mercy, while the imperial pro- 
scription lists enumerated only the victims of wanton and unjustifiable cruelty. 


532 SEVENTH SEAL.SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


vicinity of Jerusalem, where the offal and carrion of the city were conveyed 
to be destroyed by continual fires kept up for that purpose. Hence the 
name of the valley became appropriately, amongst the Jews, the appellation 
for a future state of endless torment. It is said, indeed, to signify in the 
Syriac language the infernal regions, Syriacé, Infernus, (Leusden ;) but 
whether the Syriac appellation was applied to the valley, or the name of 
the valley with the use to which it was appropriated furnished to the 
Syrians a term for the lower regions, does not appear. However this be, 
the appellation (Gehenna) is not met with at all in the Apocalypse, and 
this apparently for the reason we have already given, (¢ 38.) For the 
same reason, we think the apocalyptic lake or pool of fire, or of fire and 
brimstone, is not an equivalent, as a figure, for the Gehenna of Matthew, 
Mark, and Luke ; this term expressly designating something, to the action 
of which both the soul and body of man may be exposed, Matt. v. 22-30, 
x. 28; but, although not equivalents, there may be a certain analogy 
Hetrueri the two figures. 

The Apocalypse, we may say, assumes the doctrine of a ἜΤ state of 
punishment to be indisputable; this punishment is almost universally spoken 
of as a state of eternal torment or torture as by fire ; analogous, therefore, 
to this, the false systems, false doctrines, and abominable principles or ele- 
ments of doctrine,*the history of which has been so prominent a subject of 
this revelation, are now exhibited as given over to an everlasting torture or 
trial, eternally and forever exposing their delusions and their hatefulness. 

Death and hell are mysteries, of which Christ declares himself to have 
the keys, (Rev. i. 18.) These mysteries are delusive doctrinal systems, 
such as we have uniformly here considered them. ‘The opening of these 
mysteries consists in the development of their true character as doctrinal 
systems ; and this development constitutes in effect their destruction. 
Jesus Christ may be said to employ these keys in that unveiling of himself, 
in this book, by which the truth is manifested. This manifestation of truth 
being the destruction of error, death and hell are virtually cast by it mto 
‘the lake of fire. 

The same rule of construction must apply to the pronoun zg, whether 
we render it whoever or whatever. ‘The element or instrument of perdition 
is the same, and every thing to which this pronoun may relate, or which it 
is intended to represent, must be of the same genus as these two mysteries 
of which it shares the fate. The apocalyptic lake of fire then must be the 
instrument of exhibiting perpetually the destruction of all doctrinal systems 
and principles, not belonging to the economy of grace ; and this instrument 
can be nothing else than the revealed word of God properly understood. 

As we do not suppose this lake of fire to represent the future punish- 
ment of human beings, although perhaps something analogous to it, so 


THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 533 


neither have we considered either of the judgment scenes depicted in this 
chapter, designed to represent what is commonly understood by the las¢ 
judgment ; not that a solemn crisis of this character is not to be expected, 
but that the subject of this revelation does not call for such an exhibition. 

We presume the Apocalypse to be confined to the treatment of doc- 
trinal views of the divine scheme of redemption, and their opposite errors. 
The doctrine of a final judgment, in the common acceptation of the term, 
is taken (as in the case of that of future rewards and punishments) to be 
indisputable. The common and almost universal apprehension of the man- 
ner of that judgment is adopted ; and from these views, familiar as they are 
to the great mass of mankind, an analogous picture is drawn, representing 
the discriminating effect in matters of doctrine, of a triumphant mani- 
festation of the Lamb once slain as Jehovah our righteousness. Christ, 
thus manifested, exalted on the throne of divine righteousness, fulfils in 
effect the functions of a judge; “showing judgment to the Gentiles, (na- 
tions ;) sending forth judgment to victory,” (Matt. xii. 18, 21 ;) and “ exe- 
cuting the judgment committed to him by the Father,” (John v. 22, and 
27.) 

It is not designed, we apprehend, that our belief of a future judgment 
and state of retribution should rest upon these figurative illustrations of the 
book of Revelation; and even when the day of judgment is spoken of 
elsewhere in Scripture, it is evident that we are not to take the expression 
in an ordinary sense, confining our ideas to the transactions of a single day, 
or to the forms of judicial process of a human tribunal. The point of im- 
portance calling for our attention is, that there is virtually a judgment to 
come—virtually a period “ when God shall judge the secrets of men by 
Jesus Christ,” and render to every man according to his deeds, (Rom. ii. 
6, 16.) 

The whole tenor of Scripture teaches us that we are perpetually in the 
presence of our final Judge, from whose judgment no thought or action of 
our lives escapes unnoticed. ‘To impress this solemn truth in the strongest 
manner upon minds of every capacity, the anthropological figure of an 
appointed day is employed in the sacred writings. But God cannot need 
a day when he will determine whether any of his creatures are good or 
bad. He cannot need books or records, either to remind him of our actions, 
or of his own enactments, or of his own provisions of mercy. He cannot 
need even that we give an account literally to him, for He knoweth all 
things, and must have already decided upon all that we have done. The 
Scriptures teach us even more: they teach us that in the sight of God we 
are not merely on trial, we are already condemned—sentence is passed 
upon us. Depending upon our own merits, we have no hope of escape. 


5384 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


Our only hope even now is to fly for refuge to the provision of sovereign 
grace. We are not to flatter ourselves with the prospect of experimenting 
upon the issue of divine judgment first, and then, if we are unable to justify 
ourselves, to appeal to a promise of mercy ; but now is the day of salva- 
tion. We are already informed of the result of the. trial, and have but one 
course to pursue—the only course to which a condemned, sentenced crimi- 
nal can resort, that of relying alone upon the exercise of the pardoning 
power, peculiarly the attribute of sovereignty ; and this n the way pointed 
out by the Sovereign himself—a position very happily set forth by a truly 
evangelical poet :— 


Hark! universal nature shook and groan’d: 

ἜΤ was the last trumpet—see the Judge enthron’d ; 
Rouse all your courage at your utmost need ; 
Now, summon every virtue—stand and plead. 
What! silent? Is your boasting heard no more ? 
That self-renouncing wisdom, learn’d before, 

Had shed immortal glories on your brow, 

That all your virtues cannot purchase now. 


All joy to the believer! He can speak— 
Trembling, yet happy; confident, yet meek. 


Since the dear hour that brought me to thy foot, 
And cut up all my follies by the root, 
I never trusted in an arm but thine, 
Nor hop’d but in thy righteousness divine: 


* * * * * * 
* * * * * * 
* * δ my only plea, 


Is what it was, dependence upon thee.-—(Cowrer’s Trutu.) 


RETROSPECT. 535 


RETROSPECT. 


In the narrative just finished we have seen, as a portion of the results of 
the great battle of Armageddon, the arrest of Satan, and his confinement to 
the bottomless pit for a thousand years; and, for a corresponding period, 
the triumphant reign of those slain by the axe for the testimony of Jesus ; 
extending to a stage of revelation equivalent, as we suppose, to a develop- 
ment of the principles and character of the Christian rest ;—this manifesta- 
tion resulting from the overthrow of the beast and false prophet, and from 
an exhibition of the confinement of the power of the legal adversary to the 
bottomless pit position—the opposite of that of rest. At this epoch, the 
blasphemous element (self) has gone into perdition ; the element of misin- 
terpretation, through the influence of which an image of self-righteousness 
had been created as an object of idolatrous worship, is also destroyed. The 
fate of the image itself, we presume to be involved in that of the false con- 
struction so instrumental in bringing it into being ; the existence of the one 
ceasing with the exposure of the fallacy of the other. The enemies of 
Christ, those endeavouring to rob him of the glory of his work of redemp- 
tion, are thus seen to be overcome. The Word of God has conquered, and 
the King of kings is manifested to have trodden the wine-press alone : he is 
the only Redeemer, and beside him there is no Saviour. 

But it yet remains to be manifested, that this only Redeemer is able to- 
save to the uttermost ; that Satan, the legal adversary of the sinner, and the 
powers of death and hell, are subject to that Word by which the kings of 
the earth, the beast, and false prophet, are proved to have been overcome. 
For the purpose of this manifestation, apparently, Satan is released, or ap- 
pears as released from his bottomless pit confinement, and is permitted to 
rally all his remaining auxiliaries; the nations of the earth, Gog and Magog, 
calling in, as we may imagine, death and hell as his trusty allies. Their 
great and final effort is to try the strength of the beloved city, of which the 
only wall of salvation is the Lord of Hosts ; or rather, to try the strength of 
the wall itself. A powerful revelation of divine truth, (the word of God 
fully developed,)—fire from God out of heaven—destroys, entirely consumes 
all the forces of these adversaries ; the three leaders being reserved, as it 
were, for a more exemplary punishment. The legal accuser, Satan, is im- 
mediately cast into the lake of fire, as a rebel taken in arms against his 
sovereign is executed without even the form of trial. He has now, like the 
beast, gone into perdition—his power is manifested to be entirely destroyed. 

The dragon was long since overcome in heaven, in the contest with 
Michael and his angels; but he was suffered to exercise a certain power on. 

43 


536 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


earth through the instrumentality of the beast ; this instrument being de- 
stroyed, his dominion was manifested to be restricted to a certain position : 
out of this position, he no sooner exerts his power against the divine provi- 
sion of redemption than he is immediately cast down—manifested to be 
exposed to that action of the revealed word, which consumes him with an 
everlasting burning. 

Something analogous to this, we think, may be familiar to the mind of 
the experienced Christian disciple. While believing himself under the law, 
he sees the adversary of his soul in power, even in heaven. Having made 
greater progress in the knowledge of religious truth, but still going about to 
establish a righteousness of his own, under a mistaken apprehension of the 
gospel economy, he feels himself under the dominion of the beast and under 
the influence of the false prophet, forming within his own heart an image 
of his fancied moral perfection, to which he is ascribing the glory of his 
eternal salvation. Delivered from this delusion, contemplating the Word, 
the Lamb of God, as the King of kings and the only Redeemer, Jehovah 
his righteousness, he lives and reigns with Christ, (Gal. ii. 20, Rom. ν. 17,) 
enjoying a millennial rest, in perfect confidence that the power of the ad- 
versary is confined to a position of an entirely different character from that in 
which, by sovereign grace, he has himself been placed. No sooner, how- 
ever, is there a wavering of his faith in the sufficiency of his Redeemer’s 
merits, than he sees Satan released from his confinement, and he trembles 
lest the provision of redeeming mercy (the beloved city) should be incapa- 
ble of withstanding the power of the legal adversary, with the elements of 
condemnation arrayed against him. In this state of apprehension, nothing 
can allay his fears but a right understanding of the revealed word of God, 
(the fire from God out of heaven.) ‘This understanding possessed, Satan is 
seen, not only as lightning falling from heaven, but also as cast into the 
lake of fire—as exposed to the never-ending trial of the test of divine 
revelation. 

Although the accuser however is removed, the systems connected with 
his power are supposed to be still remaining. As if it were urged, that 
without the fear of legal condemnation, as without the motive of self-interest, 
the disciple would not bring forth works to the glory of God. From the 
necessity of impelling the performance of these works, therefore, the systems 
or mysteries represented by death and hell, must remain in operation. 

To manifest the inconsistency of this theory with God’s purpose of grace, 
all principles and all works of man and of human systems are represented 
as called into judgment, and especially the principles and works peculiar to 
the two systems just mentioned. All of these works or principles are judged 
by the law and the testimony ; those not belonging to, or emanating from, 
the economy of grace, being condemned to destruction, as by the fire des- 


RETROSPECT. 537 


tined to try every man’s work of what sort it is. The law, for example, 
requires the love of God in the heart, as the moving principle of action; 
and the economy of grace was formed to implant this love of God. Every 
principle in accordance with this requisition, and every work proceeding 
from it, will be found therefore in the Book of Life, as a component*part of 
the plan of redemption ; and every work, or device, or principle, not pro- 
ceeding from this love, will be manifested to have no part in the volume of 
the divine purpose. Such must be the case with the systems Death and 
Hell, and with all their elements. As it was said of the Pharisees of old, 
they have not the love of God in them ; they are therefore in this judgment 
condemned tn toto, and accordingly share the fate of the accuser himself. 

The last enemy that shall be destroyed, it is said 1 Cor. xv. 26, is 
death. 'To this stage of apocalyptic narration we have now arrived. Death 
and hell, as well as the legal adversary, are cast into the lake of fire. The 
power of Christ has been exhibited in this vision, until he is seen to have 
‘brought all things under his feet.” As the Lamb slain from the founda- 
tion of the world, we have seen him prevailing to open the sealed book, the 
secret purpose of the Most High, (the mystery hid in God, Eph. iii. 9, Col. 
i. 26;) having redeemed his people by his own blood, and by the same 
blood overcoming the power of accusation even in the councils of heaven, 
($ 284.) We have seen him, as the Word of God, victorious over all the 
pretensions of the earthly system,—manifesting the power of his name, and 
establishing the verity of the declaration that there is no other name given 
amongst men by which we can be saved than that of the King of kings; 
and we have seen him exalted on the throne of divine sovereignty, exer- 
cising the prerogative of judgment, and manifesting the subjection of all 
things to his will. We are now, accordingly, prepared to see him deliver 
up the kingdom unto the Father, that God may be manifested to be all in 
all, (1 Cor. xv. 98 :) or, which is the same thing, we are now prepared to 
see the Lamb, the Word, and the Everlasting Father, identified as the one 
God over all; blessed for evermore, (Is. ix. 6, Rom. ix. 5.) 

The earth and the heaven heretofore contemplated as existing having 
fled away, the judicial visitations of the strth seal have terminated. 

The millennial rest enjoyed by the souls beheaded for the witness of Jesus, 
accomplishes the promised judgment of the fifth seal. 

Death and Hell are now deprived of the power given them over the 
fourth part of the earth at the opening of the fourth seal. 

Babylon being utterly consumed—cast down never to rise again—the 
mercenary system is ended. The rider of the black horse, under the third 
seal, no more wields his balances, or makes a traffic of the means of eternal 


life. 
The accuser (the dragon) with his vicegerent (the beast) and the prime 


538 SEVENTH SEAL.-—-SEVENTH TRUMPET.— SEVENTH VIAL. 


minister of that vicegerent (the false prophet) having gone into perdition, 
the rider of the flery-red horse, under the second seal, deprived of his ‘ great 
sword,” has no longer the faculty of taking peace from the earth. The 
conflicting elements of self-righteousness having perished with their leaders, 
it is no longer given “that they should kill one another,” as heretofore. 
The mountain of the Lord’s house is now being established on the top of 
the mountains, (of the new earth.) ‘Out of Zion shall go forth the law, 
and the word of God from Jerusalem.” For this reason ‘nation shall not 
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more,” 
(Is. xi. 2-4.) . 

Of all the powers personified as combatants in the sixth chapter, the 
Rider of the white horse, seen at the opening of the first seal, alone remains 
unconquered—still conquering and_ts conquer ; or, rather, he alone is victo- 
rious. His invincible bow, (ᾧ 147,) wielded by his own right arm, (his 
righteousness,) ‘has gotten him the victory.” ‘The garment dipped in the 
blood of the Lamb is manifested to be the vesture of Jehovah of Hosts, 
(ᾧ 432 ;) the exhibition of this truth, (enforced by the sword from the 
mouth of theWord,) overcoming the pretender and his forces, in the field of 
manifestation, as the power of the dragon and his angels had been previously 
overcome by Michael and his angels. The crown, the token and earnest of 
his success, first given to the conqueror, is now exchanged for a multitude 
of diadems ; his power is unlimited ; he has received the heathen for his 
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. His 
dominion extends from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the 
earth, (Ps. Ixii. 8:) while, with the element of divine sovereignty, he rules 
the nations (the Gentile principles of the worldly system) as with a rod of 
iron. 

All elements of opposition to man’s redemption, and to the glory of the 
Saviour, having been thus overcome ; or rather the manifestation of this 
triumph having been completed, it follows, as a matter of course, that an 
entire new state of things is to be exhibited ; this new exhibition corres- 
ponding with the change in the position of the disciple spoken of 2 Cor. v. 
17, “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature ; old things are passed 
away, all things are become new.” According to his advancement in faith 
the disciple sees himself in a new position. The reign of self within 
his own mind having been first terminated, he sees the enemies of his 
soul vanquished and overcome by the power of Christ: casting himself upon 
the righteousness of his Saviour, with him the old heaven and the old earth 
have passed away; he has now found a resting place, (Jer. 1. 6,) and 
breathes a new atmosphere 


THE NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH. 539 


CHAPTER XXI. 


THE NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH.—THE HOLY CITY, 
OR TABERNACLE OF GOD.—ALL THINGS NEW. 


3 a a anil oe Η new heaven anda Καὶ εἶδον οὐρανὸν καινὸν καὶ γῆν και- 
ἄραι αρίμρνταηεν pacond amen βαθμοῦ, AEG sueth τό ίεορ, SSeS, καὶ δι πρὶ 
"nisl dia snake Cae. yy ἀπῆλϑον, καὶ ἡ ϑάλασσα οὐκ ἔστιν Ett. 

ᾧ 463. ‘Anp I saw,’ &c.—The break occasioned by the division of 
chapters here is not to be noticed. The scene is a continuation of that 
described at the close of the last chapter. The white throne, and Him that 
sat upon it, is still in view ;—we have seen the fate of one class of those 
brought before the great tribunal; we are now to witness that of an opposite 
class. The difference, however, does not seem to arise so much from the 
character of the individuals composing these classes, as from the circum- 
stances under which they are judged. In order to change the sentence, 
the whole state of things is changed—every thing wears a new aspect— 
excepting only the one unchangeable Being, who himself is the author of 
the change, and who remains still seated on his throne, (v. 5.) 

We are not to suppose an interval of time between the fleeing away 
of the old heaven and earth, and the appearance of the new. ‘The change 
is instantaneous, as in the twinkling of an eye; the disciple is seen in a 
new position, and the whole scheme of divine government appears in a new 
light. It is sufficient here to refer to the definition already given of the 
terms heaven and earth. We repeat only, that we suppose heaven to repre=_ 
sent a view of the principles of divine government ; and the earth a view 
of man’s position under that government. Both of these views are afforded 
by the written revelation contained in the sacred Scriptures ; the old views 
being those derived from an ordinary or literal construction of that Revela- 
tion, and the new views those obtained from a spiritual construction of 
it. The old heaven represented the Deity dealing with man on the princi- 
ples of strict justice only ; the new heaven represents the divine government 
on the principle of grace. The old earth exhibited man’s position out of 
Christ, dependent upon his own merits ; the new earth represents his posi- 
tion in Christ. Both the new earth and the new heaven concur in repre- 


540 ALL THINGS NEW. 


senting the disciple as a new creature in Christ. The written revelation 
remains the same, but the construction put upon it differs ; as the apostle 
says, 1 saw heaven new and earth new; the same things created over 
again, or made new; that is, contemplated in a new light: a change 
apparently referred to, Matt. xix. 28, as the regeneration in which the Son 
of man sits on the throne of his glory. 

One result of this change we have already seen to be the judgment of 
the systems death and hell, and the condemnation of their dead works. In 
the new state of things, except the declaration that ‘there shall be no more 
death,” &c., (ver. 4,) they are not mentioned ; neither do we perceive any 
thing more said of the three other peculiar objects of divine indignation, the 
beast, the false prophet, and Satan ; they do not even come into remem- 
brance. ‘The development now making may be considered a consequence 
of the pouring out of the seventh vial of wrath, as well as of the sounding of 
the /ast trumpet ; but it is to be recollected that these vials were poured out 
upon the old earth, and not upon the new. The denunciation of the three 
woes was addressed to the inhabiters of the old earth, and it is to the old earth 
‘only that the seven vials were vials of wrath. In other words, a position 
out of Christ is obnoxious to all the elements of divine wrath ; in Christ, 
as we have already noticed in this connection, (ᾧ 456,) old things have 
passed away, all things have become new. 

‘ And there was no more sea.’—In the new exhibition of divine things, 
the symbol of vindictive justice is not called for, (Ὁ 459.) The accuser having 
gone into perdition, the threatenings of judicial vengeance are no more 
heard; upon the new earth there is no distress of nations with perplexity— 
the sea and the waves roaring. In this new position, men’s hearts are no 
longer failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are 
coming on the earth. The powers of heaven indeed have been shaken, 
and the old heaven has passed away like a scroll, when it is rolled together ; 
but now the power of the Son of man is exhibited—the great power of him 
who could say to the stormy billow, ‘ Peace; be still,’ and it obeyed him. 
Now, then, it is for the elements of the economy of grace to lift up their 
heads, for, analogous to the circumstances .of the people of God, their 
redemption also draweth nigh ; the time has now come for a manifestation 
of truth ;—the old heaven and earth have passed away, but the words of 
him that is faithful and true cannot pass away, (Luke xxi, 25-33.)* 


* We have already noticed a peculiarity in the new heavens and the new earth, 
spoken of 2 Peter iii. 13, that in them dwelleth a righteousness not to be found in their 
predecessors, (§ 456.) Connecting this explanation with the remainder of the passage 
in the same epistle, an apocalyptic construction may reasonably be put upon that 
description, also, of the change in contemplation, “the heavens, being on fire, shall be 


dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” 
ἧς 


DESCENT OF THE HOLY CITY. 541 


V.2. And I John saw the holy city, Kal τὴν πόλιν τὴν ἁγίαν, “Ιερουσαλὴμ.. 
new Jerusalem, coming down from God  yeaipyiy, εἶδον καταβαίνουσαν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρα- 
out of heaven, prepared as a bride CAE? ee eS eee ΡΝ ΣῪ 
ed for her husband. be Wig ad ia ) venga be sm pk ile Bt ἢ 

φὴν κεκοσμημένην τῷ ἀνδρὶ αὑτῆς" 


ᾧ 464. “Δηά] John, &c.—The name John is not met with here in all 
editions of the Greek. The omission is not material, except that the formal 
introduction of the name appears to imply some peculiar discrimination not 
perhaps intended. Reading these two first verses in connection with the 
close of the last chapter, and in the Greek order, it will be perceived that 
all here described is supposed to take place contemporaneously ; even the 
things seen are not so much different things as they are old things renovated, 
or made new—-seen in a new light: “ And if any one was not found in the 
book of life, he (or it) was cast into the lake of fire. And I saw heaven 
new and earth new, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, 
(second aorist,) and the sea is no longer (present.) And the city the holy, 
Jerusalem new, I saw descending out of heaven from God, prepared as a 
bride decorated for her husband,” &c. 

‘The holy city, new Jerusalem.’—This holy city, heh not the 
same, may be said to occupy the same 86 as that once trodden under foot 
by the Gentiles, (Rev. xi. 2.) It must be also the beloved city mentioned 
in the preceding chapter as encompassed by the Gentiles or nations, (in 
jeopardy from the forces led on by the accuser ; )—“ the city of my God,” 
it is called, Rev. iii. 12, and the city without the gates of which the wine- 
press was trodden, (Ὁ 343.) This city has been mentioned but once 


The apostle uses this prediction as an argument to influence those to whom his 
epistle was then addressed, as well as all coming after them. It could hardly be con- 
sidered an argument, to state to them that some one or two thousand years afier they 
had passed from this state of existence, the earth, with its surrounding atmosphere, 
was to be literally destroyed ; but, in the sense in which we construe it here, it was an 
argument, because, in this sense, it was as immediately interesting to every disciple 
of the apostle’s time as it is to us of the present day, and as it must be to all that 
come after us. 

At the time of writing the Epistle, too, there were supposed to be but four physical 
elements, fire. air, earth, and water; and to give his language the ordinary construe- 
tion, would be to suppose the three last elements, air, earth, and water, melted by the 
first element. The elements alluded to by Peter, we apprehend to be the same as 
those spoken of by Paul, Gal. iv. 3: “ Even so we, when we were children, [as to our 
understanding of revealed truth, | were in bondage under the elements of the world ;” 
and ninth verse, “But now, after ye have known God, how turn ye again to the weak 
and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage?” As if it were said, 
How is it that ye look back to the elements of self-justification, peculiar to the old 
heavens and the old earth, instead of looking forward to the new position of justifi- 
cation, through the imputed righteousness to be found in the new heaven and the 
new earth? 


542 ALL THINGS NEW. 


before ($ 100) in connection with the appellation now given to it, the new 
Jerusalem ; and, with this exception, the present is the first passage in which 
that appellation has occurred in the Apocalypse. | 

We have already thrown out the suggestion that this city is a figure or 
symbol of the economy of grace, ($$ 100, 238,) in a certain sense denomi- 
nated the church, (Eph. ν. 32,) but not immediately the aggregate multi- 
tude of believers. The name Jerusalem, signifying the vision of peace, very 
happily illustrates what we understand by this apocalyptic city, compre- 
hending as it does, a view of the whole scheme of redemption, by which 
peace or reconciliation between the sinner and his offended God is estab- 
lished. Such an economy or vision, although it does not represent the body 
of disciples themselves, represents that which constitutes them a body in the 
sight of God—that which identifies the multitude of the redeemed with the 
Redeemer ; the economy of grace being the instrument in this work, (¢ 466,} 
and Jerusalem (the vision of peace) the representation of this instrument or 
means. 

The economy of grace itself has been always.the same, but the vision 
by which it has been represented has varied. Jerusalem was literally 
destroyed and trodden under foot when the Jews were carried to Babylon, 
but its site remained; and upon the restoration, when the city was rebuilt, 
although in one sense it was a new city, it was in another sense Jerusalem 
new, or the old city renovated—the site giving to both cities the attribute 
of identity. So this economy itself, which is nothing less than the divine 
purpose of grace—unchangeable as the mind of God—is like “ Mount 
Zion, which cannot be moved, but abideth forever.’’ The exhibition of this 
unchangeable purpose, however, as contemplated by man, like Jerusalem 
before and after the restoration, has a new and old appearance: the one as 
different from the other as a new city may be from an old one, although on 
the same site. 

ᾧ 465. ‘Coming down from God out of heaven.—Comparing this 
description with Gal. iv. 22-27, we must be convinced that the new Jeru- 
salem of John is the Jerusalem which is above,—y ἄνω ᾿]ερουσαλὴμ of Paul : 
the latter speaking of the holy city as in heaven, not yet revealed, and 
the former as being revealed. We may safely, therefore, refer to Paul for an 
understanding of what is represented by this holy city ; both apostles speaking 
by the inspiration of the same spirit. 

“Tell me,” says Paul, “ ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not 
hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons: the one by 
a bond-maid, the other by a free woman. But he (who was) of the bond- 
woman was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise. 
Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants ; the one 
from mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this 


DESCENT OF THE HOLY CITY. 543 


Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, 
and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, 
which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that 
bearest not ; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not ; for the desolate 
hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, breth- 
ren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was 
born after the flesh, persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it 
is now. Nevertheless, what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bond-wo- 
man and her son ; for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with 
the son of the free-woman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the 
bond-woman, but of the free,” (the Jerusalem above.) 

Here is something said to be allegorized, “Azwa ἐστιν ἀλληγορούμενα. 
The apostle evidently does not mean that this whole history is merely an 
instructive fable, according to the idea usually associated at the present day 
with the term allegory. His meaning very obviously is, that the facts here 
related have an allegorical purport—as we should say of the whole history 
of the Hebrew nation, including the present dispersed state of that people 
among all nations, that it is an allegory ; and we might apply the same term 
to the history of mankind, as contained in the whole book of Genesis, with- 
out intending to imply a disbelief in the reality of the facts narrated. 

The apostle further declares these two women to be (to represent) two 
covenants or testaments: αὗται εἶσι δύο διαϑῆκαι. Not two assemblies of 
persons, but two testamentary arrangements, plans, or economies ; as the 
Greek term διαϑῆκαι properly signifies, (ᾧ 264, note.) One of these women 
—the female slave Hagar—is put for the economy emanating from Mount 
Sinai, or the legal dispensation, the tendency of which is to create a position 
of bondage ; the children of the female slave, according to the law of slavery, 
being slaves, whatever may have been the condition of their fathers. Cor- 
responding with this figure, those who are of the law are in a state of slave- 
ry: their only motive of action must be that of fear, as if driven by the 
whip of the task-master. On the principles of law, they can do nothing but 
what it is their duty to do, and punishment awaits the smallest act of diso- 
bedience ; to offend in one point, is to be guilty of all. Analogous with this 
the principles of the legal economy may be also spoken of as the children 
or offspring of bondage.* 


* Children, as already noticed, are typically figures of merits or righteousnesses, 
(means of justification.) Corresponding with this, we take Isaac—the fruit of pro- 
mise, as well as of the marriage covenant—to represent that righteousness which is 
the offspring of grace, or of the covenant of grace; while Ishmael, whose hand was 
against every man, and every man’s hand against him, represents pretensions to 
righteousness (works, the offspring of the law) interchangeably hostile to each other ; 


544 ALL THINGS NEW. 


But the bond-maid Hagar, according to Paul, not only represents the - 
mountain in Arabia, but both Sinai and Agar are put for the city Jerusalem, 
as it was in the time of the apostles, (τῇ νῦν “]ερουσαλὴμ,) in bondage to the 
Romans : calling herself free indeed, (John viii. 33,) but really in a state 
of abject servitude ; δουλεύει γὰρ μετὰ τῶν τέχνων αὑτῆς, for she labours as a 
slave with her children. Jerusalem thus in bondage corresponds with what 
might be termed a view of the economy of grace legalized, or misrepresented 
as a legal dispensation. There are here, therefore, three several typical 
figures of the legal economy, Hagar, Mount Sinai, and Jerusalem, under a 
foreign yoke. The opposites of these are not so distinctly set forth, but we 
have the means of identifying them from other portions of Scripture. 

That Sarah is put for the economy of grace is very plainly implied from 
the manner in which her opposite Hagar is spoken of ; and that Mount Zion, 
or Sion, in a spiritual sense, (the heavenly Sion,) is an opposite of Sinai in the 
wilderness, as well as that the heavenly Jerusalem (the city of my God) is 
an opposite of the earthly Jerusalem, we gather from Heb. xu. 18, 22: 
“For ye are not come unto the meunt that might be touched and that 
burned with fire,” &c. ..... “Βαϊ ye are come unto Mount Sion, and 
unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem ;” 
apostle elsewhere expresses it, “‘ Ye are not under the law but under grace,” 
(Rom. vi. 14, 16.) Sarah, Mount Sion, and the heavenly Jerusalem, are 
thus opposites of Agar, Mount Sinai, and Jerusalem in bondage ; that is, these 


or, as the same 


as those to whom it was given, under the Rider of the red horse, “that they should 
kill one another.” 

The child of bondage was born according to the flesh; that is, according to the 
common course of nature; representing the offspring of man’s position by nature, as 
under the law, and labouring to justify himself by werks of the law. The child of 
promise was born out of the course of nature, by an immediate exercise of divine 
power; born because promised, and promised as a matter of gift; representing the 
offspring of man’s position by grace, which offspring is the imputed righteousness or 
merits of his Saviour. 

The two children thus represent primarily, disciples themselves as under the law, 
and as under grace; secondarily, or apocalyptically, the righteousness of the law and 
the righteousness of faith: pretended merits arising from a pretended fulfilment of 
the law by the disciple, and imputed merits arising from a vicarious fulfilment of the 
law by the Redeemer. The first sense is that attached to the ordinary interpretation 
of the Scriptures, and corresponds with what Paul terms the letéer, and with what we 
suppose to be understood in the apocalypse by a mid-heaven revelation; the last or 
spiritual interpretation corresponds with what Paul denominates the Spirit, and the, 
view presented by the third heaven, and with what the Apocalypse ascribes to the 
appearance of the new heaven and the new earth, (that is, the heaven and the earth 
in their third sense.) 

The difference will be perceived by carrying out the analogy: “Cast out the 
bond-woman and her son,” it is said; “for the son of the bond-woman shall not be 
heir with the son of the free woman.” Adopting the ordinary sense alone, not only 


DESCENT OF THE HOLY CITY. 545 


are series of figures of two opposite covenants or testaments. Our conclu- 
sion is, therefore, that the holy, or new Jerusalem, or holy city mentioned in 
this verse of the Apocalypse, represents the new covenant, or testament of 
grace, and not the community of believers themselves, as might otherwise 
be supposed. To see this holy city coming down out of the new heaven from 
God, is equivalent to perceiving in the written revelation of the divine will, 
spiritually understood, this dispensation of grace in its proper light, free from 
the shackles of a legal or literal interpretation, and appearing, as it is, imme- 
diately the gift of God. 'This also may be considered a result, of the entire 
new views incident to the passing away of the old heaven and earth, and of 
the coming in of the new, one exhibition being necessarily involved in 
the other. 

ᾧ 466. ‘Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.’—It is not yet 
stated expressly that this holy city is the bride ; but we find it to be directly 
so implied in the ninth and tenth verses of the chapter. The truth is grad- 
ually developed. We first find, from a comparison of Scripture with Serip- 
ture, that the new Jerusalem is the mother of us all, (Gal. iv. 26,) and after- 
wards that she is identic with the bride; whence we draw the inference 
that the bride is the mother of us all. In other words, the covenant of 
grace, represented by the New Jerusalem, and by the bride, is the mother 
of us all ; the redeemed of every sect and denomination, however they may 
nominally differ, becoming the children of God by virtue of this testamen- 


the covenant itself is cast out, but all who have been labouring, under a misapprehen- 
sion of their true position, to work out a righteousness of their own, are cast out with 
it; which strictly construed, according to the views we have presented of the mixed, 
as well as of the legal system, would leave scarcely an individual not cast out, even of 
those most anxious upon the subject of their eternal interests; but if we adopt the 
third sense as the enduring sense—that afforded by the new heaven—it is then the 
pretensions to merit under the legal covenant, and not the mistaken disciple, that are 
cast out or rejected—the error and not the errorist, that is the object of denunciation : 
a discrimination comprehended, we think, in Paul’s declaration, that the letter (the 
ordinary sense) killeth, while the spirit or spiritual sense giveth life. 

On the other hand it will be said, in the same sense, it is the imputed righteous- 
ness of Christ, and not the disciple himself that is the heir represented by the child of 
promise. And so we say it is. The imputed righteousness of Christ possesses or 
carries with it the title to eternal life and happiness: and it is by virtue of this im- 
puted righteousness, that the disciple participates in these eternal benefits. Christ is 
the heir, and it is only by adoption in Christ that the disciple also becomes an heir. 
The merits of Christ are the means of justification, and it is only by a participation 
in these merits, that the disciple shares in this justification: Christ is the promised 
seed—the child of promise—the inheritor of all things. The disciple’s hope is to be 
found in Christ, not having on his own righteousness, which is of the law, (the off- 
spring of the covenant of bondage,) but having on the righteousness of God. As if 
the apostle had said, So then, brethren, in Christ and not in ourselves, we are children, 
not of the bond-woman, but of the free. 


546 ALL THINGS NEW. 


tary arrangement; while by a legal covenant they could only occupy the 
position of slaves. 

The bride it appears is prepared by being adorned ; not merely clothed, 
but decorated with ornaments—corresponding with the idea we have before 
suggested, that the occasion for this preparation is not the marriage itself, 
but the marriage feast, (¢ 425,)—the exhibition or manifestation of the 
marriage, at which it was customary, with the Hebrews, for both of the 
parties to exhibit their best attire. As it is said, Is. lxi. 10, “I will greatly 
rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed 
me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of 
righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a 
bride adorneth herself with jewels.” Of Jerusalem in her perverted state it 
was said, Ezek. xv. 14, 15, ‘‘ And thy renown went forth among the hea- 
then for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness which 1 had 
put upon thee, saith the Lord God; but thou didst trust in thine own 
beauty, and played the harlot, because of thy renown.” We suppose the 
ornament of the bride descending out of heaven from God to be that of has 
comeliness—the beauty of his perfection. The covenant of grace is seen 
exhibiting that righteousness and that moral beauty which is the gift of God, 
conveyed by imputation, given, we may say, to the mother of us all, for the 
benefit of her children. 

The economy of redemption, or the vision of it, in its pristine state, as it 
comes direct from God out of heaven, is adorned with the precious jewels 
of divine perfection, and with these only ; as it was said by Jehovah of Je- 
rusalem, in the passage just now quoted,.‘‘I decked thee also with orna- 
ments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck ; and 1 
put a jewel in thy forehead, and ear-rings in thy ears, anda beauuful crown 
upon thy head.” But when this same covenant is misrepresented, when 
this vision of peace is perverted by misconstruction, when the ornaments of 
a Saviour’s merits are transmuted into pretensions of human merit, then may 
its gracious author say of it, as was said by the mouth of the prophet, 
“Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I 
had given thee, and madest to thyself [idolatrous objects of worship]; and 
tookest thy broidered garments and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine 
oil and mine incense before them,” &c., (Ezek. xvi. 11, 12, 17-19.) 

The different aspects under which, as we apprehend, the same vision of 
peace is seen, will account for the various modes in which it is spoken of in 
the Psalms and prophets : “ Do good in thy good pleasure,” says the Psalm- 
ist, “unto Zion, build thou the walls of Jerusalem,’ make the provisions of 
thy grace known—exhibit in its true light the protection afforded by thine 
own economy of salvation. ‘If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right 
hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave 


DESCENT OF THE HOLY CITY: 547 


to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.” 
So, also, the prophet: “ For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace, and for 
Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as 
brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.” No one can 
doubt which vision of peace is here alluded to. The righteousness spoken 
of must be the imputed righteousness of Jehovah, and the salvation that of 
grace. f 

On the other hand, when it is said, “ Thy holy cities are a wilderness, 
Zion is ἃ wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful 
house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire, and all our 
pleasant things are laid waste,” (Is. Ixiv. 10, 11;) “1 will make Jerusa- 
lem heaps, and a den of dragons,” (Jer. ix. 11 ;) the resort of accusers—a 
fate similar to that of Babylon ;—“TI will mar the great pride of Judah and 
Jerusalem,” (Jer. xiii. 9;) “1 will make void the counsel of Jerusalem,” 
(Jer. xix. 7;) “ Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,” 
&c.; there can be no doubt that, in all these passages, the old Jerusa- 
lem,—the perverted vision of peace—is the subject of contemplation and 
reproach. 

ὁ 467. But again, we are equally certain that in the following passages, 
the spirit of prophecy had in view the brighter day, with the sight, of which 
we are now favoured in the Apocalypse. Is. li. 1, 2: ‘ Awake, awake ; put 
on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the 
holy city! ... Shake thyself from the dust, (the perversion of earthly, carnal 
interpretations ;) arise, sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands 
of thy neck, (the yoke of legal construction,) O captive daughter of Zion.” 
“Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they 
sing ; for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. 
Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the 
Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord 
hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all nations ; and all the ends of 
the earth shall see the salvation of our God,” (Is. li. 8-10.) « Rejoice ye 
with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy 
with her, all ye that mourn for her. . . . As one whom his mother comforteth, 
so will I comfort you ; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem,” (Is. Ixvi. 
10,13.) “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the 
former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and 
rejoice for ever in that which I create ; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a re- 
joicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in 
my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor 
the voice of crying,” (Is. Ixv. 17-19.) ‘For as the new heavens and the 
new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so 
shall your seed and your name remain,” (Is. Ixvi. 22.) 


548 ALL THINGS NEW. 


The watchmen shall see eye to eye when the interpreters of the written 
word possess that spiritual understanding, σύνεσις πνεύματικὴ, (Col. i. 9,) 
which will enable them to discern and to set forth clearly the whole truth 
of the gospel; when there is a concurrence of the mental vision with the 
spiritual purport of the Scriptures ; when the right arm of divine righteous- 
ness is seen to be virtually the instrument of upholding and saving the sin- 
ner; and when this arm, as set forth in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, is 
revealed, in the spirit as well as in the letter. When such an exhibition shall 
take place, the economy of grace (the vision of peace) must in effect appear 
coming immediately from God, adorned with the distinguishing characteris- 
tics of his atoning sacrifice, (the pearl of great price,) the clothing of his per- 
fect righteousness, and his precious name, as a seal or jewel in the forehead. 
So the seed and the name of the covenant of grace will remain when these 
are perceived to be identic with the merits of Christ,—the promised seed,— 
and with the name Jehovah our righteousness, by which it was predicted he 
should be called. 


Vs. 3,4. And [heard a great voice out = καὶ ἤκουσα φωνῆς μεγάλης ἐκ τοῦ ovea- 
of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle γρῦ λεγούσης" ἰδού, ἡ σκηνὴ τοῦ ϑεοῦ μετὰ 
of God (is) with men, and he will dwell 
with them, and they shall be his people, ΤΕΥ ΤΣ ee SUF, Poe 
andsGod bumeelf shall rejwith them, (and σύας αὐτοῦ ee oe eee eee ee Lack ie 
be) their God. And God shall wipe away ‘s0¢ μὲτ αὑτῶν toto, ϑεὸος αὐτῶν" καὶ 
all tears from their eyes; and there shall ἐξαλείψει ὃ ϑεὸς πᾶν δάκρυον ἀπὸ τῶν ὀφ- 
be no gna ἘΣ κῪΝ eter “ae a nor ϑαλμῶν αὐτῶν, καὶ ὃ θάνατος οὐκ ἔσται 
crying, neither sha eae ee ἔτι, οὔτε πένϑος οὔτε κραυγὴ OUTE OVO? 
pain; for the former things have passed _,’ ,, ὙΠ) Ste ἢ ivy nie é 
away οὐκ ἔσται ETL* OTL TH πρῶτα ἀπῆλϑον. 


- 32 4 , 2 2 ~ 
τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ σχηγῶσει μὲτ αὑτῶν, 


ᾧ 468. ‘ And I heard a great voice,’ &c.—This voice is out of the new 
heaven, for the old had passed away: a great voice, a powerful develop- 
ment from the new view of divine revelation. 

‘Behold, the tabernacle of God,’ &c.—When the apostle Peter in 
vision saw a certain vessel as a great sheet let down from heaven, there 
came a voice, saying, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. The voice referred to the 
vessel let down ; so we suppose here, the new Jerusalem is seen coming 
down from heaven, and at the same moment a voice is heard, saying, Be- 
hold, the tabernacle, &c. God is now about to dwell with his people: 
behold the tabernacle he has prepared for that purpose—the New Jerusa- 
lem. The covenant of grace, sometimes spoken of as the holy city, is the 
tabernacle, tent, or shelter, which God has provided for his people; the 
tent which he pitches over them, as we have formerly contemplated the 
figure, (ᾧ 181) a figure equivalent to that of the overshadowing of wings, 
employed Ps. xvii. 8, xxxvi. 7, and elsewhere. The tabernacle of God, 
and the city of God, (the new Jerusalem adorned as a bride,) are identic ; 
different figures of the same means of redemption, of the same testamentary 


THE TABERNACLE OF GOD WITH MEN. 549 


arrangement, (δια ϑήκη,) by which the righteousness of God is (in Christ) 
made to the disciple a shelter from the wrath to come. "ΤῸ see this plan 
of redemption fully developed, is, accordingly, to see the tabernacle of God 
with men. 

* And he will dwell with them,’ &c. ; or, as the Greek σκηνώσει strictly 
signifies, He shall tabernacle or pitch his tent with them.—The figure is 
essentially Arabian ; as if a tribe of wandering Arabs, without a leader 
and without a protector, were exposed to some imminent danger, and on this 
account, just at the moment when they were about being scattered by flying 
before their enemies, a powerful neighbouring chief were to adopt their cause 
as his own, to identify himself with them, and as a pledge of his good faith and 
determination to protect them, to pitch his tent among them; he becoming 
their leader, and they his subjects. So, in a spiritual sense, when the taber 
nacle of God—the economy of grace—is revealed, he will be seen to have 
come forth for the protection of his people, making their cause his own, 
pitching his tent amongst them, and identifying himself with them—He as 
their God and they as his people. 

This identity, as we conceive, is the prominent idea to be associated 
with the description; corresponding with the petition of the Son of God 
himself, (John xvii. 21, 23,) “'That they all may be one ; as thou, Father, 
art in me, and [ in thee, that they also may be one in us.” . . . . “Tin 
them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.’’ Not that the 
use of the figure here militates with that referred to Rev. vii. 15, but that 
different features of the same arrangement are indicated by the changes of 
expression. ‘The tent pitched over the objects of protection directs our at- 
tention to the shelter of divine righteousness ; while the tent pitched among 
or with the same objects, points to the feature of ¢dentity by adoption, (Gal. 
iv. 4, 5, and Eph. iv. 5, 6.) So the advantages of the disciple’s position 
by adoption are illustrated by two different figures, Ps. xv. 1: “ Lord, who 
shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?” The 
position on the hill is equivalent, as a protection, to the shelter of the taber- 
nacle. So we find likewise, by Ps. xxvii. 5, the position upon a rock, and 
the secrecy of the inmost recess of a tabernacle, to be illustrations of the 
same state of security: ‘In the time of trouble, (when the requisitions of 
divine justice call for the punishment of the sinner,) he (God) shall hide me 
in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me, he shall 
set me up upon a rock.” 

This tabernacle is now said to be ‘‘ with men ;” that is, with the men 
of the new earth, or with men in the new state of things: not the inhabiters 
of the first earth, (Rev. viii. 13,) nor the men not having the seal of God 
in their foreheads, (Rev. ix. 4,) nor those that blasphemed God on account 
of the hail, (Rev. xvi. 21,) but apparently a class similar to those spoken 


550 ALL THINGS NEW. 


of, Rev. vii. 14-17, who had washed their robes, and made them white in 
‘the blood of the Lamb, of whom it was also said, ‘“‘ He that sitteth on the 
throne shall dwell among them,” &c., ($$ 180-184 ;) this purification in the 
blood of the Lamb being equivalent to the change of position from the old 
to the new state of things. We suppose the epoch of the two representations 
to be the same : the announcement in the first four verses of this chapter being 
a declaration of the fulfilment of what is predicted in the three last verses 
of the seventh chapter. 

As the development of the sixth seal extends to the coming of the great 
day of wrath, corresponding as we suppose with the scene of judgment 
under the seventh vial in the last chapter; so we may consider the action of 
the choruses in heaven, described in the seventh chapter, to correspond with 
the gratulatory announcement of the great voice out of heaven in this chap- 
ter ;—the multitude which no man could number, standing before the 
throne, Rev. vii. 9, being identic with the men of the new heaven and new 
earth ; or the first standing before the throne may apply. to principles, and 
the last (men of the new earth) to those benefited by these principles. It 
may not be intended, however, that these terms, multitude and men, should 
be so strictly construed ; the narrations, taken in the abstract, illustrating 
a state of things, or certain views of a state of things. ‘The former things 
exhibited only views of judicial wrath, the new things exhibit those of 
mercy. 

As we have before observed, in the description of the judicial retribu- 
tion given at the close of the last chapter, the fate of only one class of 
objects is there set forth—those not written in the book of life. ‘The present 
chapter unfolds the condition of an opposite class ; the individuals of this 
class, however, are not represented as objects of meritorious reward. In 
order to bring about their different treatment, the circumstances of the case 
are entirely changed: a new heaven and a new earth are indispensable ; 
former things must pass away, and all things must become new. As those 
escaping the lake of fire are not said to escape by virtue of their works, but 
as it is implied by the simple fact of their being found in the book of life ; 
so those enjoying the privileges of the new Jerusalem, owe this enjoyment, 
not to their works, but to the extraordinary change of position with which 
they are favoured. 

All things, it is said, are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with 
whom we have to do, (Heb. iv. 13 ;) in whose sight even the heavens are 
not clean, (Job xiv. 15 ;) and who is declared also to be of purer eyes than 
to behold evil, or to look upon iniquity, Heb. i. 13 ; consequently, the only 
mode in which any person or thing can become an object of divine favour, 
must be by substitution of the economy of grace for that of judgment. 

§ 469. ‘ And they shall be,’ &c.; or, the people themselves shall be 


FORMER THINGS PASSED AWAY. 551 


his, and he the God with them shall be—the God of them, or their God ;— 
corresponding with the distinction we have drawn between the actual service 
and worship of God, in which (taking the motive of conduct into view) He 
is considered the efficient cause of salvation, and consequently in effect 
God ; and a pretended worship of him, in which self or some other object 
is contemplated as the source of eternal life, making that object in effect to 
appear to be the true God.* 

‘And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,’ &c.—The_pro- 
mises of this verse correspond very nearly with those given concerning 
the multitude clothed in white, of which we have already treated, (δῷ 180- 
184 ;) the wiping away of all tears, comprehending in fact the assurance 
that there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying. The principal 
difference in the passage appears to be, in the reason assigned for this 
favourable change in the circumstances of those affected by it. 

‘For [because] the former things have passed away.’—The harlot, and 
the beast, and the false prophet, and the accuser, and death, and hell, and 
the first heaven, and the first earth, and the sea, have passed away ; there- 
fore, there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, nor any more 
pain ; consequently, no tears—they are wiped away by the removal of their 
exciting cause. +» Death we considered a state obnoxious to condemnation. 
If this state does not exist, the condemnation does not follow ; where there 
is no death, there is no hell; the expression here, therefore, is equivalent to 
the declaration that there shall be no more death and hell. The accuser js 
gone ; the sea, the element of wrath, is gone ; and the whole position of man 
is changed ; he is now contemplated in Christ, and there is << no condem- 
nation to them that are in Christ Jesus,”’ or that are “ found in him.” 

Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto life ; but those in Christ, enjoy- 
ing the new aspect of things, are here supposed to have passed the stage of 
repentance—the vestibule of faith ; for even Christ, in the days of his flesh, 
offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, (Heb. v. 
7 1) but being now glorified, and on the right hand of God, former things 
with him also have passed away. So the apostle urges the disciples to 
leave the elementary principles of the doctrine of Christ, and to go on, as 
we apprehend the expression, to more finished views of faith—views 
enabling the believer to perceive himself to be with Christ justified in the 
Spirit, and raised from a position of death to a position of life. 


* The words ‘is’ and ‘and be’ italicised in the first clause of this verse of our com- 
mon version, are gratuitously supplied; the reading would be better without them. 
Behold, the tabernacle of God with men ;—with is, the thing spoken of appears to 
have just taken place ; without it, the inference is that the tabernacle was before with 
men, but now they are called to look upon it, or to behold it—now, the veil is drawn 
aside, the mystery hid from the beginning is revealed. 


44 


552 ALL THINGS NEW. 


Hawing been brought by repentance to a conviction of his sins, 
and to an entire casting of himself upon Christ for salvation, the 
disciple has reaped the fruit of godly sorrow ; he has attained the end 
designed by that discipline. He now rejoices in Christ, having no merit 
of his own, (Phil. iii. 3.) So Paul’s tears were wiped away; when 
labouring under a sense of his unworthiness from some besetting sin, he was 
assured that the grace of God was sufficient for his salvation ; the strength 
or power of Jehovah’s imputed righteousness being manifested by the weak- 
ness of those in whose behalf it is interposed. The blood of Jesus Christ 
cleanseth from all sin ; if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and 
the truth is not in us ; but if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to 
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If any man 
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the nghteous, and 
he is the propitiation for our sins, (1 John i. 7, 11. 2.) Here is the wiping 
away of all tears, the cause of sorrow and crying is removed. To him 
whose advance in faith is sufficient to perceive this, former things have 
passed away, and a new heaven and a new earth appear. 

A conviction of sin must necessarily be accompanied by sorrow ; but if 
it lead to a reliance upon the free, unmerited salvation of God, wrought out 
in Christ, it becomes a cause of rejoicing and of praise. How else could 
we unite with the apostle in the ascription of praise and adoration offered - 
jn the commencement of this book, Rev. 1. 5, ““ Unto him that loved us, 
and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” Nor is it to be supposed 
that we shall forget this cause of praise ina future state. Though God blot 
out our transgressions from the book of his remembrance, or no more remem- 
ber them against us, the redeemed sinner cannot forget his former tribula- 
tion, without forgetting also the obligations of gratitude under which he has 
been placed. 

(7 will bless the Lord at all times,” says David, ‘his praise shall be 
continually in my mouth ;” and this for the reason given: “I sought the 
Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.’ “1 love the 
Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplication. Because he 
- hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon the Lord as long as 
I live. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold 
upon me. I found trouble and sorrow, then called I upon the name of the 
Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and 
righteous, yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple: I 
was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for 
the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee, for thou hast delivered my soul 
from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling,” (Ps. cxvi. 1-8.) 
Who can say that David did not enjoy, in spirit, an antepast at least of the 
new heaven and of the new earth. 


᾽ 


FORMER THINGS PASSED AWAY. _ 553 


‘ Neither shall there be any more pain. ’_No more toil, painful labour, 
(πόνος.) ‘The new position is a state of rest—the opposite of the position, 
of the subjects of the beast, on the pouring out of the fifth vial, (Rev. xvi. 
10,) when they gnawed their tongues for pain, (¢ 363.) “ For we know (says 
Paul, Rom. viii. 22-25) that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in 
pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which 
have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, 
waiting for the adoption—the redemption of our body. For we are saved by 
hope. But hope that is seen, is not hope ; for what a man seeth, why doth 
he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with 
patience wait for 11. In the views afforded by the new heavens and the 
new earth—the holy city and tabernacle of God—we have an exhibition of 
that which Paul waited for ; a position of rest—a position termed by David 
the rest of his soul—a position of faith in which there is no anguish of 
labour, in going about to establish a righteousness of one’s own. ΤῸ these 
views of Christian rest the apostle Peter appears to allude as the end of 
faith, in speaking of the inheritance “ reserved in heaven,” “ ready to be 
revealed in the last time,” (1 Peter i. 3-10.) A similar allusion may be 
found in the prediction Is. xxxv. 10: “And the ransomed of the Lord 
shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their 
heads ; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee 
away.” 


es 5 a “g ee) spn the ae 3 Καὶ εἶπεν ὃ καϑήμενος ἐπὶ τῷ ϑρόνῳ' 
Said, Denold, 1 Make all things NEW. ANA ἰδού, καινὰ 

; ‘ πάντα ποιῶ. καὶ λέγε 3 
he said unto me, Write; for these words a γὺά 


are true and faithful. _* ὅτε οὗτοι οἱ λόγοι πιστοὶ καὶ ἀληϑι- 


vot εἰσι, 


ᾧ 470. ‘ And he that sat upon the throne,’ &c.—This clause reminds 
us that the present exhibition is part of the same as that described in the 
latter part of the preceding chapter ; the throne spoken of here is the “ great 
white throne,” and the occupant of the throne now speaking is He from 
whose face the heaven and earth fled away. It is not yet said expressly 
who this exalted Being is, although from all the circumstances of the repre- 
sentation, we have inferred and still infer that it is Jesus Christ himself, in 
his glorified state ; and we have now an additional reason for this inference, 
afforded by the declaration here made. 

‘ Behold, J make all things new.’—The substitution of the new heavens 
and the new earth for the old had been previously described, and the decla- 
ration has already been uttered that the former things are passed away. 
The further development is now made as to the author of this change. The 
emphasis in reading the text is to be laid upon the pronoun 7 [{ is Jesus 
who makes all things new. Christ, as the Lord our righteousness, virtually 


554 ALL THINGS NEW. 


makes all things new. By this manifestation of himself, he virtually substi 
tutes a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth ; 
as, by the substitution of himself for the disciple, he virtually makes of that 
disciple a new creature—causing, as it is said 2 Cor. v. 17, old things to 
pass away and all things to become new—the new creature spoken of 
Gal. vi. 15: “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor 
uncircumcision, but a new creature,” καινὴ χτίσις, (creatio, fabricatio. Sumt- 
tur proprié pro productione rerum ex nthilo : Suiceri Lex. ;)—this term, new 


creation properly signifying the production of things out of nothing—some- _— 


thing more than merely the re-formation of an old thing. The disciple in 
Christ, in the sight of God is accounted a new being, formed of the right- 
eousness and merits of his Saviour: ‘ For he (Christ) is our peace, having 
abolished in his flesh the enmity, (the law of commandments in ordinances,) 
to make in himself of twain one new man.” 

Here we have a reason for the fleeing away of the first heaven and 
earth from the face of him who sat upon the throne. In the nature of the 
case, no sooner is he seen, who makes all things new by the manifestation of 
himself on the white throne, as Jehovah our righteousness, than old views 
of things vanish; they cannot sustain themselves against such an exhibition. 
A new economy appears in the place of the old; gospel principles in the 
place of legal principles ; elements of redemption in the place of elements 
of condemnation ; the gift or grace of eternal life in place of the wages 
of sin. 

Jesus, the Saviour, Mediator, and Redeemer, makes all things new ; that 
is, all things or principles pertaining to the development of the doctrine cf 
eternal life, the mystery of godliness ; all things pertaining to a just know- 
ledge of hisown works and character ;—the secular or ecclesiastical affairs of 
the world, in the ordinary sense, forming no part of the subject here under 
consideration. ; 

The overshadowing of the mercy-seat (Heb. ix. 5) is now removed ; 
the mystery which angels desired to look into, is laid open: even that about 
which it was not the time to speak particularly, (περὶ ὧν οὐκ ἔστι νῦν λέγειν κατὰ 
ugoog,) When Paul wrote his epistle to the Hebrews, will be found zn. all tts 
parts in this revelation ; this wnveiling of Christ being itself in effect the 
making of all things new. The purpose of God must be unchangeable— 
truth is unchangeable—but the mode in which this purpose and this truth is 
exhibited may be changed; a new view may be given of it: and such a 
new creation we take to be the gist and purport of the whole book of the 
Apocalypse. For this reason, more particularly, the declaration is here 
made by him who sat on the throne—“ Behold, J make all things new.” 

ᾧ 471. ‘ And he said unto me, Write; for these words are true and faith- 
ful’ —We met with a direction similar to this Rev. xix. 9, and a like rea- 


FORMER THINGS PASSED AWAY. 555 


son given for it. The remarks there made (Ὁ 337) will equally apply 
here. The sayings or words of God cannot be more true in one portion of 
the sacred writings than in another, as all Scripture is given by inspiration 
of God, (2 Tim. ili. 16.) The declaration has just been uttered, that all 
things were made new. The question occurs, What things? The answer 
is, these true and faithful words—not physical or natural things, but things 
belonging to the new heaven and the new earth; made new by being 
changed from old to new: that is, by being seen in a true light. The say- 
ings or words of God are those handed down to us in the Scriptures. They 
are unchangeable in themselves, but they are made new by a new construc- 
tion—the interpretation afforded by a correct spiritual understanding. 

The term rendered words here, and sayings on the former occasion, is the 
plural of ὁ λόγος, the word, which when said to be that of the Deity we have 
supposed to express the divine purpose. In the plural, therefore, the words 
of God must signify the purposes of God ; or, as we may say, the expressed 
purposes of God—the words or sayings of divine revelation. They are not 
here said to be the words of God, because they are uttered by the Deity 
himself—by Him who sat on the throne—the Author of the change. The 
declaration, when before made, was uttered by an angel, or messenger, the 
fellow-servant of the apostle, which rendered the explanation necessary, that 
the sayings in question were those of God. The words must be the same 
in both cases. We think they represent the same elements of truth as those 
companions of the Lamb said to be “called, chosen and faithful,” (worthy 
of faith and confidence,) engaged with their leader in overcoming the ten 
horns or kings, (Ὁ 323.) 

The apostle is instructed to write these things or words made new, 
because they are thenceforth to remain unchangeable and unchanged—op- 
posites of that which decayeth and waxeth old, referred to Heb. viii. 13; 
and opposites of the things spoken by the seven thunders which were not to 
be written, (ᾧ 229.) Moses indeed was also directed to write, (Deut. xxvii. 
3,) and the moral law in its own nature, as we have before remarked, 
($ 323,) must always remain the same—what is displeasing to God now, 
cannot be pleasing to him at a future period. To love God with all the 
heart, and with all the mind, and with all the strength, must be as much the 
rule of conduct for eternity as for time. There can be no eternal happiness 
without it; and this first and great rule adhered to, a compliance with every 
other like rule must be involved in it. It is not the law, but the disciple’s 
position under the law, that is changed. The moral law itself can be no 
otherwise truly represented than as itis. But the new state of things shows 
a new way in which “ every jot and tittle” of the requisitions of this law are 
fulfilled. ‘The old way is changed, but the new is to remain for ever the 
same. As it is said, Heb. x. 19-23, “ Having therefore, brethren, bold- 


556 ALL THINGS NEW. 


ness to enter into the holiest, by the blood (the atonement) of Jesus, by a 
new and living way, which he has consecrated for us through the veil, that 
is to say, his flesh, (his righteousness,) and having an high priest over the 
house of God, (a virtual mediator, virtually interceding by the continual 
offering of his propitiatory merit,) let us draw near with a true heart in 
full assurance of faith,* having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, 
(relieved from the consciousness of guilt by faith in the sprinkling of the 
blood. of Jesus,) and our bodies washed in pure water, (our whole being 
cleansed in the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness,) let us hold fast 
the profession of our faith without wavering ; for he is faithful that prom- 
ised.” Such are the true and faithful sayings of God, and such are the ele- 
ments of the new heavens and of the new earth. 


Vs. 6-8. And he said unto me, It is 
done. Iam Alpha and Omega, the be- 
ginning and the end. I will give unto 
him that is athirst of the fountain of the 
water of life freely. He that overcometh 
shall inherit all things; and I will be his 


΄ z : , 
Καὶ εἶπέ μοι" γέγονε. ἐγώ εἶμι τὸ A 
\ 1 S55 ‘ ΝΥ ᾿ , δ - 
καὶ τὸ “2, ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος. ἐγὼ τῷ 
- ’ ἂν ~ ~ ~ ~ 
διψῶντι δώσω ἐκ τῆς πηγῆς τοῦ ὕδατος τῆς 
Ξ ΄ c Ὃ , J 
ζωῆς δωρεάν" ὃ νικῶν κληρονομήσει ταῦτα, 
γ΄ Ht ws a 7 
καὶ ἔσομαι αὐτῷ ϑεός, καὶ αὐτὸς ἔσται μοι 


God, and he shall be my son. But the 
fearful, and unbelieving, and the abomin- 
able, and murderers, and whoremongers, 
and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, 
shall have their part in the lake which 
burneth with fire and brimstone: which 
is the second death. 


υἱός. Τοῖς δὲ δειλοῖς καὶ ἀπίστοις, καὶ ἐβ. 
δελυγμένοις καὶ φονεῦσι, καὶ πόρνοις καὶ 
φαρμαχκοῖς, καὶ εἰδωλολάτραις καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς 
ψευδέσι, τὸ μέρος αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ λίμνῃ τῇ 
καιομένῃ πυρὶ καὶ ϑείῳ, ὃ ἐστιν ὃ ϑάνατος 
ὁ δεύτερος. 


§ 472. ‘ And he said unto me, It is done. —A declaration similar to 


* The boldness, in full assurance of faith, here spoken of, may be considered a 
peculiar characteristic of the new creation ; and may be illustrated by a remarkable dif- 
ference between the custom of Christians in uncovering the head on entering a place of 
worship, and that of men ofall other religions in covering their heads on the like occa- 
sion. We are apt to suppose our custom to have originated from the design of testi- 
fying a sentiment of reverence or humiliation ; but that such is not its origin, may be 
shown from 1 Cor. xi. 1-7; as well as from the indisputable fact, that from the earliest 
times, prior to the coming in of the Christian dispensation, such a sentiment of vene- 
ration was uniformly expressed not by uncovering but by covering or veiling, the 
head ; or by making bare the feet and not the head, (Ex. ili. 5; 2 Sam. xv. 30.) We 
find even at the present day the Jew, the Mahometan, the worshipper of the sun, and 
the idolater, scrupulously covering their heads. The Christian only comes boldly to 
the throne of grace; not, however, in a presumptuous dependence upon his own 
merits, or as coming in his own name, but as depending upon the merits, and coming 
in the name of his divine Redeemer ; in Christ, and in him alone, being warranted 
to assume this boldness. 

The woman, indeed, in the Christian church, continues to cover her head, or to 
veil; because her head, as the apostle says, is the man; but the male disciple wor- 
ships uncovered, because his head is Christ;—the condition of the one representing 
a position out of Christ, that of the other corresponding with a position in Christ. To 
be out of Christ, as in the state of’ former things, is to require a covering or shelter ; 
to be in Christ, is to have all the covering required. 


\ 


FORMER THINGS PASSED AWAY. 557 


this was pronounced by a voice out of the temple from the throne, Rev. 
xvi. 17, immediately on the pouring out of the seventh vial, ($ 370.) 
Whatever may be the precise. meaning of the word γέγονε, its employment 
here, as before, appears to announce a crisis, and perhaps may be intended 
to point out a parity of the stages of revelation—the coincidence of the two 
developments: the pouring out of the seventh vial, and the consequent 
fleeing away of islands and mountains, being figurative of the same 
development as that here represented by the fleeing away of the heaven 
and the earth, or the making of all things new. Thus in the general tissue 
of revelation afforded by the opening of the sealed book, the results of the 
opening of the sixth seal, of the effusion of the seventh vial, and of the ap- 
pearance of the great white throne, constitute three different representations 
of the same change; while we have, interwoven with the thread of the 
same narrative, the episodical accounts of the two witnesses, of the war in 
heaven, and persecution of the woman ; of the beast and false prophet, with 
their opposite, the Word ; and of the harlot, or commercial city, and of her 
opposite, the bride, or holy city: each contributing their respective illustra 
tions to the whole revelation—different figures pointing to different features, 
and sometimes to the same features of the truth or error to be exhibited ; 
every series of figures furnishing different degrees of development, but with- 
out any reference to succession in the order of time. 

‘fam Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.’—At the com- 
mencement of this revelation, (Chap. i. 8,) the divine Being assuming this 
title declares himself also expressly as the Almighty ; while in the eleventh 
verse, taking the context into view, it must be evident that the same appella- 
tion is attributed to the one like unto the Son of man in the midst of the seven 
candlesticks. We have now, therefore, the announcement that he who sat 
upon the white throne is the WORD made flesh, like unto the Son of man ; 
and, at the same time, that he is the Almighty. As the Almighty, the Su- 
preme Being must be without beginning of days or end of years ; but, as the 
Redeemer, he is the beginning and the ending—the Alpha and Omega of 
the whole work of salvation, (ᾧ 22.) The Word—the Conqueror of the 
beast—is now identified with the Father Almighty ; and we have already 
seen that this Word is no other than he who trod the wine-press alone,— 
the Lamb, by whose blood the accuser was overcome. 

When the mysteries of redemption are fully developed, the manifestation 
of God in Christ will be exhibited to have been something assumed for a 
temporary purpose, in order to bring the part taken by the Godhead in this 
wonderful work within the comprehension of man. Eventually it must 
appear that God and Christ are one and the same being; that God himself 
is the Redeemer and Saviour ; that the language of the Psalmist, “ Cast thy 


558 ALL THINGS NEW. 


burden upon the Lord,” and that of Jesus, “Come unto me, all ye that 
labour and are heavy laden,” constitute the same gospel invitation ; that the 
burden of iniquity, of which David speaks as too heavy for him to bear, is 
the same kind of burden as that described by Paul as so much a subject of 
lamentation, (2 Cor. v. 2-4;) and that the righteousness of Christ spoken 
of by the apostle (1 Cor. i. 30) is identic with the righteousness of God 
spoken of by the prophet, (Is. xli. 10,)—the Deity veiling himself for a 
season in the person of his Son, or under the character of his Sonship, that 
he may bring the mystery of that sovereign grace in which mercy and justice 
are reconciled, within the limited comprehension of finite beings. When 
the end comes, (1 Cor. xv. 24,) the veil concealing this divinity from mor- 
talgeyes is withdrawn, and the benefactor, the Redeemer, exhibits himself 
to the astonished recipient of his favour as the Sovereign God, the Lord of 
hosts, (Is. liv. 5.) 

§ 473. ‘I will give to him that is athirst of the fountain of the water 
of life freely.’ —That is, not merely abundantly but gratis, without money 
and without price, (Is. lv. 1.) And this supply not to be drawn from the 
fountains of the earth, the third of which became blood, (Rev. vii. 10,) nor 
from the broken cisterns alluded to by the prophet, (Jer. il. 18,) but from 
the fountain coming forth from the house of the Lord, (Joel ii. 18)—the 
fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, (Zech. xii. 1)—a fountain 
opened—revealed, manifested—for the house of David, the household of 
faith, and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the beneficiaries of the economy 
of grace: “For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the 
desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land 
springs of water,” (Is. xxxv. 6,7.) Where by nature there are no means of 
atonement, such means will (in this new state of things) be provided by 
grace. As it is also said, (Is. xl. 18-20,) “‘ Remember ‘ye not the former 
things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing: 
now it shall spring forth ; shall ye not know it? I will make a way in 
the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honour 
me, the dragons and the owls, [accusatory and unclean principles ;] 
because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” “ For 
J will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.” 

. “I am the first, and I am the last ; and besides me there is no God,” 
(Is. xliv. 3, 6.) “ When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, 
and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, J the God of 
Jacob will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains 
in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness and the dry land 
springs of water,” (Is. xli. 17, 18.) So John vii. 37, 38: “ In that day, [the 
great day of the feast, ] Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let 


on 


THE PROMISE. 559 


him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath 
said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water;”’ and John iv.14, “ Who- 
soever drinketh of the water that I shall give, shall never thirst,” (¢ 182.) 

Keeping in view the cleansing quality of the element of water, an 
element otherwise also so indispensable to animal and even to vegetable life, 
and comparing these characteristics with the sinner’s need of purification 
from guilt, by some adequate atonement, we cannot but see in these pas- 
sages a uniform allusion to the propitiation of Christ. To be without this 
means of ablution, and of eternal life, is to be in danger of perishing as in a 
wilderness or desert “ where no water is,” (Ps. [χη]. 1.) To be sensible 
of this danger, is to thirst ; to participate in the atonement of Christ, must 
be to partake, in fact, of the fountain of living water; to rely as a matter 
of faith on this propitiatory provision, is to come unto Christ to drink, to 
wash, and to be clean ; and to abound in faith in this particular, is to see 
Christ as he here reveals himself, inviting and leading the disciple to the 
fountain of the water of life; having, as it were, by these views of faith, a 
reservoir within one’s self, to which recourse may be had in every moment 
of discouragement. 

The prominent feature of development to be attended to in this passage 
of the Apocalypse is, that it is he who sits upon the throne, that gives of 
this fountain of life freely, gratuitously, without any claim of merit on the 
part of the recipient. The supply, as well as the promise, is a matter of 
grace, and this of sovereign grace ; and whether the invitation, the promise, 
or the supply, come from Jesus, from the Lamb slain, or from Jehovah, 
the source is equally sovereign—all coming from Him who sits upon the 
throne. 

§ 474. ‘ He that overcometh shall inherit all things ;’ or, these things, 
as our edition of the Greek, with some others, has it—If we ask, What 
things ? the answer is, These new things just spoken of—things pertaining to 
the economy of redemption—all things of the new heaven and the new 
earth ; these all are to be possessed by the right of inheritance: vincens 
jure hereditario possidebit hac, (G. & L.) The inheritance is a free gift 
on the part of the testator; but the gift having been made, the heir main- 
tains possession as against other claimants by right. The inheritance itself 
we suppose to be the merits or righteousness of Christ ; the figure of a 
bequest by testament being an equivalent to what is elsewhere spoken of as 
an act of imputation. Apocalyptically, however, we have supposed this 
appellation, the overcoming, 6 νικῶν, (he that overcometh,) to apply toa 
principle : the principle, for example, of sovereign grace ; that is, of im- 
puted righteousness emanating from sovereign grace, which may be said to 
overcome all other principles, or all principles opposed to the salvation of 
the sinner. It is in fact the principle of substitution, or of vicarious sacri- 


560 ALL THINGS NEW. 


fice, represented and carried out in Jesus Christ ; the disciple having the 
benefit of the triumph by entering into the new position created by it—the 
new state of things resulting from the victory. 

The several extraordinary promises made to this overcoming principle 
in the introductory epistles of the book, have been already commented upon, 
($$ 46, 56, 65, 80, 86, 96, 111, 113 :)—participation in the tree of life ; 
exemption from the power of the second death ; participation of the hidden 
manna; power over the nations; clothing in white raiment; the position of 
a pillar bearing a certain name in the temple of God; and a position with 
Christ on his throne. These promises, which we have shown to be apoca- 
lyptically applicable to a principle rather than to a human being, may be 
considered parts of the one promise here given, that of the inheritance of all 
things. From the fulness of the former assurances, the present would ap- 
pear redundant, were it not for the peculiar form of the annunciation ; this 
being the only passage in which the figure of inherdting, or of an inherit- 
ance, κληρονομέω, χληρονομία, is employed in the Apocalypse. ‘The several 
advantages before promised as gifts, are here set forth as secured by testa- 
mentary arrangement ; this peculiarity directing our attention to the testa- 
ment (ΖΔιαϑήκη) or will itself, for further information. ‘This instrument, in 
the present case, must be the new testament ; because the Jas¢ will of a 
testator always takes precedence over every other—the last rendering all 
preceding it null and void. 

Of Jesus Christ himself it is said, (Heb. i. 4,) that he is “made so 
much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more 
excellent name than they.” The disciple obtains his inheritance by adop- 
tion in Christ, (Eph. i. 5 and 11 ;) Christ being in the first stance the 
heir or inheritor of all things, (Heb. i. 2,) and the disciple an heir through 
Christ ; for which cause, he (Christ) is called the Mediator of the New 
Testament, (Heb. ix. 15 ;) corresponding with our suggestion, that in point 
of fact Christ only can be said to have overcome, or to conquer, or to have 
conquered ; as even in the war in heaven, the brethren overcame the accuser 
only by the blood of the Lamb, and through the word of his testimony. 
The design of the Apocalypse cannot be to glorify, or to manifest the glory 
of the disciple ; it must be to set forth the true character and work of 
Christ, and to manifest the glory to which he is entitled. Accordingly, all 
that is promised to the overcoming may be predicated of Christ ; and if ap- 
plied to any other, it must be, as we apprehend, to some overcoming prin- 
ciple of which Christ is the personification, or which may be identified 
with him. 

The apostle says, (1 John v. 4 and 5,) “this is the victory that over- 
cometh the world, our faith.’ But the victory is not the victor, it is a 
result of the efforts of the conqueror; and Jesus Christ himself tells his 


THE PROMISE. 561 


disciples (John xvi. 33) to be of good cheer, because he has overcome the 
world, (ἐγὼ νενίνηκα τὸν κοσμόν.) So he is represented in this book of 
Revelation to be the only final conqueror or overcomer ; and, consequently, 
he must be the only heir of all things in his own right. As the Lion of the 
tribe of Judah, he overcame (ἐνίκησεν) to open the book ; as the Rider of 
the white horse, he went forth overcoming and to overcome, νικῶν, καὶ ἵνα 
γικήσῃ; and as the Lamb, he overcame the ten horns or ten kings. On 
the other hand, the beast is said to have overcome the two witnesses (Rey. 
xi. 7) and the saints, (Rev. xiii. 7 ;) but the beast himself is finally over- 
come by the Word of God ; and the dragon, from whom the beast derived 
his power, was overcome in heaven, through the instrumentality of the 
brethren, by the blood of the Lamb. 

There is but one exception to this general observation, and that is the 
case of those seen on the sea of glass, who had overcome (τοὺς »xavtas)*™ 
the beast, and his image, and his mark, and the number of his name ; (Rey. 
xv. 2.) Itis not said how these overcame, but the inference seems to be un- 
avoidable, that they obtained their victory in a way similar to that by which 
ἡ the brethren overcame the accuser ; that is, by the blood of the Lamb, or, 
by the exhibition of that blood, as the Word overcame the beast by virtue 
of the vesture dipped in blood. They sang the song of Moses and of 
the Lamb—indicating a victory obtained through the law and_ the 
gospel. The contest with the beast being a contest of manifestation, 
the victory of these elements is apparently the same as that obtained by the 
armies of heaven under conduct of the Word of God. These elements, 
however, overcame only the beast and his forces ; the blood of the Lamb 
overcame the dragon, and fire from heaven the nations of the earth, under 
conduct of Satan. 

§ 475. ‘ And I will be his God, and he shall be my son.’—At the close 
of the introductory addresses to the churches, (Rev. iii. 21,) it is said, Christ 
himself being the speaker, “" To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with 
me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my 
Father in his throne.”+ This is a promise of identity by substitution; a 
throne being a seat, (¢ 118.) To sit in one’s seat, is to sit in one’s place ; 
and to sit in the place of another, is to be substituted for that other. 

The whole tenor of the Apocalypse has shown us in what manner 
Christ by overcoming has obtained the inheritance of all things; and we 
might confine the declaration before us to Him alone. He has overcome. 
He is consequently heir of all things, as just noticed ; and by the clause of 


* The Greek verb, it will be perceived, is the same in all these instances. 
+ The Tyndale and Cranmer versions employ the word seat here, instead of 
throne. 


562 ALL THINGS NEW. 


the verse now under consideration, he is “‘ declared to be the Son of God with 
power,” (Rom. i.4.) He has thus revealed to us in what manner, and by 
virtue of what victory, he is set down with his Father on his throne. He has 
unveiled himself as the Lamb, as the Word, and as the Son of God on the 
right hand of the Father. 

We now go back to the promise of Jesus, ‘To him that overcometh 
will I grant to sit with me in my seat,” that is, to occupy my place as the 
Son of God, and to be substituted for me—to be manifested as identic with 
me. Corresponding with what we have before said of the application of 
the promises to the overcoming to a principle, we make the same appli- 
cation here. The principle of righteousness imputed by sovereign grace to’ 
the sinner, overcomes all principles opposed to that sinner’s salvation ; all 
the power of the accuser, with every element of the legal dispensation, 
being in subjection to it. So, when fully manifested, the same principle 
overcomes all the pretensions of self-righteousness, as well as every element 
of man’s dependence upon his own works. ‘This principle of a righteous- 
ness imputed by sovereign grace is personified in Jesus Christ, is identic 
with him, and when its manifestation is complete, will appear as occupying 
his seat, ruling on the throne of divine sovereignty. Christ, in the first in- 
stance, is manifested to be the Son of God with power; next, this principle 
of grace is manifest to be identic with Christ, and is thus figuratively spoken 
of in the text as receiving from God the appellation of “my Son ;” for which 
reason we may presume both God the Father and God the Son are denomi- 
nated Jehovah our righteousness. 

If the term man (ἄνϑρωπος) were absolutely expressed in this passage, 
we should still suppose a personification to be intended ; but it is not, and 
the Greek expression ὁ νικῶν, signifying the overcoming, may be applied even 
without a figure toa principle as well as to a human being. The article is mas- 
culine, but a masculine article in the Greek, may be employed with a noun 
or name which in English would be termed neuter. ‘The masculine arti- 
cle ὁ and the pronoun αὐτὸς agree with the term λόγος, (speech or word,) 
as well as with ἄνϑρωπος, man. In the present sentence we might suppose 
λόγος to be understood for what we express by principle—o λόγος νικῶν, the 
word overcoming, or which overcomes, “shall inherit all things, and I will 
be to it God, and it shall bemy son.” Adopting this term, allusion would 
appear to be made to the word of God, (ὁ λόγος,) which, as a warrior, had 
overcome the beast, and as a judge, had condemned all not written in the 
book of life to perdition. This rendering would be strictly conformable to the 
grammatical construction of the sentence, while it appears to be in keeping 
with the whole representation. 'The Lamb has been manifested as a con- 
queror, and the Word has been manifested as a conqueror. We have taken 
these two to be identic, influenced, no doubt, by views drawn from other 


THE DENUNCIATION. 563 


portions of the sacred writings ; but perhaps, apocalyptically, this identity 
is to be more fully developed. We may perceive the importance of this 
development at the close of the book. Meantime, if the views already 
stated be correct, it must appear evident that, to say that God saves us by 
his imputed righteousness, and that Christ saves us by his merits, are synony- 
mous declarations,—the language of the prophets and the language of the 
apostles thus coinciding in their representation of the way of salvation. 

ᾧ 476. ‘But the fearful and unbelieving,’ &c. &c. ‘shall bave their 
part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second 
death.\—This lake must be the same as that into which Death and Hell 
are said to have been cast. We have already formed our views of the 
nature of this lake by the subjects exposed to its action, (δῷ 440, 460 ) 
We suppose it to be a figure corresponding with the fire which is to try 
every man’s work. We do not suppose it to be intended to represent the 
state of future punishment, for the reasons already given, (ᾧ 461;) conse- 
quently, we now judge of the things represented as having a part in this 
lake, by what has been before revealed respecting it. 

The characters here described we take to be personifications of doctrinal 
principles opposed to the truth, and operating against its manifestation ; all 
of them opposites of the overcoming principle, or logos. 

‘The fearful,’ or timid, (δειλός,) are those who cannot trust Christ for 
salvation ; as personifications, we may suppose them to represent elements of 
doctrine, opposites of such as inculcate a perfect trust in the imputed 
righteousness of Christ. The Greek term is that applied. by Jesus to his 
own disciples, Matt. vill. 26, and Mark iv. 40, “ Why are ye fearful, O ye 
of little faith ?”’ the timidity of the disciples affording an illustration of 
that want of confidence in Christ, as a refuge from the peril of vindictive 
justice, with which those must be chargeable who do not discern in him a 
sufficient provision for their justification. ‘The same term is applied in the 
Septuagint (Judges vii. 3) to the fearful multitude turned back by Gideon. 
So, also, Deut. xx. 8, to the faint-hearted. 

‘'The unbelieving,’ ἀπίστος, must represent something nearly of the same 
character. This term is applied by Jesus to the incredulous Thomas, (John 

. 27,) “ Be not faithless, but believing’””—be not without faith, but be- 
ee We commonly use the term faithless, as significant of something 
treacherous or false ; but this could not have been the sense in which it 
was used by Jesus, and does not appear to be the meaning we should 
attach to it here, although others have so understood it; (Rob. Lex. 58.) 
Viewing the Apocalypse in the light of a treatise on faith, we suppose the 
unbelieving to correspond very nearly with the definition we have given of 
the fearful; alike in kind, but differing in degree. 

‘The abominable,’ or rather the abominated; the word ἐβδελυγμένος 


564 SEVENTH SEAL.—SEVENTH TRUMPET.—SEVENTH VIAL. 


being the past participle of βδελύσσομαι. The appellation, according to the 
Septuagint, is given to Lucifer, Is. xiv. 19, as an abominated branch cast 
out; and to man in general, Job xv. 16, “ How much more abominated 
and filthy is man, who drinketh in iniquity like water.” So, Hosea ix. 10, 
οἱ ἐβδελυγμένοιϊ wg) οἱ, ἠγαπημένοι, things abominated, as things beloved. 
The term is met with under different forms in a number of places of the 
Old Testament, although it occurs but twice as a participle, once as an 
adjective, and six times as a noun in the New Testament. According 
to Titus i. 16, the character of abominable is to be found even amongst 
those that profess to know God: it is not a quality confined to the ignorant 
or openly immoral. ‘The primitive sense in the original is that of something 
extremely disgusting, from its rank impurity. In a spiritual sense, this 
offensive quality is to be understood of the pretensions to self-justification, 
with which the Pharisees were particularly charged, (Luke xvi. 15.) 
Abominated principles we suppose to constitute the ingredients of the 
harlot’s cup, (Ὁ 385.) The remarks made on those abominations will 
equally apply here. The elements of self-righteousness, generating a Lao 
dicean lukewarmness, we presume to be peculiarly hateful and abominable 
in the sight of God. 

ᾧ 477. ‘Murderers,’ (qdrevc,)—the whole multitude of persecuting Jews 
are called murderers, (Acts vii. 53 ;) and Heb. vi. 6, those falling away 
from the faith are said to crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and 
must be therefore murderers, in a sense analogous to that applied to the 
Jews. There is a crime of murder in a spiritual sense, of which they are 
guilty who reject Christ. Something of this kind seems to be contem- 
plated in the following and other similar passages: “Thou shalt destroy 
them that speak leasing [falsehood] in matters of doctrine.” “ ‘The Lord 
will abhor [abominate] the bloody and deceitful man.” “Gather not my 
soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men.” ‘Yea, for thy sake are 
we killed all the day long ; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter,” 
(Ps. v. 6, xxvi. 9, xliv. 22.) “ How is the faithful city become an harlot! 
It was full of judgment ; righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers. 
Thy silver is become dross ; thy wine mixed with water,” (Is. i. 21, 22.) 
Here the prophet contrasts a faithful exhibition of the scheme of salvation 
with a perverted view of it. The true ransom is represented by something 
worthless ; the true element of joy and rejoicing, (the propitiation of Christ,) 
so adulterated and diluted in the exhibition made of them, as to lose its 
power ; and the true principles of justification so misrepresented, as to be 
the opposite of those tending to eternal life; corresponding with this we 
consider the blood-guiltiness of the murderers, alluded to by the prophet, 
and in this passage of the Apocalypse, to be such as that with which we 
have supposed Babylon to be chargeable, (ὃ 420.) 


THE GREAT WHITE THRONE. 565 


The term ‘ whoremongers’ is to be understood, we apprehend, in a cor- 
responding spiritual sense ; as, in the quotation just made from the prophet, 
the faithful city is said to have become a harlot. The true exhibition of 
the economy of redemption, symbolized by the lawful wife, is perverted to 
a false view, such as we suppose to be represented by Babylon, the mother 
of harlots ; so we suppose the principles now alluded to in this apocalyptic 
enumeration, to be doctrinal elements of the harlot character; such as 
cannot be admitted into a correct view of the divine plan of redemption— 
cannot dwell in tt, as we find further declared, Rev. xxi. 27, and xxii. 15. 

The same Greek term πόρνος, appears to be used, Heb. xii. 16, as an 
equivalent for a profane person ; that is, profane (βέβηλος) as an opposite of 
holy ;—Levitically, profane, common, or unclean, from not having been 
sanctified or set apart—as ἃ profanation of the Sabbath (Matt. xii. 5) 
consisted in making it common, as other days of the week. Parties married 
are set apart or sanctified ; cohabitation without marriage, or illicit inter- 
course, on the contrary, is the state of something profane, common, or 
unclean. Thus, a fornicator and profane person, in the scriptural sense, 
are nearly synonymous or interchangeable terms. 

The apostle cautions the Hebrews against losing sight of the doctrine 
of salvation by grace, by giving countenance to any doctrinal element mili- 
tating with it ; denominating such an erronous principle a root of bitterness, 
capable of defiling (as by spots or stains) the disciple’s views of faith: and 
illustrating his meaning by an allusion to the conduct of Esau in parting 
with the promised blessing for a mess of pottage. Except in this passage, 
the Scriptures do not represent this elder son of the patriarch as a man of 
immoral life, in our ordinary sense of the term ; and we have to look for an 
explanation of the fornication ascribed to him, in some occurrence warrant- 
ing the charge in a spiritual sense. 

The promised blessing was an offspring which should bruise the ser- 
pent’s head—a seed in which all the nations of the earth should be blessed. 
Such a seed was to the patriarchs of old, as the merits of Christ are to the 
Christian. On the other hand, the mess of pottage was a production of the 
earth, it was red pottage too, distinguished especially by its colour, (Gen: 
xxvi. 30 ;) as such, it represented the pretensions of human merit in fur- 
nishing a propitiation for sin. Esau, as the eldest son, would have been 
warranted in appropriating to himself the promise made to his progenitors ; 
and if he had believed this promise, his argument, when suffering with 
hunger, would have been this, ‘If I am to be the father of many nations, 
there is no danger of my perishing now: God will provide.’ But he had 
no faith in the divine assurance, and therefore relinquished his title to it for 
a single meal. Like Esau, the deluded disciple, from want of faith in 
the promise of salvation by grace, relinquishes all his hopes of justifica- 


566 ALL THINGS NEW. 


tion through the imputed merits of Christ, for some fancied atonement of his 
own providing—some imaginary means of propitiation peculiar to his earthly 
system. Such an error must be indeed a root of bitterness ; and the teacher 
of such an error must prove a root of bitterness to the community, whose 
views of faith are defiled or made common by the influence of his doctrines. 
Esau isa symbol of those who lightly esteem the rock of their salvation— 
who, in going about to establish their own righteousness, become in a 
spiritual sense fornicators, (whoremongers,) or profane persons. Correspond 
ing with this, we suppose, apocalyptically, doctrines, or elements of doctrine, 
inconsistent with an entire dependence upon an identity with Christ, to be 
alluded to under the epithet of which we have been treating. 

ᾧ 478. ‘Sorcerers,’ (qaguaxos,)—preparers of drugs ; opposites of the 
true Physician, (ᾧ 225.) The harlot system was particularly chargeable 
with the crime of sorcery, ($ 415,) and, perhaps, the principles here repre- 
sented are those emanating from that system—principles of doctrine, to 
which the prophet gives the appellation of sons of the sorceress, (Is. lvii. 3.) 
We have already enlarged sufficiently, perhaps, upon the term ; the more 
so as, in the present day, there is hardly a hazard of its being construed 
here in an ordinary or literal sense. These sorcerers profess to furnish some 
other remedy for the diseases of the soul than that which Christ himself has 
provided, in his own vicarious sacrifice. 

It is said of Asa, king of Judah, 2 Chron. xvi. 14, he sought not to the 
Lord in his disease, but to the physicians ; and all they could do for him 
was to lay him, when dead, in the bed filled with sweet odours and divers 
kinds of drugs. They were all, as Job said of his comforters, forgers of 
lies, physicians of no value. Such are doctrines prompting the disciple to 
do some great thing for his own salvation, instead of seeking to the Lord, 
and relying upon the righteousness of Jehovah. 

‘ Idolaters,’ (εἰδωλολάτρης,)----ἰῃοπθ doing service to idols; not merely 
worshipping by the mummery of outward acts of adoration, such as we sup- 
pose to be the practice of the most ignorant and superstitious of mankind, 
but an idolatry of the heart or mind, with which disciples of the most 
enlightened age and country may be chargeable. As we have before 
remarked, the design or motive of an action characterizes the service in 
which it is performed. If the motive of our conduct be to serve ourselves, 
to promote our own glory, self is the idol of our worship or service ; our 
conduct being governed only by that covetousness which is declared to be 
idolatry, (Col. i. 5.) 

The priests of Baal were idolaters, not merely because they adored the 
idol in common with others, but because they devoted themselves to serve 
the idol ; their employment was literally idol-service, and they finally fell a 
sacrifice to their own folly and madness, in endeavouring to exalt the glory 


THE DENUNCIATION. 567 


of their divinity over that of the true God. Teachers of false doctrine, 
representing man to be dependent for his eternal well-being upon some 
other power than that of his Redeemer, are like the priests of Baal 
engaged in idol-service ; so, elements of doctrine, of a like character, may 
be strictly termed servers of idols, or idolaters. 

We have supposed the image of the beast, fabricated at the instigation 
of the false prophet, to have been an idol of the kind in contemplation—an 
image of man’s pretended righteousness. The false prophet, or false inter- 
preter, was the high-priest of this idol. Analogous with this, the false 
construction of the language of divine revelation, prompting to the per- 
suasion, that man is dependent upon his own merits, and is the source of 
his own eternal happiness, may be justly termed the high-priest of self- 
righteousness ; while every doctrine or principle emanating from this false 
construction, sustained by it or auxiliary to it, may be contemplated in the 
light of subordinate servants of the same idol: idolaters whose efforts are 
wholly directed to counteract the worship of the true God, and to deprive 
the Redeemer of the glory due unto his name, (Ps. xxix. 2.). 

ᾧ 479. «And all liars,” Kai πᾶσι τοῖς wevdéor ;—an expression con- 
vertible with that of πᾶν ποιοῦν ψεῦδος, every thing making a lie, occurring 
in the last verse of the chapter. Both passages have in view, as we appre- 
hend, the same class of doctrines. We suppose any doctrinal element 
prompting the disciple to believe that he is not a sinner; or that whatever 
he may have once been, he has now no sin, (1 John i. 8,) to be of this 
description. So, any doctrine tending to deceive the disciple as to his true 
position in the sight of God, or as to the character and offices of Christ, 
(1 John ii. 21, 22,) is a thing which maketh a lie; or is figuratively a 
liar. This construction, rigidly carried out, must leave scarcely any doc- 
trine of human imagination free from the charge of falsehood ; still Tess, 
therefore, if applied to human beings themselves, could there be found any, 
whether teachers or disciples, not admitting some portion of error (some- 
thing of the character of lies or liars) into their views of faith. The false 
doctrine itself, however, we suppose to be that here personified; the deluded 
disciple may find mercy, when every principle, element, or system, incon- 
sistent with the truths of the gospel, or with God’s plan of redemption, is 
destroyed ; or has its part in the second death—the lake burning with fire 
and brimstone. 

‘Shall have their part,’ &c.—We have already necessarily anticipated 
the consideration of this lake, or second death ; serving, as it does, the pur- 
pose of a key to the interpretation of all connected with it, (ὃ 440.) The 
lake into which death and hell are cast, cannot be a place of punishment 
in the ordinary sense of the term, nor could the first death be said to be 
subjected to the second death, in any such sense. We cannot do otherwise, 

45 


568 ᾿ ALL THINGS NEW. 


therefore, than resort to our uniform analysis of these terms. Fire is the 
instrument of trial—the revealed word of God tries every work or doctrine, 
(Jer. xxiii. 29, 1 Cor. i, 13-15 ;) sulphur is the element giving perpetuity 
to this trial, (ὃ 57;) a lake of fire and brimstone represents the perpetual 
action of the revealed word of God on the doctrines and systems of doc- 
trines subjected to its power. Death and hell are systems, and the beast, 
the false prophet, and the accuser, are principles of this character ; conse- 
quently, the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and 
whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, having their part 
in this lake or second death, must be doctrinal elements doomed to a per- 
petual trial of the revealed word of God, acting as a fire; especially where 
its proper spiritual sense is understood. 

This construction corresponds with the general position, that the design 
of the Apocalypse is to unfold the true character and offices of Jesus Christ 
as the Lamp, as the Worn, and as the Sovereren Gop; a development 
involving an exhibition of the character and fate of all doctrines, systems, 
or elements of an opposite tendency. For instruction upon the nature of a 
future state of rewards and punishments, we must look to other portions of 
the sacred writings. Here, in this revelation or unveiling of Jesus, we must 
suppose it to be taken for granted in the outset, that man is a sinner ; that 
he is an accountable being : and that there is a state of future retribution. 
The whole book is addressed to churches, professing to be followers of 
Christ. They, of course, admit their need of a Saviour ; and they profess 
to look unto Jesus as their Lord and their Redeemer. To show to these 
that there was to bea judgment to come, and a future state of punishment for 
the impenitently wicked, would be something uncalled for—not required 
by the circumstances of the case. But these churches were labouring under 
the influence of certain doctrinal errors, and what was called for was an 
exposition of the inconsistency of these errors with an implicit faith and 
trust in the merits of Christ, and a pure desire to promote the glory of God. 

To afford the instruction required, an allegorical history is given of the 
rise and progress, and decline and fall, and final perdition of a system or 
systems opposed to a just understanding of the truth. The close of this his- 
tory is just reached ; the final perdition of all errors by their exposure to the 
lake of fire and brimstone constituting the termination of this extraordinary 
development. 

This revelation, however, is not confined toa history of error alone; the 
illustration is duplex ; the history of truth from the period of its partial 
suppression, to that of its triumphant manifestation, has been kept in view 
throughout the tissue of the narrative: as if the relation were that of a 
struggle between two opposite powers ; the ascendency of one involving 
the downfall of the other. The manifestation of the new heaven and of the 


RETROSPECT. 569 


new earth, and the exhibition of the new Jerusalem in her bridal character, 
with the making of all things new, may be regarded as the means or pro- 
cess by which the false doctrines contemplated in this eighth verse, are 
made to have their part in the second death. 


RETROSPECT. 


ᾧ 480. The verse we have last examined should close the chapter, as 
the remaining verses, together with the principal part of the next chapter, 
constitute the description of a distinct vision,—a vision, however, which does 
notradd to the thread of the narration, being rather an amplification of a 
single particular previously adverted to. 

The New Jerusalem was seen coming down from heaven immediately 
upon the coming in of the new heaven and of the new earth ; but as if to 
avoid distracting attention from the main course of events, a particular 
description of this new Jerusalem is postponed ; and the apostle hastens to 
give us an account of the remaining portion of the vision, the various par 
ticulars of which are so intimately woven with each other. 

In our remarks upon the last chapter, we noticed that the occupant of 
the great white throne was not specifically revealed, (ᾧ 457.) We have 
now, however, reached that stage of the development when he is expressly 
declared to be both the Alpha and Omega, and the sovereign God. The 
end has now come, when the Son is manifested to have given up the king 
dom unto the Father, (1 Cor. xv. 24.) God himself is to be recognized 
in the Son, and God and the Lamb, as we shall find, are henceforth exhibited 
as identic : constituting one and the same temple, (Rev. xxi. 22,) and occu- 
pying one and the same seat, or throne, (Rev. xxii. 1, 3.) Whatever is 
affirmed of the one, we now see may equally be affirmed of the other. 

“ He that cometh unto me,” said Jesus, ‘“ shall never thirst ;’’ and corres- 
ponding with this is the language of him who declares that he will be the 
GOD of him that overcometh. “ΤῸ him that is athirst I will give of the 


water of life freely.” “*Come unto me,” 


said Jesus, “all ye that labour 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest ;” and corresponding with this, 
also, we have it here declared that God shall wipe away tears from all eyes, 
and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying. “1 any man 
be in Christ,” says the apostle Paul, “he is a new creature. Old things 
have passed away, all things have become new ;” and kere we find Him 
that sat upon the great white throne declaring, “ Behold, I make all things 
new.” We are thus brought to the conclusion that it is God, in Christ, 


who thus effects this great change. As it is said, God was in Christ recon- 


570 ALL THINGS NEW. 


ciling the world unto himself, not imputing to men their trespasses. A 
reconciliation involving all that is here represented. 

The Sovereign, Judge, and Ruler of the universe taking upon himself 
the burden of the sinner’s guilt, and imputing to that sinner the merit of his 
own righteousness! A mystery indeed; anda mystery capable of being 
adapted to the comprehension of finite minds, perhaps in no other way than 
that by which it has been revealed. The cavilling objection to the gospel 
plan of redemption can no longer be made,—that it would be unjust in the 
Supreme Being to lay the guilt of a sinful world to the charge of an innocent 
being—for it is here manifested that he does not lay it upon a third being, 
but he himself assumes it. He interposes hiniself—his own merit—his 
own righteousness, in behalf of the disciple. God and the Lamb are thus 
identified ; or, which is the same thing, Christ having given up the kingdom 
to the Father, God is manifested to be all in all, τὰ πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν, in the 
work of redemption, as he is also in the works of creation and providence. 


VISION OF THE BRIDE. 571 


CHAPTER X XI.—( Continued.) 


VISION OF THE BRIDE, 
THE LAMB’S WIFE.—THE HOLY JERUSALEM. 


Vs. 9, 10. And there came unto me Kal ἦλϑεν εἷς ἐκ τῶν ἑπτὰ ἀγγέλων τῶν 


one of the seven angels which had 2,/ SS erode . is ὥ 
Ἂ EYOVTGY τὰς ETH sacha τοι ἑμοι σὰς τῶν 
the seven vials full of the seven last od 3 P aes: 


ε ‘ ~ ~ ΓΆΔ, ΔΑ ,», ἡ 
plagues, and talked with me, saying, ἐττὰ πληγῶν τῶν ee nae προ τς: 
Come hither, I will show thee the bride, με ἐμοῦ, λέγων δεῦρο, δείξω σοι τὴν νυμ- 
the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me py, τὴν γυναῖκα τοῦ ἀρνίου. Καὶ ἄπη- 
away in the spirit toa great and high veyxé we ἐν πνεύματι ἐπὶ ὕρος μέγα καὶ 
mountain, and showed me that great city, ὑψηλόν, καὶ ἔδειξέ μοι τὴν πόλιν τὴν ἁγίαν 


the holy Jerusalem ing Astin τὰ 
henntanth mies Giga: ὦ descending out of Ἱερουσαλήμ, καταβαίνουσαν ἐκ tov ovga- 


γοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ ϑεοῦ, 

§ 481. ‘Awnp there came unto me one of the seven angels,’ &c. ; or, 
the first of the seven angels, (ὃ 353.) This first angel, as we suppose, 
showed the apostle the judgment of the harlot ; the same messenger now 
shows the glory of the bride. All of the angels having the vials of wrath 
came out of the temple, (Rev. xv. 6,) the developments with which they 
were charged being peculiarly directed to a purification of the temple 
service, (§ 356.) The effusion of the first vial brought forth the noisome 
sore, indicating the impurity of any worship resulting from the motive of 
self-service or self-glorification, (ὃ 98.) The exhibition of the harlot, or 
great commercial city, carried out this development, more especially by a 
representation of the mercenary feature of this selfishness, (¢ 412.) The 
instrument of revelation employed in showing the disease on both these 
occasions is now engaged in pointing out the remedy. As if the first and 
great commandment, requiring a perfect love of God, brought home to the 
conscience, detected the absence of this love in the human heart; and 
thence directed the mind to the necessity, in the nature of the case, of 
some arrangement by which such a principle of grateful affection could be 
created. 

‘And talked [spake] with me, saying, Come,’ &c.—These words so 
closely correspond with those employed by the angel on the former occa- 
sion, (Rev. xvil. 1,) that we may suppose them intended to bring our minds 
to a comparison of the circumstances peculiar to both invitations ; showing 
the harlot and the bride, or Babylon and the New Jerusalem to be, as we 
have considered them, symbolical opposites. The first representing a mer 


512 ALL THINGS NEW. 


cenary system of mixed principles peculiar to the reign or kingdom of the 
beast ; the last a system or plan of unmixed principles of grateful love as 
peculiar to the reign or kingdom of the Lamb. Of the first, we have been 
furnished with a very full development, and have learned its history even 
to its end ; we are now about to be made acquainted with the character or 
peculiar features of the last, of the history of which there is no end. We 
do not enlarge upon the terms bride, or wife, or woman, here, because they 
have already, in some degree, engaged our attention, ($$ 426, 466.) 

§ 482. ‘And he carried me away in the spirit,’ &c.—The apostle is 
to be understood as 2m spirit witnessing the day of the Lord throughout 
the whole of this book of Revelation, (¢ 24;) but he reminds us from time 
to time, parenthetically, that what is said to occur to him in spirit is 
nothing in a literal or ordinary sense. Thus, he tells us it was am spirit he 
was taken up into heaven; in spirit, too, he was taken into the wilderness 
to see the judgment of the harlot ; such a spiritual position being indispen- 
sable for his seeing the harlot system in its full power, (¢ 383.) Ina 
wilderness the disciple looks around him in vain for some sufficient refuge 
or protection, and here, for want of any thing better, he may resort to the 
first object appearing to furnish the security desired. For the same reason, 
the position, as on the summit of a high mountain, is peculiar to a con- 
templation of the true means of salvation. 

It was on Mount Zion that the Lamb appeared in glory, (¢ 326 ;) and 
it was upon a high mountain that Moses and Elias appeared ministering to 
Jesus ; as the law and the prophets.may be seen in this apocalyptic moun- 
tain to minister to the economy of salvation. It was (in spirit) in an 
exceeding high mountain, that Jesus was shown by the accuser all the king- 
doms of the world, and the glory of them; but a still higher mountain 
exhibits his own kingdom and its glory ; for in the last days, it is said, ‘ the 
mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established upon the tops of the 
mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills,” (Is. 11. 2.) So, the reve- 
lation of the true shelter or economy of grace, of which the new Jerusalem 
furnishes a representation, appears to be alluded to, Ezek. xvii. 22-24: 
«Thus saith the Lord Gop, I will also take of the highest branch of the 
high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a 
tender one, and will plant it upon a high mountain, and eminent in the 
mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth 
boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all 
fowl of every wing, in the shadow of the branches thereof shail they dwell: 
and all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down 
the high tree, have exalted the low tree, and have dried up the green tree, 
and have made the dry tree to flourish : I the Lorp have spoken, and have 
done it.” 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 573 


‘And he showed me that great* city, the holy Jerusalem,’ &c.; or, 
‘he showed me the city, the holy Jerusalem,’ &c.—The apostle was taken 
to see a bride, a woman, and he was shown a city; and this city, it is jm- 
plied, is the bride, the Lamb’s wife. So it was in the case of the harlot ; 
the woman seen in the wilderness, sustained by the beast, bore upon her 
forehead the name Babylon, and was expressly declared at the close of 
the chapter, (Rev. xvii. 18,) to be that great city; and, thenceforth, the 
whole account of the judgment upon her consists in a description of the 
desolations of a great city. There can be no question in any mind as to 
the entire identity of the woman and the city in both of these illustrations. 
What the city represents the woman represents, and vice versa; different 
figures representing the same thing. So, as the bride or wife is the opposite 
of the harlot, the new Jerusalem must be the opposite of Babylon, and the 
holy city the opposite of the self-styled great city. 

We do not suppose the term holy to be applied here to Jerusalem merely 
in contradistinction to Babylon or to other cities. Two Jerusalems appear 
to be contemplated, both in the Apocalypse and in the prophecies—one 
heavenly, the other earthly ; one free, the other in bondage, (Gal. iv. 26 ;) 
one holy or set apart, the other not holy ; or if once holy, subsequently so 
perverted or abused, as to be no longer considered such. 

The holy Jerusalem here contemplated, is described as descending out 
ef heaven from God ; identifying her with the new Jerusalem described in 
the second verse of the chapter. She is, besides, in both passages repre- 
sented as the bride, the Lamb’s wife ; the new Jerusalem is therefore the 
holy, and that which is not holy, must be the old Jerusalem. 

The new vision of peace is set apart, destined to endure for ever, being 
essential to a just representation of the worship or service of God ; the first 
vision was not intended to endure: like an old garment, it is now to be 
laid aside. Babylon (the system of confusion) was sitting on many waters— 
resting on many mountains—sustained by a power seen to have arisen from 
the sea or abyss. The holy city (the true plan of safety) comes immedi- 
ately from God out of heaven. The old vision of peace was represented 
by an earthly city, repeatedly made captive ; her beauty marred, and finally 
destroyed, while yet in bondage. The new vision is represented as coming 


* Some editions of the Greek, according to our common English version, attach 
the epithet μεγάλη (great) to the holy city; other Greek editions, as that from which 
we copy, omit it,and apparently with good reason. Babylon, we may presume, was 
particularly designated the great city, as great in her pretensions, or as great in the 
estimation of men; but it appears more in keeping with the style of the Apocalypse, 
to avoid applying any epithet to the holy city which might seem to assimilate her 
with the other. 


574 


ALL THINGS NEW. 


pure and unmixed from the divine source of her being, and destined to 


remain for ever free. 


Vs. 11-13 Having the glory of God:. 
and her light (was) like unto a stone most 
precious, even like a jasper stone, clear 
as crystal; and had a wall great and 
high, (and) had twelve gates, and at the 
gates twelve angels, and names written 
thereon, which are (the names) of the 
twelve tribes of the children of Israel. 


32» . εξ - - < 1 

ἔχουσαν τὴν δόξαν tov Feov. ὁ φωστὴρ 

Εν" εἶ ᾿ ΄ ς ? 
αὑτῆς ὅμοιος MIw τιμιωτάτῳ, ὡς Moo 
»7 r = ae ~ ' 
ἰάσπιδι κρυσταλλίζοντι. ᾿Εχουσα τεῖχος μέ- 
γα καὶ ὑψηλόν, ἔχουσα πυλῶνας δώδεκα, 
καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς πυλῶσιν ἀγγέλους δώδεκα, καὶ 

᾿ oy “ὦ ΄ 

ὀνόματα ἐπιγεγραμμένα, ἅ ἐστι τῶν δώδεχοι 


υλῶν τῶν υἱῶν Ισραήλ. “Axo ἀνατολῆς 
Ἷ {| 


On the east, three cates; ont rt 3 ἣν : ees Bs Bs 
i gates ; on the north, πυλῶνες τρεῖς, χαὶ ἀπὸ βοῤῥᾶ σευυλῶνες τρεῖς, 


three gates; on the south, three gates; 
and on the west, three gates. 

§ 483. ‘ Having the glory of God,’ &c.—IJn its proper place in the 
preceding narrative, a description was given of the descent of the new Jeru- 
salem, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. It was not expedient 
then, as we have observed, (ὃ 480,) to enlarge upon this bridal appearance ; 
further particulars were postponed, in order that the end, the important end 
of the whole narration might be reached, as it were, with as little delay as 
possible. This being completed, we are now, by way of episode, indulged 
with a precise description of the preparation and ornaments of the bride— 
her dress and her garniture; the figure only being changed, the array is 
that of a city instead of that of a bride. The preparation consists of walls, 
and gates, and foundations, instead of robes and garments ; and the orna- 
ment or adorning is the glory of God, compared to the light of a most 
precious stone, clear as crystal, instead of being symbolized by the jewels 
of a bridal trousseau. As a bride, the preparation of the economy of grace 
still consists in a robe of righteousness, and in garments of salvation ; but, 
as a city, her walls are salvation, and her gates are praise. In both cases, 
the preparation and the adorning are immediately from the same source of 
divine sovereignty, without any intermixture of human merit, or any glory 
or praise of human fabrication. The glory of the new Jerusalem is not her 
own glory ; it is the glory of God. As it is said of the disciple, (1 Cor. i. 
31,) “Jet him that glorieth, glory in the Lord.” 

‘And her light (was) like unto a stone most precious ;’ or, rather, the 
light of it, (ὁ φωστὴρ αὐτῆς ;)—the pronoun αὐτῆς relating to the feminine 
noun δόξα, glory, and not to the city, (7 πόλις :) the city has neither light 
nor glory of her own, but she appears resplendent with the light of the glory 
of God. The word was is supplied unnecessarily in our common version, 
and the conjunction καὶ (and) is not found im all editions of the Greek. The 
reading apparently should be, ‘ Having the glory of God, the light of it like 
toa stone most precious, to a jasper stone (erystallizontt) shining like crys- 
tal; the comparison of the light of this glory to a jasper stone or diamond, 
as we should call it, indicating particularly the qualities of pureness and 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 575 


clearness. The light of the glory of God is unmixed with the rays of any 
other glory. The light of the glory with which the city is arrayed, thus 
corresponds with the fine linen of the bride, shining clean, (λαμπρὸν καϑα- 
ody.) ΑΒ it corresponds also with the raiment “ white as the light, in which 
Jesus appeared on the mount of transfiguration.” 

Babylon is described, Rev. xviii. 7, as having vainly glorified herself, 
boasting of her own perfection: a mixed system exhibiting no glory but 
that derived from man’s pretensions to righteousness. The economy of 
grace, on the contrary, holds forth no glory but that to be derived from the 
imputed merit of divine perfection. The light of this glory is compared to 
that of an exceedingly precious stone ; and such, in a certain sense, it may 
be considered ; for it is the light of the glory of Him who is declared to be 
the corner stone, elect, precious ; a light exhibited by the Son of God in his 
own person when manifest in the flesh. As it is said, (Matt. iv. 16,) “ The 
people which sat in darkness saw a great light, and to them which sat in 
the region of the shadow of death, light is sprung up ;” and a light which 
he now exhibits, in its most spiritual sense, in this unveiling of himself 
figuratively, through the medium of his wife or bride. 

§ 484. « And had a wall great and high.’—We may presume the city 
to have now found its site, as its wall, gates, and foundations of the wall 
are described ; and this site may be supposed to be upon the mountain, or 
range of mountains, to the summit of which the apostle was conveyed. We 
are not to imagine the position of the favoured spectator to be merely the 
peak of an eminence. In eastern language, and indeed in Seripture phrase- 
ology, a mountain may be the appellation of a large tract of country ; the 
whole of the high land, as distinguished from the low country, going by the 
name of a single mountain. Mount Lebanon, or Libanus, for example, is 
said to be one hundred leagues in circumference, (Calmet.) The holy city 
rests upon the mountain—the Rock of our salvation (Christ)—as the bride 
is dependent upon the bridegroom, or the wife upon her husband ; and as 
her opposite, the harlot, rested upon the beast. The city may be contem- 
plated as the crown of the mountain, (Prov. iv. 9, xii. 4,) while the mount 
is the sure foundation of the city ; at the same time, no one can be on the 
top of the mount without being in the city, or can be an inhabitant of the 
city without being a dweller upon the mount. Mount Zion, and the holy 
city, are thus sometimes used in Scripture as convertible terms. We can- 
not suppose the apostle to have been taken to a great and high mountain, 
merely to see a city coming down from heaven; a sight with which he 
might have been equally favoured upon the open plain ; he was taken to 
the top of the mountain, no doubt, because the city to be revealed was there 
located. As it is said, Is. xxv. 6, “ And in this mountain shall the Lord 


of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things ;” the same rich provision 


576 ALL THINGS NEW. 


of sovereign grace being in one place symbolized by a city, and in another, 
by a feast. | 

All the walls of the city are here spoken of as one continuous wall, 
indicating the complete protection afforded by it, leaving no room or open- 
ing by which an enemy may be introduced. There can be no doubt, 
however, that the means of security are the same, whether the figure be 
singular or plural: as it is said, Is. xxvi. 1, 8, “In that day, [that is, in 
the day of the feast of fat things,] shall this song be sung in the land of 
Judah ; We have a strong city ; salvation will God appoint for walls and 
bulwarks ;” and Ps. cxxii. 7, “ Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity 
within thy palaces.” So, Ps. li. 18, “Do good in thy good pleasure 
unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.” So it was said of Jeru- 
salem: Jer. xv. 20, “I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen 
wall.” While of Babylon, it is said, ““ Her foundations are destroyed, her 
walls are thrown down.” “ Yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.” ‘ The 
broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and herhigh gates shall 
be burned with fire.” (Jer. i. 18, li. 44,58.) The height of the wall of 
the holy city being particularly specified in a subsequent verse, we defer 
our remarks on that particular feature for the present. The wall itself we 
take to be a symbol of the righteousness of JEHOVAH, which, imputed 
to the disciple, furnishes a complete protection against the powers of legal 
accusation. On this account it is most appropriately represented as a 
barrier “great and high,” while it corresponds in effect with the divine 
assurance, (Zech. 11. 5,) referred to on a former occasion, ($ 452.) 

‘And had twelve gates.’ Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O 
Jerusalem,” says David, Ps. cxxii. 2,3. Jerusalem is builded as a city 
that is compact together. It cannot be of the literal Jerusalem that the 
Psalmist is here speaking ; for the king of Israel could not consider it extra- 
ordinary that his feet should stand within the gates of his own city, or that 
the city in which he actually dwelt should be compactly built like a city. 
If we take into view, however, the spiritual application of the Psalm, and 
suppose David to be speaking of the plan of redemption, or vision of peace, 
we perceive immediately the peculiar force of the comparison. Of this 
economy, or plan, it may be said that its divine author has caused it to pos- 
sess arrangements analogous to those of a well-built and well-fortified city ; 
and that it is indeed a subject of praise to be permitted to come within the 
compass of its protection—if we may but stand within its gates. 

Such is the holy city here revealed from heaven: not the way of salva- 
tion itself, but one of the figures or symbolical pictures by which that way 
is represented ; for there is but one way in fact, and that is in and through 
Christ. As Jesus himself declares, Matt. vii. 13 and 14, “ Strait is the 
gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life ;”? and John x. 9, and 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 577 


xiv. 6, “1am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and 
shall go in and out and find pasture.” “Iam the way, the truth, and the 
life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” Of which way it is 
also said, Rom. v. 1, “ Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace 
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have access by faith 
into this grace wherein we stand.” ‘For through him (Eph. iv. 18) we 
have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” 

The means of salvation are in Christ alone—his merits. To be adopted 
in him is to partake of these merits, and there is no other name or way 
whereby we can be saved. It is the exhibition of this way, and not the 
way itself, which is represented as having twelve gates. The purpose of 
these several avenues, we may understand better when we come to consider 
what it is that is admitted by them into the city. 

§ 485. ‘And at’ or over ‘the gates twelve angels, and names super- 
scribed, which are of the twelve tribes of Israel.’-—The angel, apparently 
representing the judge or ruler of a tribe, is stationed over the gate, and 
the name of the tribe subject to each of these judges, or angels, is written 
over the gate; thus each tribe may be said to have the privilege of enter- 
ing by the gate bearing its name, subject to the judgment of the angel. 
The gates of a fortified city are usually apertures in the wall, the bulwark 
extending over them, and the thickness of the wall allowing room for the 
accommodation of the sentinel over the gate, or even to allow of an apart- 
ment for a small body of soldiers, (corps de garde,) and perhaps in ancient 
times for the administration of justice ; the courts being held at the gate. 

The angel at the gate is not merely a porter, his duty is to prevent the 
entrance of every one not privileged to enter. In this respect he acts the 
part of a judge. His seat at the gate is a throne or tribunal of judgment ; 
as it is said of the spiritual Jerusalem, Ps. cxxii. 5, “ There are set thrones, 
(seats,) the thrones of the house of David’’—tribunals of judgment. ‘Thither 
the tribes go up,” it is said, “ the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of 
Israel ;” and the reason given for thus going up, is that there the thrones 
of judgment are set. We may suppose these tribes to represent elements of 
doctrine, of which there are twelve classes, the angel being the revelation of 
truth operating as a criterion by which the elements of each class are to be 
tried. These doctrinal elements may be said to go up to the spiritual 
city to bear testimony ; inasmuch as each of them furnishes its portion of 
evidence in favour of God’s plan of salvation,—that is, each portion 
admitted to be correct by the judge or angel at the gate. This portion we 
may suppose to be identic with the twelve thousand of each tribe, sealed 
the servants of God, (Rev. vii. 4-8.) 

The angel, or judge, however, may not be the member of a tribe, or 
preside as such. “ Verily, verily,” said Jesus to his apostles, “ ye which 


578 ALL THINGS NEW. 


have followed me, in the regeneration, (the new creation,) when the Son of 
man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve 
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel,” (Matt. xix. 28.) This epoch 
of the regeneration, we may suppose to be now apocalyptically reached— 
the Son of Man is seen sitting in the throne of his glory, (the great white 
throne,) having made all things new—having regenerated all things. The 
holy Jerusalem, as a city compactly built, is exhibited ; and the tribes, the 
elements of the first dispensation, are now going up to bear their testimony 
to the truth of the covenant of grace ;—the leading elements of the gospel 
revelation (the twelve apostles) being the appointed judges ; in other words, 
the revelation of the first testament is now being judged by that of the new. 

Perhaps a just interpretation of the names of the twelve tribes and of 
the twelve apostles might throw light on this illustration, showing in what 
manner certain gospel elements operate in discriminating between doctrines 
according with or opposed to the economy of grace,—judging, in fact, of 
the application made of different principles of the lega] dispensation. But - 
this may not be necessary. The mystic number twelve may, as a whole, 
represent either of the dispensations. 'The twelve angels may represent the 
law and the testimony, acting as judges, and admitting no principle into a 
just view of the economy of redemption inconsistent with its truth ; or they 
may represent elements of the gospel testimony alone, acting in the same 
capacity, as judges or as keepers of the gate, in preventing the entrance of 
any element of doctrine into this vision of peace, inconsistent with the 
ruling element of sovereign grace.* The judgment of the angels or keep- 
ers of the gates, we suppose to be a figure nearly equivalent to that of the 
judgment by the books ; as we see by the last verses of these two chapters, 
(Rev. xx. 15, and xxi. 27,) that those not written in the book of life are 
cast into the lake of fire; and those only which are written in this book are 
permitted to enter the city. 

‘On the east three gates; on the north three gates,’ &c.—The city was 
quadrangular, and had an equal number of gates on each of its sides. The 
whole earth, in the time of the apostles, was considered an area of a corres- 
ponding figure. The city thus presented its gates on al] sides—symbolizing 
perhaps the universality of this city of refuge, as open to all sects or denomi- 


* We noticed in the enumeration of the numbers sealed, (§ 176,) the substitution 
of the tribe of Manasseh (forgetfulness) for that of Dan, (jadgment.) Correspond- 
ing with this, we may suppose none of the elements of judgment to be admissible in 
the economy of grace; the apostles (angels or messengers of the gospel revela 
tion) being judges, (sentinels at the gates.) Or, as angels are messengers, and pro- 
phets as well as apostles are messengers, these porters at the gate may represent 
twelve prophets, indicating by their predictions the elements admissible into the plan 
of redemption. 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 579 


nations, or principles of such sects, by whatever name they might be called, 
provided only that they are found written in the Lamb’s book of life ; or 
provided they were not elements working abomination or making a lie. 
That is, they must be principles peculiar to God’s plan of salvation, and 
containing nothing inconsistent with it—every other consideration being im- 
material ; or, as we might say, it being immaterial otherwise, from what 
quarter they came. These four sides or quarters of the city, however, may 
afford the material of further analysis, corresponding perhaps with the figura- 
tive use of the same points of compass in other portions of Scripture ; as 
in the last chapter of the prophecies of Ezekiel, where it is said the holy 
oblation shall be offered foursquare, with the possession of the city. 


V. 14. And the wall of the city had Καὶ τὸ τεῖχος τῆς πόλεως ἔχων ϑεμελίους 
twelve foundations, and in them the names 


δώδεκα, καὶ ἐπ᾿ αὐτῶν δώδεκα ὀνόματα τῶν 
of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Ἶ δ 


δώδεκα ἀποστόλων τοῦ ἀρνίου. 


ᾧ 486. It is not said that the city itself had twelve foundations. The 
foundation of the city was the mountain, or rock; as it is said, “ Other 
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 
Neither are we to suppose the city to have twelve walls, with each a foun- 
dation ; but in an exhibition of the plan of salvation, the means of defence 
or protection may be shown to depend upon a certain number of principles. 
To set forth these principles is to set forth the foundation of the wall. “ As 
a wise master-builder,” says Paul, “1 have laid the foundation, and another 
buildeth thereon ; but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon,” 
(1 Cor. iii. 10, 11.) Here the foundation of instruction appears to be 
alluded to, rather than the foundation of salvation. Paul had preached to 
the Gentiles in such a way as to lay a foundation of instruction for teachers 
or preachers succeeding him. He expected them to build upon or to follow 
up this instruction ; but he cautions them, in doing this, not to cause it to 
appear that there is any other foundation for the hopes of the disciple than 
that which is laid in the merits of Christ. 

The true wall of salvation—the protection against the wrath to come 
must be the righteousness of Jesus Christ: the imputed righteousness of 
God. The wall is to the city what the breastplate or cuirass is to the 
warrior. What the mansion or house is to him that inhabits it—what the 
bulwark is to the fortress—what the robe is to him that wears it—the 
righteousness or merit of Christ, comprehending his work of propitiation, is 
to the disciple. 

It is not said that the apostles constitute these foundations, but only that 
their names are in or upon the foundations. We may suppose all of them, 
like Paul, by their teaching, to have laid the foundation for exhibiting the 
righteousness of Christ as the wall of salvation. The apocalyptic city is 


580 ALL THINGS NEW. 


not the economy of grace itself, but a representation of it; and this repre- 
sentation may be said to require the exposition of certain fundamental princi- 
ples which the apostles have been the instruments of setting forth. The 
names of these inspired teachers, properly interpreted, might afford some 
clue to these several principles, but we are not obliged to consider each 
apostle as maintaining a particular doctrine essential to this exhibition of the 
righteousness of Christ as a wall or defence ; the twelve may represent, as a 
whole, the gospel development from which so many fundamental principles 
are to be gathered. ‘This appears the more probable, when we consider 
that we have no particular account of the teachings of some of the apostles ; 
that two of the evangelists were not apostles, and that Paul himself was not 
one of the twelve.* 


Vs. 15-17. And he that talked with me, 
had a golden reed to measure the city, and 
the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. 
And the city lieth foursquare, and the 
length is as large as the breadth: and he 


c ~ 2 - = r , 
Καὶ ὁ λαλῶν wet ἐμοῦ εἶχε μέτρον xa- 
- ’ , ‘ rh 

λαμον χρυσοῖν, iva μετρήσῃ τὴν πόλιν καὶ 
‘ ~ Dis τὼ 4 ~ ae 
τοὺς πυλῶνας αὐτῆς χαὶ TO τεῖχος αὐτῆς. 
- ~ ~ ‘ ~ 
Kat ἡ πόλις τετράγωνος κεῖται, καὶ τὸ μῆ- 


κος αὐτῆς ὅσον καὶ τὸ πλάτος. καὶ ἐμέτρησε 
τὴν πόλιν τῷ καλάμῳ ἐπὶ σταδίους δώδεκα 
χιλιάδων" τὸ ila χαὶ TO πλάτος καὶ τὸ 
ὕψος αὐτῆς ἰσά ἐστι Καὶ ἐμέτρησε τὸ 
τεῖχος αὐτῆς ἑχατὸν τεσσαράποντα τεσσά- 
ρων πηχῶν, μέτρον ἀνϑρώπου, ὃ ἐστιν ay- 
γέλου. 

ᾧ 487. -“ And he that talked with me had a golden reed,’ &c.—Something 
similar to this occurs Rev. xi. 1, 2. On that occasion, however, the reed 
was an ordinary measuring rod, and no admeasurement appears to have been 
actually made, apparently for the reason we have there assigned, ($ 236.) 
Here the reed is said to be of gold. Its material is truth. A particular 
element of truth is represented as a measure or criterion of judgment ; and 
the instrument is actually employed, directing our attention to the dimen- 
sions detailed ;—the angel, messenger, or means of development, revealing 


measured the city with the reed, twelve 
thousand furlongs. The length and the 
breadth and the height of it are equal. 
And he measured the wall thereof, a hun- 
dred (and) forty (and) four cubits, (ac- 
cording) to the measure of a man, that is, 
of the angel. 


* We are to recollect that at the time of the vision, the gospel revelation was not 
complete, the Apocalypse itself being part of it; neither were the several books of 
the New Testament, or even of the Old, collected into one well-known volume, to 
which reference might be made as at the present day. In speaking of the Old and 
New Testament writings, therefore, there was almost a necessity for the metonymy 
here supposed, that of putting the tribes for one, and the apostles for the other; and 
the number one hundred and forty-four for the instruction to be derived from both. 

As we have supposed the Old Testament revelation (represented by the twelve 
angels with the names of the twelve tribes over the gates) to afford such means of dis- 
crimination, as to prevent the admission of inconsistent principles into the view of 
God’s plan of salvation; so, the entire revelation of the New Testament (the twelve 
foundations with the names of the twelve apostles) may be contemplated as afford- 
ing the means of exhibiting the righteousness of Christ as the protecting wall of the 
same divine plan of redemption. 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 581 


these particulars ; for it is not necessary to suppose the angel to have been 
seen, (even in vision,) making the compass of the city to ascertain its 
length and breadth. 

Paul speaks of grace given according to the measure of the gift of 
Christ, (Eph. iv. 7,) that is, without limit ; for the gift of Christ is a thing 
immeasurable ; and Jesus himself says, (John iii. 34,) that God giveth not 
the Spirit by measure. So the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ, is spoken of (Eph. iv. 13,) as a desirable extent of knowledge, 
which must be equally unlimited, for in Christ dwelleth the fulness of the 
Godhead bodily, (Col. ii. 9.) So it is said, (Eph. iii. 17-19,) alluding to 
something infinite, and not to be measured, “'That ye, being rooted and 
grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the 
breadth and length, and depth and height; and to know the love of Christ, 
which passeth knowledge.” The measuring of this exhibition of the 
economy of grace (the city) is something of this kind. The consistency of 
the plan itself with the divine attributes, and its perfect adaptation to the 
end for which it is designed, and the correspondence of the exhibition with 
the whole testimony of Scripture, are things capable of being tested by the 
standard of revealed truth., At the same time it is only the initial num- 
ber of these dimensions that is to be regarded ; no literal sense is to be 
attached to them, and certainly nothing inconsistent with the attribute of 
infinity. 

‘ And the city lieth foursquare,’ &c.—The quadrangular or square form 
may be taken as a type of perfection and completeness ; a square being the 
most simple, perfect, geometrical figure—the element we may say of all 
other figures. If we wish to measure a triangle or circle, it is desirable first 
to reduce it to a square ; so if we would ascertain the superficial contents of 
any given area, we measure by squares, as we ascertain the solid contents 
of a mass of matter by cubic squares. 

In remarking upon the three parts of the great city, however, (ᾧ 372,) 
we have suggested a reason why this holy city may be contemplated as of 
four parts ; and the same suggestion may help us in accounting for this 
representation of its quadrangular form. ‘The mixed system of redemption, 
was composed of three elements only—the acknowledged sinfulness of man, 
the admitted action of divine justice, and the requisite means of propitiation. 
[τ went no further, as if its whole end and aim were merely to secure the 
eternal well-being of the creature. The economy of grace, on the contrary, 
in addition to these three features, possesses a fourth—the eternal obligation 
of gratitude under which the redeemed sinner is placed to serve and glorify 
his God and Saviour. These four parts may be supposed to correspond 
with the four sides or aspects of the city ; the divine plan of mercy having 
an equal regard to each of these particulars. The sinfulness of sin is to be 


582 ALL THINGS NEW. 


exhibited ; the justice of divine wrath is to be manifested ; the sufficiency 
of the propitiation of Christ is to be set forth, and the obligation of love— 
grateful love—free from any other motive of action, is to be inculcated. 
The gates or tribunals, with their angels, on each of the four sides of the 
city, may be contemplated as charged with providing for the entrance of 
such elements only as are capable of passing the ordeal in these particulars. 
The elements of forgetfulness, (from the tribe of Manasseh, ᾧ 176,) are 
admitted only in place of those of judgment, (from the tribe of Dan,) by 
pleading the promise of sovereign grace, “I, even I, am he that blotteth 
out thy transgressions, for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins,” 
(Is. xliii. 25.) 

§ 488. ‘And he measured the city with a reed,’ &c.—The city was 
a perfect square, the length was as large as the breadth; not only so, 
it was a perfect cube. 'The length, and the breadth, and the height of it 
were equal. Such a description, cannot be taken in any other than a 
figurative sense: to speak of the height of a city as equal to its length or 
breadth, is sufficient to bar any literal construction. But this may not be the 
only design ; the cubical form of the city renders its appearance similar to 
that of an ark. So, we suppose the ark, (the only means of salvation 
amidst the flood,) and the ark going before the children of Israel in the 
wilderness, to represent the same economy or arrangement of divine mercy, 
as that here spoken of as the holy city. 

The term furlongs we take to be a mere adaptation of expression to the 
figure or symbol in contemplation ; estimating the furlong or stadium as the 
eighth part of a mile, the city measured fifteen hundred miles on each side, 
which is sufficient to afford an idea of immensity; the area being equal to 
more than two millions of square miles, and the contents of the ark nearly 
three thousand millions of cubic miles. We suppose, however, as in other 
cases, the decimal signs or ciphers to represent indefinite or infinite quan- 
tities ; the initial number being all requiring particular attention. In the 
present case the length, breadth, and height being twelve thousand cubits 
each, the intention may be to direct our minds to the exhibition of redeem- 
ing love, to be found in the testimony of the old dispensation, (the twelve 
patriarchs or tribes,) comprehending the subject of the sacred writings from 
Moses to Daniel inclusive ; the testimony of the twelve minor prophets, and 
that of the twelve apostles; that is, all that is written in the New and Old 
Testaments. The covenant of redemption, comprehending the whole—the 
law, the prophets, and the gospel. ‘The purport of the verse being equal 
to a declaration, that the economy of grace, when measured by the standard 
of divine truth, and understood in its proper spiritual sense, will be found to 
correspond with all that the sacred writings contain upon the subject of 
God’s government,*and man’s salvation. 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 583 


*‘ And he measured the wall,’ &c.—Here there is the same propriety of 
adaptation in the term of measurement as we have noticed on other occa- 
sions ; the measure of cubits being as appropriate in speaking of the altitude 
of a wall, as that of furlongs would be in describing the extent of a city ; 
and the units and tens being as appropriate here, as the hundreds were to 
the measure of the wine-press, (ᾧ 344,) and the thousands to that of the 
city. As to the length of the wall of the city, that must of course corres- 
pond with the length and breadth of the city itself, as it is to be presumed 
that the wall encompassed the city ; the gates being apertures in the wall, 
the measure of these must be included in that of the wall. 

The cubit spoken of here, is said to be the measure of a man; but this 
is immediately afterwards explained to be the measure of the angel. The 
cubit, as a measure of length, is derived from the extent of the fore-arm of a 
man, from the elbow to the wrist, or as some say, to the middle finger ; and 
this idea was, no doubt, associated with the use of the original term, (πῆχυς, 
the fore-arm.) The angel measured the wall one hundred and forty-four 
fore-arms, the measure or arm of a man, that is, of the angel. It is angelic 
measure, therefore, that we have here; we must know the length of the 
angel’s arm, in order to judge of it. In other words, it is not human mea- 
sure ; and is not to be contemplated in any degree in a literal sense, except 
so far as to represent something immense in its kind. The wall of a city 
two hundred feet in height, necessarily implying a proportionate thickness, 
presents an insurmountable barrier to the approaches of an enemy ; much 
more if this height, in angelic measure, be supposed to correspond with the 
immense circuit of the city. Such an insurmountable barrier to the assaults 
of the enemy of souls, is to be found in the wall of salvation provided in 
the righteousness of Christ—the walls and bulwarks referred to, Isaiah 
xxvi. I. 

The numerical sign one hundred and forty-four we suppose, as on 
other occasions, to point out something sustained or emanating from the 
testimony furnished by the old and new dispensations, the combined testi- 
mony of prophets and apostles—twelve multiplied by twelve. The wall 
was previously declared to be great and high; the term great probably 
applying to the thickness or breadth of the wall. The expression is, no 
doubt, designed to point out the ample sufficiency of the protection afforded 
by this divine economy, as infinitely beyond that furnished by any other 
system of salvation. ‘‘ Walk about Zion,’ says the royal psalmist, “ and go 
round about her: tell the towers thereof; mark ye well her bulwarks, con- 
sider her palaces ; (estimate her strength ;) that ye may tell it to the generation 
following,” (Ps. xlviii. 12, 13 ;)* an estimate elsewhere spoken of as to be 


* It must be evident here that the allusion is to the spiritual Jerusalem. We have 
no authority for supposing the literal city to have been so remarkable for its walls 


46 


584 ALL THINGS NEW. 


obtained by dwelling in the house of the Lord, and inquiring in his temple, 
(Ps. xxvii. 4.) 


V. 18. And the building of the wall of Kai ἦν ἢ ἐνδόμησις τοῦ τείχους αὐτῆς 
it was (of) jasper: and the city (was) 


2» 4c ‘4 , ΄ co 
: ἴασπις, καὶ ἡ πόλις χρυσίον καϑαρον, ομοι- 
pure gold, like unto clear glass. A d ° At det 


oy τάλῳ καϑαρῷ. 

ᾧ 489. ‘ And the building of its wall,’ &c.—That is, the mass or body 
of the wall was jasper ; not merely of jasper, but jasper itself. The light of 
the glory of God, with which the city is resplendent, was compared (v. 11) 
to the brilliancy of a most precious jasper stone ; and we have now the 
reason given for this splendid appearance, which is, that the whole outer 
clothing of the city, (the wall,) with which it is encompassed, is jasper itself. 
The wall, the means of protection afforded by the economy of redemption, 
consists of the imputed righteousness of Christ ; and it is with the glory of 
this divine righteousness that the economy or city is arrayed. 

The jasper, when put for a gem, we suppose to be what we usually 
denominate the diamond, a precious stone affording a pure white light, 
unmixed with any coloured ray, except it be by reflection. As a massive 
stone, jasper seems to be put for what we usually understand by adamant. 
The leading idea associated with the latter term is, that of hardness or im- 
penetrability. This wall possesses all the preciousness and splendour of the 
diamond, with the impenetrability of the adamant. In fact, it is the latter 
quality which gives the stone the preciousness and brilliancy for which 
it is so highly appreciated. If diamonds were less hard, they would be 
less brilliant, and being less brilliant they would be less valuable ; so it is 
the perfect impenetrability of the means of defence afforded by Christ, as 
our righteousness, that renders him so precious to all believing or trusting in 
him. Christ himself (God manifest in Christ) is this spiritual jasper or 
precious stone—the chief defence of the city, as it is the chief jewel of the 
bride: as it is said, Zech. ii. 5, “ For I, saith Jehovah, will be unto her a 


and bulwarks in the time of David ; whereas the artificial defences of Babylon were 
so extraordinary as to attract the attention of geographers and historians of the 
earliest times. The walls of Babylon have been variously represented at from three 
hundred and sixty to three hundred and eighty furlongs in circuit; sixty-five to two 
hundred feet in height, and twenty-five to thirty-two feet in thickness, (vy. Calmet.) 

Of this proud city it might be said, that all was done for her defence which the wis 
dom and labour of man could effect. In this respect, she appropriately represented 
a doctrinal system of human works; the utmost that man in his position by nature 
can possibly eflect., The end of the city, and the final dilapidation of her immense 
walls, illustrates at the same time the fate of such a system of human pride, and the 
temporary character of its reputation. In the dimensions of the wall of the New 
Jerusalem, there seems to be an allusion to these walls of Babylon; reminding us how 
infinitely the provisions of the economy of grace surpass any means of salvation of 
man’s device. 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 585 


wall of fire round about her, and will be the glory in the midst of her.” 
The wall of the city being identic with the array of the bride, and the bride 
or wife being identic with her husband, (the Lamb,) the righteousness of 
either is the same. 

‘ And the city was pure gold,’ &c.—G@old pure, like crystal pure. This 
exhibition of the economy of redemption is pure truth ; there is no alloy of 
falsehood, of error, or of mistake in it ; it is like gold tried in the fire. Its 
purity compared to the clearness of crystal, corresponds with that ascribed 
to the river of the water of life; the terms ὕαλος and κρύσταλλος referring 
alike to crystal : the first apparently is applied to a small body as to a gem, 
the last to a large mass or stratum of rock. ‘The first term appears to be 
employed here because most in keeping with the prominent idea of pre- 
ciousness to be associated with the city or economy ; the last is more 
appropriately used in speaking of a river, an abundant stream, of which the 
essential characteristic is its purifying quality. The gold of the city and the 
water of the river of life are equally pure. The truth as it is in Jesus, 
represented by the holy city, is unalloyed ; and the atonement of Christ, 
represented by the river of life, is free from the admixture of any means of 
propitiation other than that of his providing. Pure gold is as precious as it 
is pure ; and what truth can be more precious than that of salvation through 
the imputed merit of the Son of God ? 


Vs. 19, 20. And the foundations of the 
wall of the city (were) garnished with all 
manner of precious stones. The first 
foundation (was) jasper; the second, sap- 
phire ; the third, a chalcedony ; the fourth, 
an emerald ; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, 
sardius; theseventh, chrysolite; the eighth, 
beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a 
chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; 
the twelfth, an amethyst. 


' ~ ~ , 
Kei οἵ ϑεμέλιοε τοῦ τείχους τῆς πόλεως 
‘A ’ ’ 2 ’ c ’ 
παντὶ λίϑῳ τιμίῳ κεκοσμημένοι" ὁ “)εμέ- 
c ~ , « / 
Atos ὃ πρῶτος ἴασπις, ὃ δεύτερος σάπφειρος, 
c ΄ me ΄ 
ὁ τρίτος χαλκηδών, ὃ τέταρτος σμόραγδος, 
ε ᾿ , ‘a < A , 
Ὁ πέμπτος σαρδονυξ, ὃ ἕκτος σάρδιος, ὃ 
, , com ΄ « 
ἕβδομος χρυσόλιϑος, ὃ ὄγδοος βήρυλλος, ὃ 
2 Iu c ' , 
ἔνγατος τοπύζιον, ὃ δέκατος χρυσύπρασος, 
ἘΠῚ " ὃ“ ε " 51 τ 
ὃ ἑνδέκατος ὑάκινϑος, ὃ δωδέκατος ἀμέ.- 
ϑῦυστος. 


ᾧ 490. “ And the foundations of the wall of the city (were) garnished,’ 
&c.—The word rendered garnished is the same as that expressed by 
adorned, when applied to the decorations of the bride in the second verse of 
the chapter. The foundations must be the same as those said to bear the 
names of the twelve apostles, (v. 14.) We suppose them to indicate so 
many fundamental doctrines, upon which the all-important doctrine of the 
righteousness of Christ, as a wall of defence, may be said to rest; Christ 
himself, as the Rock of salvation, being the foundation or basis of the whole 
city, including the walls—the whole economy of redemption resting upon 
him, as in effect it must, upon the basis of divine sovereignty—God mani- 
fest in Christ. 

To decorate the foundations of a wall would appear to be labour lost, 
as we suppose these to be beneath the surface of the ground; but the wall 


586 ALL THINGS NEW. 


in question is that of a fortified city, and we may take it for granted that 
the city is surrounded by a moat or deep ditch. Such moats may be still 
seen about many ancient cities, usually of considerable breadth, allowed to 
remain dry in time of peace, and then even cultivated as a garden; the 
water being let in from some neighbouring stream, when occasion calls for 
such a defence. ‘The deeper and broader this moat, the more complete the 
protection afforded by it.* 

In the present case the city is to be supposed perfectly fortified. The 
foundations of the wall rise from the very stratum of rock upon which the 
city is built, and the same stratum forms the bottom of the moat or ditch, 
the breadth of which bears a due proportion to the height of the wall. 
The foundations of the wall are thus as much exposed to inspection as the 
wall itself, and of course the ornaments of these foundations are equally ex- 
hibited. The new Jerusalem, it is true, is a vision of peace ; but the reason 
that she is so is, that she displays a perfect preparation for security against 
the assaults even of the most powerful enemies. The economy of grace is an 
economy of peace, because it affords a perfect provision for the safety of 
all taking refuge in it from the efforts of the legal adversary to procure their 
condemnation. ‘The moat or ditch, of which the existence is implied, filled 
as it may be in a time of need from the river of the water of life, (the atone- 
ment of Jesus,) must present an impassable barrier to the approaches of the 
accuser and his forces. 

The apostle Paul alludes (Eph. vi. 13-17) to the same abundant means 
of defence, under the figure of the armour of a single warrior ; an equip- 
ment from God’s armoury, and not from man’s: the breastplate of righteous- 
ness corresponding with the wall of the new Jerusalem, and the shield of 
faith capable of quenching the fiery darts of the evil one, representing an 
implicit trust in the same atoning provision as that here symbolized by the 
river of the water of life ; a river with which, we suppose, the holy city 
may be at any time encompassed. ‘There seems to be a like correspond- 
ence between the wall of the holy Jerusalem with its twelve foundations, 


* It is not necessary, however, to confine our ideas of these foundations strictly to 
the underpinning of the walls; they may be supposed to represent the whole side of 
the wall on the exterior, from the foundation nearly to the top:—the wall itself, con- 
sisting of an immense mound, with a perpendicular facing on the outside, of different 
courses of stone ; the inner side forming a glacis, a gradual descent into the city. So 
Is. xiv. 15, ra ϑεμέλια τῆς γῆς, (Sept.,) is rendered in our version, the sides of the pit. 
This does not materially change the figure, for the wall of a city, such as we have 
supposed, depends for its stability upon its stone facing, as the wall of a dwelling- 
house depends upon its underpinning asa foundation. In Amos and some other 
passages, our common version employs the term palaces, where the LXX use ϑεμέ- 
dua ; but we could not speak of palaces of walls, although we might perhaps substitute 
bastions or bulwarks for foundations. 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 587 


and the breastplate of the high-priest, under the Levitical dispensations, 
with its twelve compartments, each garnished with its gem, and distin- 
guished by the name of its respective tribe, (Ex. xxviii. 15-21.) 

§ 491. ‘The first (was) jasper ;’—that is, was with jasper, the word 
garnished being understood. Of this foundation, jasper is the decoration or 
ornament. ‘These precious stones are contemplated here as gems, affording 
a characteristic feature of their respective foundations. We have already 
supposed the jasper to be put for the diamond; and so we find the term 
rendered in our common version in the enumeration of the gems of the 
breastplate, (Ex. xxviii. 18 ;) ἴασπις, (jasper,) according to the Septuagint, 
the third stone of the second row, being that to which our translators have 
given the appellation of diamond. 

The light of the glory of God is compared to the brilliancy of jasper, 
(v. 11;) and the wall, (the righteousness of God in Christ,) is said to be 
jasper, (v. 18;) and we suppose Christ himself the foundation—the rock 
upon which the whole city is built—to be the spiritual jasper. The first 
foundation, therefore, partakes of the nature of, bears the characteristic 
feature of, and derives its chief ornament from, the primary formation upon 
which all the others depend. The fine lustre of the diamond, as we have 
noticed, is due to the impenetrable quality of the gem; so, the glory of 
Christ results from his invincible power as a Saviour—a power necessarily 
dependent upon the attribute of his devinity. The defence afforded by the 
whole superstructure, (the wall,) depends upon the fundamental doctrine 
that Christ is God manifest in the flesh—Jehovah our righteousness ; that 
his merits are those of the sovereign God ; and for that reason, they possess 
the quality of affording an impenetrable protection. This is the fundamental 
doctrine, without which the imputation of Christ’s righteousness as a wall 
of salvation could not be sustained ; and in the absence of which, the city 
(the economy of grace) must appear incapable of affording any sufficient 
defence. 

‘ The second, sapphire.’*—This is described as a blue stone of various 
shades, “next in hardness and value to the diamond,” (Rob. Lex. 5) oat 
represents, therefore, very appropriately, the doctrine next in importance to 


* In order to arrive at a correct understanding of the illustration intended by these 
various gems, we should know the qualities for which they were remarkable, espe- 
cially amongst the Hebrews. We do not pretend to this knowledge, and therefore 
aim only at throwing out some general hints, indicating the possibility of certain 
analogies between the precious stones mentioned in the sacred writings, and certain 
doctrines or doctrinal truths, symbolized, as we suppose, by them. 

All these gems partake of the hardness and impenetrability of the diamond, they 
differ in appearance rather than in substance, as one star differeth from another star 
in glory. They may symbolize different exhibitions of the same truth, rather than 
exhibitions of different truths. 


588 ALL THINGS NEW. 


that just noticed. This stone is spoken of, Job xxviii. 16, as remarkable 
for its value, inferior as it were, only to the value of wisdom ; or, in the 
patriarch’s sense of the term, no doubt, that which maketh wise unto salva- 
tion. ‘The sapphire was one of the stones of the breastplate of the high- 
priest. A paved work, as it were of sapphire stone, is said (Ex. xxiv. 10) 
to have been seen under the feet of the Most High, resembling the body of 
heaven in clearness (purity ;) indicating, apparently, that revealed truth 
by which the Deity is exhibited, arrayed in his peculiar attribute of sove- 
reignty. A promise is given, Is. liv. 11, to Jerusalem, (once barren and 
desolate,) that her foundations shall be laid with sapphires ; a promise per- 
haps fulfilled in this exhibition of the Apocalypse. Sapphires are alluded 
to as remarkable for their polish, (perfection of beauty,) Lam. iv. 7: “ The 
polishing of her Nazarites was of sapphire.” ‘The cerulean appearance οὗ 
the sapphire is ascribed to the firmament over the heads of the living crea- 
tures, Ezek. i. 26; corresponding with the exhibition of divine sovereignty, 
just now supposed to be alluded to: and a zone of sapphire is spoken of, 
Ezek. ix. 2, according to the Septuagint as a girdle of the loins ; in which 
respect the gem may be equivalent to the apocalyptic figure of truth, as 
represented by a golden girdle. In confirmation of this last suggestion, the 
name sapphire is supposed to have been a corruption of Ophir, the name of 
a country as remarkable for the production of this precious gem, as it was 
for the purity of its gold. 

According to Trommius, the Hebrew word "£0 (7750) σάπφειρος, signifies, 
amongst other meanings, a book, βιβλίον, or a thing written ; and 759 a dis- 
course or word, which he renders by the Greek term logos, (λόγος.) The 
verb “£0 signifying also, with other meanings, to announce, and to say, or to 
reveal. ‘These meanings suggest the probability that this gem designates 
this second foundation, as the purpose or word of God, revealed as it is in 
the Scriptures ; corresponding with the zone, and with the gold of Ophir, 
as the characteristic of truth; and with the firmament, as an exhibition 
of divine power and sovereignty. 

§ 492. ‘The third, chalcedony,’ (χαλκηδών.)----Α name found only in 
this place in the New Testament, ‘and not at all in the Old ; of course the 
gem itself must be designated in other parts of Scripture by a different 
appellation. It is supposed to be a precious stone, of which the modern 
ccomelian is a variety, (Rob. Lex. 819.) The Greek name has a close 
resemblance to the term χαλκός, brass, and suggests the probability that 
‘the stone has the appearance of that metallic substance when polished ; 
and as a burning or fiery appearance is compared in Scripture to that of 
fine brass, (Rev. i. 5,) the chalcedony of the Apocalypse may be the 
Hebrew carbuncle, or Greek great, which, according to the Septuagint, 
(Ed. H. & L., Bos.,) is classed with the sapphire and jasper in the second 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 589 


row of the priestly breastplate, (Ex. xxviii. 18.)* As carbuncle (é- 
Oak) is not found in the New Testament, and chalcedony (χαλκηδών) 
is not found in the Old Testament, we may feel ourselves safe in consider- 
ing the appellations put one for the other. So we find, in the figurative 
language of the Old Testament, brass (χαλκός) and carbuncle to be used 
almost as equivalents ; gates of brass, and gates of carbuncle being both 
distinguished for their power of resistance, as well as for their splendid ap- 
pearance, (Ps. evii. 10; Is. xlv. 2, liv. 12.) Of the holy Jerusalem it is 
said, Is. lx. 17, 18, that brass is to be exchanged for gold, &c., after which 
her walls are to be called salvation, and her gates praise. This may be 
equivalent to changing gates of brass for gates of carbuncle or chalcedony, 
Gates are repeatedly mentioned in Scripture in connection with the subject 
of praise, 2 Chron. xxxi. 2, Ps. ix. 14; and to find admission within the 
gates of the covenant of grace, must be indeed a subject of thanksgiving. 
As brass, carbuncle, or chalcedony, constitute the scriptural material of 
gates, we may suppose the ornament of this third foundation to indicate the 
fundamental doctrine of grace, the gift of salvation; which to the disciple 
affords the same cause of praise as an entrance within the gates of the city 
of refuge affords to him who finds safety in that asylum. 

‘The fourth, emerald.’—The Greek appellation of this stone (σμάραγδος,) 
is supposed to have been applied to all gems of a green colour ; according 
to Trommius, however, it is variously used in the Septuagint for Hebrew 
names, signifying carbuncle, adamant, and sardonyx. In fact, there is such 
a want of exactness in the Greek rendering of Hebrew names of gems, that 
we cannot judge much by it in comparing the names of the Old Testament 
with those of the New. In the time of the apostle John, we suppose the 
application of the term translated emerald, to have been very generally 
confined to gems of that pellucid greenish hue usually ascribed to sea water; 
that is, water of the sea in shallow places, where it is in some degree tinged 
by vegetable substances at the bottom ; for the water of the mid-ocean, it 
is well known, is proverbially blue. We find the appearance of a rainbow 
compared, Rev. iv. 3, to that of an emerald ; an appearance symbolical, as 
we have supposed, (¢ 120,) of an imperfect exhibition of the means of 
reconciliation with God, or rather, an imperfect view of such provision ; 
the defect being in the organ of vision of the beholder, and not in the rain- _ 
bow itself. In the Septuagint, the name is applied to the third stone of the 
first row in the priestly breastplate, (classed with the sardius and topaz,) 
rendered in our common version a carbuncle ; while we have given the 


* The term is not so quoted by Trommius, but according to his Concordance 
ἄνϑραξ is variously used for coals, tongue of fire, (Heb.,) bdellium, beryl, carbuncle, 
and brass. 


590 ALL THINGS NEW. 


name emerald to the first stone of the second row, (classed with the sap- 
phire and diamond,) to which the Septuagint has assigned the name of 
carbuncle, (ἄνϑραξ.) The verbs σμάω, to wipe off or purge away ; and 
σμαραγέω, to send forth a great noise, bear a near resemblance to the Greek 
appellation of this gem, (σμάραγδος ;) and as the signification of one of them 
corresponds with the action, and that of the other with the sound of the 
waves of the sea, the name of the stone may be said to accord with the asso- 
ciation of ideas suggested by its sea-green colour. Contemplating the sea 
with its waves roaring, as a figure of the threatenings of divine justice, 
or of that visitation of wrath and indignation by which, without an ample 
provision of atonement, the guilt of the transgressor must necessarily be 
wiped off, we may take this emerald foundation to represent the funda- 
mental doctrine of the sinner’s liability under the law to eternal condemna- 
tion and punishment ; this doctrine being indispensable to an exhibition of 
Christ and his righteousness, as the only wall of salvation. 

ᾧ 493. ‘The fifth, sardonyx.’—This name occurs nowhere else either in 
the Old or New Testament, although Trommius supposes it to be put for 
sardius, (Ex. xxxv. 9,) where our common version has rendered the term 
onyx. It cannot be designed for the sardius here, as that stone is enume- 
rated the next in order. Trommius assigns to it the same Hebrew appella- 
tion (cnt) as that given the onyx, Job. xxviii. 16, and we may take it for 
the onyx of the breastplate. 

Onyx (ὄνυξ) is the Greek term for the nazl, either of a human being or 
of an animal, and the stone is supposed to have received its name from its 
white appearance, resembling the white of a human nail. The sardius is 
said to be a stone of a blood-red colour. It is probable that the name sar- 
donyx is a compound of these two, and that the gem takes its name from 
the combination of red and white colours, corresponding with the appear- 
ance of living human flesh. 

Flesh we suppose to be put, in symbolical language, for righteousness 
or moral perfection, either real or pretended, (ᾧ 438.) The precious gem 
here contemplated, must represent a real and not a pretended perfection. 
As a garnishing of the fifth foundation, therefore, we suppose it to represent 
the fundamental doctrine of the necessity of a perfect righteousness for the 
justification of the disciple in the sight of God; such an indispensable 
means of justification being one of the essential principles upon which 
Christ is manifested to be the Lord our righteousness, and his righteousness 
a wall of protection. 

‘The sixth, sardius. —This gem is uniformly admitted to be of a blood- 
red colour, (Rob. Lex. 677,) and it must be so contemplated in the sacred 
writings ; its appellation in Hebrew, with a slight change of points, signi- 
fying red, man, &c.—278 sardius, 05% ruber, rufus, 538 vir, homo, &c., 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 591 


(Adam.) It is also one of the gems of the breastplate. Its Greek name 
is said to be derived from Sardis, a city where it was first found. The 
stone, however, is mentioned in Exodus as a gem well known; and if so, it 
appears hardly probable that it was first found in Sardis. Taking the 
Hebrew appellation into view, it seems quite as probable that the Greek 
sardius is derived from sarks, (flesh,) and that the deep redness of the 
stone resembled the bloody appearance of the flesh of victims recently 
slaughtered. The foundation ornamented by this gem may indicate, there- 
fore, the necessity of a vicarious offering, or the fact of such an offering or 
propitiation, either of which may be considered a doctrinal element, forming 
part of the foundation of a Christian’s faith in the righteousness or merits of 
his Redeemer—the wall of his salvation. It may have been for this reason 
that the sardius, or blood-red stone, was the first gem in the High Priest’s 
breastplate ; as the atonement of our great Mediator may be considered his 
first qualification for entering into the holy of holies, where he ever continu- 
eth to make intercession for us, (Heb. vii. 25.) 

ᾧ 404. ‘The seventh, chrysolite,’ (χρυσόλιϑος, gold-stone.)—The name 
chrysolite is found nowhere else in Scripture, according to our common ver- 
sion, but the Septuagint gives the same Greek appellation to the first gem 
in the fourth row of Aaron’s breastplate—a stone to which our translators 
have given the name beryl. It cannot be the same, however, as bery] is 
the ornament of the next foundation. The name is said to have been ap- 
plied by the ancients to all stones of a golden colour; and some suppose 
it to have designated the topaz of the moderns, (Rob. Lex:) but here the 
topaz (τοπάζιον) is enumerated as the garnishing of the ninth foundation. 

Chrysolite may be, as a figure, among gems what we suppose gold to be 
amongst metals, a representation of truth or of the true riches—the true ran- 
som of the soul, as distinguished from all supposed means of redemption, an 
allusion to which may be found Lam. iv. 1, 2: “ How is the gold become dim; 
how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured 
out in the top of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to 
fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands 
of the potter!’ Here the stones of the sanctuary and the fine gold, as well 
as the sons of Zion, are figures of the same truths, corresponding with the 
gold-stone and gold of the Apocalypse ;—the precious gems with which 
Jerusalem had been adorned by her Maker and Redeemer, as well as the 
city or covenant itself, appearing in a very different light when contemplated 
by the prophet from that in which she is now seen. The original compo- 
sition of the vision of peace was always such as now represented ; it was 
only under a legal and self-righteous construction that this composition 
appeared of a different character ; as the prophet continues to say, Lam. iv. 
7, 8, “ Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, 


592 ; ALL THINGS NEW. 


they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire : 
their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets ; their 
skin cleaveth to their bones ; it is withered, it is become like a stick.” 

The foundation garnished with the gold-stone, we suppose to be a just 
exhibition of the character of the true riches—durable riches and righteous- 
ness, or the necessity of such riches—to show the necessity of the merits of 
Christ as a means of redemption ; being equivalent to showing the necessity 
of his righteousness, as a wall of salvation. 

‘The eighth, beryl,’ (@jevd20¢.)—This is the name of the tenth stone of 
the breastplate of Aaron, according to our common version, and of the 
eleventh according to the Septuagint. It is said to be the name of a gem 
of a sea-green colour, found principally in India, (Rob. Lex. 108.) This 
colour comes too near that of the emerald to draw a distinction be- 
tween them ; but we have no doubt there isa marked difference between the 
gems, however difficult it may be for us to arrive at a knowledge of it. 
The beryl of the breastplate, Ex. xxviii. 20, (e7%,) Trommius supposes to 
be the same as the onyx and sardonyx ; and besides this, in his H. and C. 
Index he assigns to the same root the sardius, the sapphire, and the emerald. 
The angelic personage seen by the prophet on the banks of the Hiddekel 
(Dan. x. 6) is described as having a body like beryl. We can hardly sup- 
pose this to be a body of a sea-green colour. 

The beryl of Cant. v. 14, according to our common version, is rendered 
by the LXX dagcis—the name both of a city and of a precious stone, 
This name ϑαρσείς or χαρσείϑ' (Sept.,) Heb. rroqn, Lat. solaris (from o-n 
sol, the sun,) signifies of or belonging to the sun. As, what is termed the 
east-gate, Jer. xix. 2, in our common version, is the sun-gate in the original, 
(vid. margin c. v. and Concord. of Trommius,) so the beryl of Ezek. i. 
16, as we have it, is the ϑαρσείς of the Septuagint, applied to the colour of 
the wheels of the living creatures; which wheels may reasonably be sup- 
posed to have the appearance of those of the Ancient of Days described 
(Dan. vii. 9) as of burning fire—resembling the feet of the form like unto 
the Son of man, Rev. i. 15, “ Like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a 
furnace,”’—an appearance probably similar to that of the beryl-like body seen 
by Daniel, as above alluded to. Taking these peculiarities into view, we think 
the beryl of the Apocalypse must be a gem throwing forth a strong light, as of 
flame, or as of the rays of the rising sun, and may thus symbolize a mani- 
festation of Christ as the Lord our righteousness, or be intended to point out 
this doctrine as one of the foundations or supports of the wall of salvation. 

‘The ninth, a topaz; or rather topaz, the indefinite article a having 
been unnecessarily introduced. We are not to suppose each foundation, or 
bastion, garnished with a single gem. The idea to be associated with this 
description is, that these structures are adorned each with its peculiar species 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 593 


of gem. The topaz was the second stone in the first row of the breastplate 
of Aaron, both according to the LXX and our common version. Accord- 
ing to Cruden this stone is said by some to be of a green colour, by others 
of a golden coléur. The topaz of Ps. cxix. according to the Septuagint, 
is rendered in our common version fine gold, as distinguished from ordinary 
gold. It is said of wisdom, (spiritual understanding, we suppose,) Job 
xxvilil. 19, “ The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be 
valued with pure gold.” From these examples it would appear that, as a 
figure, the topaz of Scripture is spoken of more in reference to its great 
value than to any peculiarity of colour. In the high priest’s breastplate 
the gem bore the name of Simeon, which signifies hearing, or he that hear- 
eth ; that is, in mystic phraseology, not merely the hearing of the outward 
ear, but a hearing of the understanding—a comprehension of the true or 
hidden meaning of the written word—which, in fact, is the wisdom of God 
in a mystery, (1 Cor. ii. 6, 7;) that wisdom which may be said to be 
essential to a perception of the merits of Christ as a wall of salvation, and 
the value of which is so particularly set forth, Prov. ili. 14-15: “ Happy is 
the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For 
the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain 
thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies ; and all the 
things thou canst desire are not to be compared with her.” ‘This wisdom or 
spiritual understanding we suppose to be essential to setting forth the wall 
of salvation in its true light, and may be thus termed one of its foundations. 

“The tenth, chrysoprasus.’-—This name implies something of a golden 
vegetable-green colour, as distinguished from the sea-green hue of the eme- 
rald, (§ 492.) Πράσον (prason) being the name of a species of leek, chryso- 
prasus is equivalent to a golden-leek. Vegetable green appears to be a 
figure in Scripture of a flourishing condition, as Ps. hii. 8, “1 am like a green 
olive tree in the house of my God,” (Sept. fruitful.) Ps. xcii. 14, ‘They 
shall be fat and flourishing,’ (Heb. fat and green.) Ps. xxii. 2, “He 
maketh me to lie down in green pastures,” equivalent to the assurance of 
Jesus, “‘ By me if any man enter he shall be saved, and shall go in and out 
and find pasture.” The grass of the earth, indeed, as in the case of the 
green horse, (ὃ 155,) we have supposed to represent the evanescent preten- 
sions of human righteousness; but the vegetable green of a precious gem 
may be considered the figure of a permanent verdure—a durable righteous- 
ness, a never-fading glory. The chrysoprasus may thus represent the true 
pasture, the true nourishment of eternal life; the merits of him, in allusion 
to whom it is said, Is. xi. 4, “ He shall feed his flock like a Shepherd ;” and 
Rev. vii. 17, “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne shall feed them ;” 
and who himself says, John vi. 55, “‘ My flesh (my righteousness) is meat 
indeed, and my blood (my atonement) is drink indeed.” Of this precious 


594 ALL THINGS NEW. 


doctrine, so essential to the spiritual wall of salvation, we think this tenth 
foundation (or bastion) may be a symbolical figure. 

§ 496. ‘ The eleventh, jacinth,’ or hyacinth, (véxGog.)—This does not 
appear to have been one of the gems of the priestly breastplate, unless it be 
so under a different name. Some Greek interpreters, according to Trom- 
mius, have substituted it in Ezekiel for the ἄνϑραξ, (carbuncle,) and others 
for the ϑαρσίς, ((ορᾶ2Ζ.) The LXX apply it as a material of covering to the 
red badger-skins and blue curtains of Exodus, &c. As a means of defence 
and perhaps of offence it was one of the materials of the breastplates of the 
Euphratean horsemen, Rev. ix. 16, 17, where it is associated with fire and 
brimstone, and where we have supposed it to correspond in appearance with 
the smoke issuing from the mouths of the horses, (ὃ 222.) 'Trommius 
supposes the colour to be sky-blue, (hemels blaww, in Belgian.) The hya- 
cinth is said to be described by the ancients as of a violet colour, (Rees’ Cyc.) 
From the connections in which the term is found as a colour, we suppose it 
to partake more of the appearance of a blueish or light smoke-coloured cloud ; 
such a cloud as that which led the Israelites by day through the wilderness ;— 
acloud and a pillar of smoke alike symbolizing the veil of humanity under 
which the Deity was manifest in Christ, and that symbolical mode of reve- 
lation by which Jehovah has seen fit gradually to develope the mystery of 
salvation to the understanding of his people ; as it is said of the coming of 
Christ, (Cant. iii. 6,) “ Whois this that cometh out of the wilderness like 
pillars of smoke ?” The cloud was the medium of access between God and 
the highly favoured children of Israel ; and Christ, as a spiritual cloud, is the 
mediator and medium of access between God and man. We may accord- 
ingly suppose this eleventh support of the wall of salvation to be the exhibi- 
tion of Christ in his mediatorial capacity—the doctrine of substitution, or of 
the virtual intercession of him who veiled himself in human flesh, that he 
might unveil the truth of his becoming sin for us, that we might become the 
righteousness of God in him, (2 Cor. v. 21.) 

‘The twelfth, amethyst,’ (¢ué9vezoc.)—This name occurs in the Old 
Testament but in two places, (Ex. xxviil. 19, xxxix. 10,) where it is 
spoken of as one of the gems of the priestly breastplate. In the New Tes- 
tament it is found only in this passage of revelation. ‘The Greek derivation 
is said to be from μεϑύω, to be drunken, preceded by ὦ privative, the com- 
pound originally applying to an herb or gem supposed to operate as a charm 
against drunkenness. The gem is said to be of a deep purple or violet 
colour, a colour similar to that of the blood as it appears in the veins of a 
living person. Purple is also the colour usually ascribed in Scripture to 
the juice of the grape ; the gem may therefore represent the new or sprritual 
wine, which Christ is to drink with his disciples in his Father’s kingdom. 
This true wine is the opposite of the mixture in the harlot’s cup, and is 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB’S WIFE. 595 


accordingly the spiritual amulet capable of preserving the inhabitants of the 
earth from that drunkenness with which they were said to have been 
chargeable, (Rev. xvii. 2.) 

As the red colour of the sardius may remind us of the blood of the vic- 
tim slaughtered in sacrifice, (indicating the necessity of an atonement,) the 
purple of the amethyst may be supposed to represent the life-giving efficacy 
of that atonement, transfused, as it may be said, by «imputation, into the 
spiritual body of the disciple ; the atonement actually made by Christ being 
subsequently (as a matter entirely of grace) accounted that of all adopted 
in him. Such a spiritual transfusion of the element of eternal life, from the 
Redeemer into the spiritual being of the redeemed, may be termed the 
amethyst of the twelfth doctrine sustaining the spiritual wall of salvation ; 
the last course of stone of this portion of the apocalyptic edifice being per- 
haps equivalent as a figure to the head-stone spoken of by the prophet 
(Zech. iv. 7.) 

§ 497. The twelve characteristics of these fundamental elements of the 
wall of salvation are then as follows: 

1. Jasper—(the diamond)—Precious and impenetrable—the precious cor- 
ner-stone—Christ himself upon whom the whole fabric may be 
said to depend. 

2. Sapphire—The heavenly covering of perfect beauty—the canopy 
of divine perfection—the moral perfection of Christ. 

3. Chalcedony—(carbuncle)—The cause of praise (the gates)—grace in 
Christ, the only way of access into the city—and the element 
excluding every mercenary principle. 

4. Emerald—(sea-green)—Representing the requisitions of divine justice, 
and indicating the indispensable necessity of a provision to meet 
them. 

5. Sardonyx—(white flesh )—Living flesh—the righteousness or merits of 
Christ, as the only means of justification. 

6. Sardius—(red flesh)—The slaughtered body of the victim—the blood 
shed, without which there is no remission of sin—the only ade- 
quate propitiation. 

7. Chrysolite—(gold-stone)—The true riches—Christ the ransom—the 
only means of redemption. 

8. Beryl—(@aecis)—Christ, the Sun of righteousness—the only source of 
boldness or confidence, (Ps. xix. 5.) 

9. Topaz—(great value)—Wisdom—the true wisdom—the spiritual un- 
derstanding of the truth, as it is in Jesus. 

10. Chrysoprasus—The golden vegetable green, perennial—Christ the true 
pasture—the position of rest. 

11. Jacinth, or Hyacinth—The cloud, the pillar of smoke—the Mediator, 
Christ veiled in the flesh. 


596 ALL THINGS NEW. 


12. Amethyst—(purple)—The living blood—the atoning provision—the 
antidote to the cup of the harlot, and the means of eternal life 
to the disciple, as it is also the means of exhibiting the sove- 
reignty of God in Christ. 

These gems may be considered one precious stone appearing only in 
different lights, each throwing forth its peculiar lustre. Christ throughout 
is the basis of every gem, as he is the only stone of the corner, and as he is 
also the foundation of the whole edifice, the stone cut out of the mountain, 
which itself became a great mountain and filled the whole world. These 
remarks, however, are to be taken only as suggestions, showing the proba- 
bility that certain definite doctrinal ideas are to be attached to these several 
foundations and their garniture.* 

Besides this garnishing, the foundations of the wall are said (verse 14) to 
bear the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. As we have remarked, 
(ᾧ 486,) we do not suppose each of the apostles to have advocated respect- 
ively a particular doctrine, but we take these twelve foundations to represent 
twelve fundamental doctrines, to be found in the New Testament revelation, 
of which the twelve apostles (collectively and in the aggregate) constitute a 
In fact, the expression in the fourteenth verse does not 
The twelve names may 


type or figure. 
appropriate a particular name to each foundation. 
be upon every stratum of stone, or upon every bastion, or the same names 
may be upon the twelve strata as a whole. So Paul speaks of the disci- 
ples at Ephesus as built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets ; 
that is, upon the foundation set forth in the Old and New 'Testament,—the 
foundation of the disciples’ faith and hope, of which Christ is the chief cor- 
ner-stone, and so represented in both of these sacred volumes. 


Vs. 21, 22. And the twelve gates (were) Καὶ ot δώδεκα πυλῶνες δώδεκα μαργα- 


twelve pearls; every several gate was of 


one pearl; and the street of the city (was) 
pure gold, as it were transparent glass. 
And I saw no temple therein: for the 


~ DIN 2 cae ee ~ , 3 te 
ὕται" ἀνὰ εἷς ἕκαστος τῶν πυλώνων ἢν ἐξ 
~ ~ ΄ 
ἑνὸς μαργαρίτου. καὶ ἢ πλατεῖα τῆς πόλεως 
ι c c , in 
χουσίον καϑαρὸν ὡς ὕαλος διαυγής. Καὶ 


1 3 Τὸ > 2 ἢ": c " i > 
BOR he ELOOY ey UE OKO κυριος ἕ 
- 2 
EOS ο TEAVTOXLOUTOHO VOOS HUTS ἔστι, καν 
ie 
τὸ ἀργίον. 


Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are 
the temple of it. 


§ 498. ‘ And the twelve gates were twelve pearls,’ &c.—The word were 
is not expressed, but it is implied. After having said, however, that these 
twelve gates were twelve pearls, it would appear superfluous to add, that they 
were each formed of a different pearl ; but if all of them were made out of one 
and the same pearl, then it would be necessary to state it, and such we suppose 
to be the meaning of the expression here. ‘The twelve gates were twelve 
pearls, and every one of them was fabricated out of or from one and the 
same pearl, (ἐξ ἑνὸς μαργαρίτου.) 

* The same construction affords us an idea of the kind of ornament alluded to, 


(Ezek. xvi. 12,) the original decoration of the vision of peace, as first intended to be 
revealed, before its perversion by tmisconstruction. 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. | 597 


Pearls, as of a pure white colour, may be symbolical of perfect purity— 
freedom from mixture with any other substance ; but their peculiar charac- 
teristic is their value, and this value is estimated by their magnitude. A 
pearl of sufficient size to form a gate, must be a hyperbolical figure of some- 
thing of immense value ; a pearl sufficient for the formation of twelve gates, 
must represent therefore something of infinite value, wholly incalculable. 
Such, we may say, is the value of an entrance into the kingdom of heaven, 
the value of eternal life; for what will a man give in exchange for his soul ? 
The main idea to be illustrated here, we think, is that, whatever be the 
number of entrances into the holy city, the way, the door, the gate, is the 
same. ‘The way of access is the same, although represented perhaps by 
twelve different figures; the material of the gates is the same, and the 
preciousness of the access by these gates is alike infinite. 

The kingdom of heaven is said to be (Matt. xiii. 45, 46) “ Like unto a 
merchant seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great 
price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.’ Not merely like the 
pearl, or like a merchant alone, but like a merchant going through this whole 
process of seeking, finding, selling, and buying. ‘The kingdom of heaven 
represents the introduction of a new order of things, or of a principle upon 
which all things become new; 85 if the disciple, going about to find a way 
of salvation by works of his own, wrought from mercenary motives, finds 
the way of salvation by grace. ‘This way once found, he relinquishes all 
dependence upon his own works, all claims upon any merits of his own, 
counting these as nothing that he may win Christ, and be found in him. 
Christ is the pearl ; the kingdom is the order of things, or the principle by 
which, or upon which, eternal life is obtained through Christ, instead of the 
old way through the works of the law. So the kingdom of heaven is said 
to be like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal 
till the whole was leavened. It is a principle entirely changing the state of 
the elements affected by it. Wedo not suppose the holy city to bea 
figure precisely of the kingdom: but the kingdom may be a state of things 
incident to a position in the city. The admittance to the new position, and 
the admittance into the city affording this position, must be by the same 
gate or avenue, and that is Christ ;—the apocalyptic holy city being, as 
we apprehend, a vision or representation of what Paul terms the new cove- 
nant, or new economy. No principle or doctrinal element is admissible into 
it, except through the appointed way of entrance, that is, through Christ, 
as he is variously represented in the Scriptures. All the principles of the 
economy of grace thus result from the character and work of Christ. 
Whether we regard him, therefore, as the way of salvation for the disciple, 
or as the way by which alone the principles of the economy of grace can 
be established and exhibited, he is equally the pearl of great price, the pearl 
of inestimable value. 


598 ALL THINGS NEW. 


To those that believe, he is precious. To such, Christ is indeed the pearl 
of infinite value. It is the being found in him which makes him the pearl. In 
effect, it is substitution in Christ in the sight of the Most High, Whig con- 
stitutes him the gate, or way of eternal life. 

Here we have also another feature of the change resulting from making 
all things new. Under the legal dispensation the gates were of brass; 
under that of grace they are of pearl. The gates of brass are broken, (Ps. 
evii. 16; Is. xlv. 1, 2;) the bars of iron are cut asunder, and the gates of 
righteousness (justification) are opened, (Ps. cxvili. 20, 21.) At the gates 
once desolate, (Lam. i. 4,) are now all manner of precious fruits, (Cant. vii. 
13.) For the same reason, we apprehend, it is said, The Lord loveth the 
gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob, (Ps. Ixxxvii. 2.) 

ᾧ 4909. These gates of pearl are those at which, or over which, twelve 
angels, or messengers were said to be stationed, and which bore all the names 
of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. We may suppose these angels 
to represent modes of revelation, that is, of conveying divine truth to the mind, 
as we have considered the tribes types of asimilar character. Corresponding 
with this, we suppose the gates or portals to represent doctrines peculiar 10 
the economy of grace, illustrated or alluded to in the history of the children 
of Israel, or handed down to us in the dispensation of the legal economy as a 
whole. As among the Hebrews a proselyte could become a member of the 
Israelitish nation only by adoption into one of the tribes, a tribe was to a 
proselyte what a gate is to a city ——an avenue or means of admission to the 
privileges of that favoured people. Hence these tribes may be put for so 
many different illustrations of the mode by which the disciple becomes a child 
of God; and of the criterion by which, as by a judge at the gate, (¢ 485,) 
every element or principle belonging to the economy of grace is to be tried, 
as it were, before it can be admitted to that economy, or be manifested to 
belong to it. 

That our meaning may be better understood, we enumerate twelve 
modes or figures by which the one way of participation in the benefits of 
redemption is illustrated, or set forth, both in the Old and New Testament : 
in the former, by types and symbols and prophetical allusions ; in the latter, 
by a doctrinal form of instruction. 

As we have remarked in respect to the foundations, and names thereon 
of the apostles, we are not obliged to suppose each gate to be designated by 
the name of a single tribe. The names of all of the twelve tribes may be 
upon every gate; or the expression may be intended only to represent the 
names of the tribes in the aggregate, upon the gates, as a whole. That is, 
whatever the gates signify, it is to be found in some measure illustrated or 
symbolized in the Old Testament revelation. 

The calling of Abraham out from his native land, and from amidst his 
kindred, to a land which he was to receive especially as a gift of God, 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE, 599 


appears to have been a type or symbol of the calling of the disciple from 
his position by nature, under the law, to his position by grace—called, as 
the apostle says, (1 Peter ii. 9,) out of [a position of ] darkness into God’s 
marvellous light. 

The removal of the children of Israel from their state of Egyptian bond 
age to the free enjoyment of the promised land, was in like manner a type 
of the removal of the disciple from his position of bondage under the law, 
to his position of liberty under the gospel dispensation of grace, (Rom. 
vi. 14.) 

The liberation of the people of Judah from their state of captivity in 
Babylon, and their restoration to their own land, may represent the deliver- 
ance of the disciple from the position of captivity peculiar to the mixed or 
adulterated system of faith, and his enjoyment of the position resulting 
from an entire dependence upon the merits of his Redeemer—a change 
alluded to 2 Cor. vi. 17. 

Here are three illustrations of the disciple’s admission to a participation 
of the privileges of the economy of grace, represented by the holy city ; they 
may be supposed to constitute the three gates of one of the sides, more 
especially as they are all three of nearly the same character. 

ᾧ 500. There are said to have been three rites peculiar to the admission 
of proselytes to the privileges of the Jewish nation,* circumcision, baptism, 
and sacrifice. The first indeed was essential even to those born of Hebrew 
parents ; as every male child without it was declared to be cut off from his 
people. Of the second, it is also said, that the whole people were baptized 
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. With regard to the last, the stran- 
ger upon his admission was required (Num. xv. 14-16) to offer the same 
sacrifices as the Hebrew born. ‘There was to be one law and one manner 
for the one as for the other; with both the shedding of blood was required 
for the remission of sin. So, according to the New Testament, the spiritual 
circumcision, the spiritual baptism, and the spiritual sacrifice, are equally 
necessary to bring the disciple into the position of a member of the house- 
hold of faith—cireumcised in Christ, (Col. ii. 11,) baptized into his death, 
(Rom. vi. 3,) and brought nigh by his blood, (Eph. ii. 13.) These may 


* “Quod si proselyti ex gentibus Legem hance recipere, et in communionem populi 
admitti cuperent, preter circumcisionem sacrificio quoque et baptismo initiandi erant, 
quibus tribus mediantibus ipsi primum Israelite in foedus transierunt. 

Baptismus in totius corporis immersione consistebat, que pressenrtibie tribus testi 
bus peragebatur tanteque necessitatis et qaondam reputabatur et etiamnum habetur, 
ut sine illa cireumcisio proselyti nil valeat. Imo fweminarum proselytarum que cir- 
cumcidi non poterant initiatio quondam tantum sacrificio, et baptismo, nunc posteriori 
solo fieri consuevit. 

Si Proselytus cum familia sua ad Judeorum sacra transiret, non ipse solum sed 
etiam liberi atque infantes baptizari solebant.”—(Antiq. Heb. C. Ikenii.) 

47 


! 


600 ALL THINGS NEW. 


be considered three other modes of illustrating the avenue to a participation 
of the privileges of the economy of grace, and, as such, are represented by 
the three gates of another side of the city. 

There are three effects spoken of as resulting from adoption into the 
name of Christ, (at least, as we understand the passage,) 1 Cor. vi. 11: 
ablution, sanctification, and justification. ‘These may constitute three other 
illustrations of the way of admission represented by the three gates of 
another side of the city. 

The ablution, or washing, we suppose to be the washing of regeneration 
alluded to Titus iii. 5—the new birth, the adoption of sons, as it is termed 
in the New Testament, (Gal. iv. 5,) of which the adoption of the proselyte 
or stranger, in the Old Testament, was a type or figure. As it was said of 
such an individual, after h’s admission to the privilege of a participation 
of the paschal lamb, (Ex. xii. 48,) “ And he shall be as one born in the 
land ;” and asit is said of such, by the writer upon Hebrew antiquities, just 
referred to, that they were considered as infants newly born, (ὃ 321;) account- 
ed no longer connected with their former nation or kindred, but to be of the 
nation into the body of which they had been engrafted.* To this peculi- 
arity allusion appears to be made by our Lord in his question to Nicodemus, 
(John iii. 5,) “ Art thou a master (teacher) of Israel, and knowest not these 
things ?” (John iii. 10.) 

The sanctification, we take to be the setting apart in Christ according to 
the purpose of God, symbolized first by the setting apart of the whole Hebrew 
nation as a peculiar people ; subsequently by the setting apart of the priestly 
office, and the things of the temple ; and further by the sanctification of persons 
and things otherwise mentioned on several occasions in the Old Testament. 

The justification, in the name of Christ and by the Spirit of God, must 
be the same as justification through the righteousness of Christ imputed to 
the individual. justified, which we suppose to be shadowed forth by the 
vicarious offerings of the Levitical dispensation—the victim sacrificed suffer- 
ing the penalty of death, in order that the guilty individual in whose behalf 
the blood is shed may be justified by the merit of the offering, or be so ac- 
counted. As it is said of Jesus, (1 Pet. ii. 24,) “ Who his own self bare 
our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live 
unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye are healed ;” or, as it is expressed 
2 Cor. v. 21, “ He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that 
we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 

These three processes, it will be perceived, are not three different ways 
of salvation, but three different modes of representing the same way. As 


* “ Qui autem hac ratione initiati erant, ut recens nati infantes considerabantur, 
(Conf. Joh. iii. 5; Tit. iii. 5; and 2 Cor. v. 17,) nec pristinam amplius gentem aut 
consanguineos habere, sed ex illa gente, cui inserti erant, esse censebantur.”—(Ib.) 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 601 


they are classed together by Paul, in the passage quoted from first Corinthi- 
ans, they may be taken as three gates on the third side of the holy city. 

ᾧ 501. The remaining three figures may be termed those of identity— 
marriage, communion, and inheritance. The first of these has been so fre- 
quently adverted to in the course of these remarks, as a figure of the means 
by which the disciple is admitted to a participation of the benefits of re- 
demption, that it appears unnecessary to enlarge upon it under this head. 
They two shall be one flesh was the law of the institution when God first 
created man, male and female, and they two have been so accounted one 
throughout the whole course of divine and human legislation to the present 
day. The law of Moses so contemplated man ; Jesus Christ pronounced 
that law unchanged ; and the prophets and the apostles alike employed 
the rite of marriage as one of their most striking illustrations of the mystery 
of redemption. 

The second means (communion) was represented under the Levitical 
dispensation by the participation of the offerimg at the altar, in the offering 
made, (1 Cor, x. 18,) and may be considered as identic with what we 
usually term the mediation or intercession of Christ: not an oral interces- 
sion, but the coming in of the victim sacrificed between the offender and’ 
his offended God—the medium of access—the new and living way, by 
which man is virtually presented before God in the name of Christ, and is 
contemplated as in the face of the anointed: a medium of reconciliation 
desired by the patriarch Job as a days-man ; represented under the Leviti-- 
cal economy by the high-priest entering within the vail as the representative 
of the suppliant ; and applied in the writings of the apostles to the person and, 
office of Christ as the high-priest of our profession—“ the mediator of the 
new covenant,” ‘our peace,” “ through whom we have access by one: 
Spirit unto the Father.” 

The third means, that of inheritance, was typified by the gift of the 
promised land, as by testament to Abraham and his seed; by which title 
it was inherited by his heirs according to the flesh. It is illustrated also by 
the laws of inheritance under the Levitical dispensation ; and, we may say 

too, by principles of human Jaw nearly as universal as those pertaining to 
the marriage state; and is 50 alluded to by the apostle Paul, in adverting to 
the operation of a testamentary title, (Heb. tx. 16, 17.) 

The inheritance left by Christ to his followers, we take to be the inher- 
itance of his own merits: the merit of his own justifying righteousness, 
and the merit of his own atoning sacrifice ; the disciple coming into posses- 
sion of these, as by bequest of a testator who has the perfect right to dis- 
pose of his possessions as he may himself see fit. The bequest being made, 
on the death of the testator the heir succeeds to the possession of the estate 
as identic with the former possessor ; the one proprietor being substituted, 
in the eye of the law, for the other. 


602 ALL THINGS NEW. 


We are by no means tenacious of this classification of these figures,or of 
their appropriation to particular avenues ; our main design is to show the 
probability, that the twelve gates of one pearl are put for so many doctrinal 
illustrations, intended to bring home to the understanding of the disciple 
the one way of salvation opened in Jesus Christ. The apocalyptic holy 
city we suppose to be a vision or representation of the economy of grace. 
The things coming into its gates are principles peculiar to this economy ; 
no principle or doctrinal element, inconsistent with this representation of 
God’s plan of salvation by grace, is admissible into it. The gates represent 
the means of discrimination, (ᾧ 485 ;) these means of discrimination are 
certain views of the way of salvation through Christ ; every principle there- 
fore admitted into this representation must accord with one or the other of 
these views, and must be so admitted either asa principle of adoption, sancti- 
fication, substitution, or some other mode illustrated by one or the other of 
these gates.* The means of discrimination, or criteria of admission, are al] 
in effect identic. The doctrines represented by them all result in the same 
truth: Christ is the only door, way, or avenue; so the gates are all of the 
same pearl. There is but one way of salvation, although in the sacred 
writings there may be a certain variety of modes by which that one way is 
accommodated to human apprehension. 

§ 502. ‘ And the street of the city was of pure gold,’ &c.,—gold so pure 
as to possess the transparency of crystal—truth, ($ 27,) especially revealed 
truth. With the transparency of this gold of the city we may associate also 
the glorious character of the particular kind of truth represented by it ; but 
we think the prominent peculiarity of this gold is its perfect purity, its free- 
dom from the smallest admixture of error. 

The whole city was said in the eighteenth verse to be pure gold. The 
word rendered street (πλατεῖα) signifies broad way, coming from πλάτος, 
breadth, which expresses (Rev. xx. 9) the whole surface of the ground, 

(Rob. Lex. 593.) The platea of the city may be put here for its whole 
* site or platform. The edifices being of gold and the site of gold, it was all 
of pure gold. The whole of this vision of peace, including its platform, is 
.of pure unalloyed truth. The street, or broad way of the city, might indeed 
represent the way of salvation, but we think the description of the avenue 
is more particularly comprehended in what is said of the gates. The ways 
of the city, corresponding with the portals, are all of the same character, and 
lead in the same direction: as it is said of true wisdom, all her ways are 


* The elements of the mixed system (Babylon) were, as we have seen, princi- 
pally of the mercenary character, merchants, &c. Principles of this character could 
not be admitted into the representation afforded by the holy city, through either of 
the avenues enumerated ; they could not be contemplated as belonging to either o 
those modes of illustration. 


> 
THE BRIDE, THE LAMB’S WIFE. 603 


pleasantness, and all her paths are peace: they all tend to reconciliation 
with God,—that peace which passeth understanding. 

Gold, however, we are to bear in mind, is valuable as well as pure, and 
precious in proportion to its purity. The gold of the street thus reminds us 
of the exceeding riches of the grace of God in his kindness (benignitate) 
towards us through Jesus Christ, (Eph. ii. 7 ;) the unsearchable riches of 
Christ, (Eph. iii. 8 ;) the wealth of him who, though he was rich in merits of 
his own, for our sakes became poor, that we through his imputed righteous- 
ness might be enriched. 

‘And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the 
Lamb are [is] the temple of it ;’ or, as we should render it, Jehovah the 
Almighty God ἐς its temple and the Lamb. The verb is not in the plural, the 
Lord God and the Lamb constitute one and the same nominative singular. 
Dominus Deus omnipotens templum ejus est, et Agnus, (G. & L.) A tem- 
ple is a place of worship, and the worship or service of a temple consists in 
the offering of sacrifices. The Jews contended that Jerusalem alone was 
the place where men ought to worship, or to offer sacrifices ; that it was the 
temple at Jerusalem alone that sanctified the offering ; for the Jews them- 
selves seem to have had their synagogues or places of meeting for prayer 
and praise and religious instruction in every country in which any consider- 
able number of them were domiciliated. The pious Jew, if at a distance 
from the city, worshipped with his face toward Jerusalem, (Dan. vi. 10, 
Ps. v. 7,) because there the temple was located ; the position as an act 
of faith being equivalent to a being in the temple, and conforming to the 
petition of Solomon, (1 Kings viii. 30,) in his dedication of that sacred 
building. The eunuch came from Africa to Jerusalem to worship ; that is, 
to offer certain sacrifices, (Acts viii. 27.) Paul came to Jerusalem for the 
same purpose, (Acts xxiv. 11;) and the angel was directed, (Rev. xi. 1,) 
to measure the temple and them that worshipped or sacrificed therein, pre- 
vious to the passing away of the former things. A holy city without a 
temple, therefore, must have appeared in ancient times an anomaly. Jesus 
Christ has given the assurance that the time cometh when God is to be 
worshipped neither in Jerusalem, neither in the temple at Jerusalem, nor in 
a certain mountain, but in spirit and in truth: and Paul speaks of the kind 
of sacrifice called for in this spiritual worship (Rom, xii. 1) as the offering 
of the whole body of the disciple ; an entire dedication of one’s self to the 
service of God, as the reasonable return to be made for the benefits of salva- 
tion. We suppose the worship alluded to by Jesus, and the living sacrifice 
spoken of by Paul, to constitute the temple service of the New Jerusalem. 

The temple, under the Levitical economy, was the medium of approach 
to God—the way of access; and sacrifices were there offered, because 
through this medium they were made acceptable to Him to whom the offer- 


- 
604 ALL THINGS NEW. 


ing was made. ‘The disciple who comes to God in Christ, has a new way 
of access, a new medium through which his sacrifices and services are made 
acceptable to God ; a way of which the former was a symbolical representa- 
tion. What the temple was to the Jews, Christ is to his followers. The 
Christian, therefore, has no need of a temple, because Christ, the Lamb of 
God, is his temple: he worships in Christ, and the Lamb of God is identic 
with the Almighty God ; he therefore worships in God—Jehovah himself thus 
constituting the temple of the economy of grace; or, bemg manifested as the 
temple in the representation of the economy afforded by the new vision of 
peace. The service or worship of the old temple, as before noticed, con- 
sisted of two species of sacrifice, the propitiatory offering, and the thank- 
offering. The service of the new temple consists of but one of these sacri- 
fices on the part of the believer—Christ having made an offering for sin 
once for all; although the merit of that offering ever virtually pleads, or 
makes continued intercession in the sight of Ged. In Christ, then, the dis- 
ciple offers his body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God: holy, 
because set apart in Christ: acceptable, because contemplated in Christ ; 
and this we presume to be the worship of the Father in spirit and in truth, 
spoken of by Jesus in his conversation with the woman of Samaria. 

ᾧ 608. Under the Levitical dispensation, even the thank-offering and 
the peace-offering of thanksgiving were to be sprinkled with blood, and that 
too by the priest, (Lev. vii. 12-14.) So it is only in Christ, and by virtue 
of his atonement, that even the reasonable sacrifice of the disciple’s grateful 
service can be acceptable to God. In the nature of the case it is only in 
Christ that the disciple’s service can be divested of a mercenary motive; as, 
in the nature of the case, it is only in Christ, that the unworthy disciple and 
his imperfect service can be regarded with complacency by Him, in whose 
sight even the heavens are unclean. As to be in Christ is to be a new 
creature, so to be in him is to be in a position enabling the worshipper to 
serve God continually, in the strict sense of the term. 

To this peculiar position we may suppose allusion to be made by Jesus, 
when he speaks of the temple of his body ; his material body being the type 
of his spiritual body, which latter constitutes the spiritual temple of the holy 
city—a temple of which the glory must infinitely exceed that of all earthly 
temples. As it is said of it, Haggai u. 6-9, “ For thus saith the Lord of 
Hosts, Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the 
earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the 
desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with my glory, 
saith the Lord of Hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the 
Lord of Hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the 
former, saith the Lord of Hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith 
the Lord of Hosts.” 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 605 


The passing away of the first heaven and the first earth of the Apoca- 
lypse, has been already considered equivalent to the shaking here predicted ; 
and the coming in of the new heaven and of the new earth, and the exhibi- 
tion of the New Jerusalem may be taken as equivalents for the coming of 
the desire of all nations; that is, for the spiritual manifestation of Christ 
himself. The display of the riches of the holy city, such as they are ex- 
hibited in this revelation, is an evidence that the silver and the gold are the 
Lord’s—the means of redemption are his alone ; and we have in the decla- 
ration that the Lord Goa and the Lamb are the temple of the New Jerusa- 
lem, the explanation and fulfilment of the prophecy that the glory of the 
latter house is greater than that of the former. ‘To this spiritual temple 
David must have alluded in saying, “ Surely goodness and mercy shall fol- 
low me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord 
forever,” (Ps. xxiii. 6.) The earthly temple was not then built; when 
built its duration was to be but temporary, and it was only in the spiritual 
house of the Lord that the Psalmist could find a dwelling forever. 

A like allusion may be found, Ps. cxxii. 1, 2: “1 was glad when they said 
unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand in thy gates, 
O Jerusalem.” To be within the gates of Jerusalem is here apparently an 
interchangeable expression for being in the house of the Lord. The spiritual 
temple covers the whole site of the city ; such we may suppose to be the case 
with the apocalyptic vision of peace. The temple is identic with the city, and 
the city and the temple are identic with God and the Lamb ; as the bride or 
wife is identic with the Lamb, and the Lamb is identic with the sovereign 
God. The accounted identity of the worshipper in the temple with the 
medium of worship, and with the object of worship corresponding with the 
prayer of Jesus, (John xvii. 21-23 ;) as it also corresponds with the language 
of the apostle, (2 Cor. vi. 16,) “‘For ye are [accounted] the temple of the 
living God ;” and, (1 Cor. iii. 16, 17,) “ Know ye not that ye are the 
temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man 
defile (corrupt) the temple of God, [that is, cause it to decay,] him shall 
God cause to decay ;* for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye 


are.” 


ΩΝ 23,324. ὧν a city had ote Kai ἡ πόλις ov χρείαν ἔχει τοῦ ἡλίου 
of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in οὐδὲ τῆς σελήνης, ἵ τάν αὐ te 
it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and ἀὐδτῆρ σελ γραίαν, eat ὍΘ 
the Lamb (is) the light thereof. And the 
nations of them which are saved shall °° ‘ igh, 1 ΒΩ ἀμ’ 
walk in the light of it: and the kings of τὰ ἔϑνη διὰ τοῦ φωτὸς αὑτῆς, καὶ οἵ βασι- 
the earth do bring their glory and honour λεῖς τῆς γῆς φέρουσι τὴν δόξαν καὶ "τὴν τι- 
into it. μὴν αὑτῶν εἰς αὐτήν. 


he ~ ia , were 4 ἃ , 
δόξα τοῦ ϑεοῦ ἐφώτισεν αὐτὴν, καὶ ὁ huz- 
> ~ ‘ 2 - , 
γος αὐτῆς τὸ ἀρνίον. Kat περιπατήσουσιε 


*The verb φϑείρω or φϑερῶ, translated defile, is the same in both members 
of the sentence, and we could not say, if any one defile the temple of God him 
shall God defile. 


606 ALL THINGS NEW. 


§ 504. ‘ And the city hath no need of the sun,’ &c.—Whatever con- 
struction we put upon this passage, its purport is evidently very nearly 
equivalent to an annunciation of the fulfilment of the prediction Is. lx. 1-3, 
19, 20, “ Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD 
is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and 
gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his 
glory shall be seen upon thee ; and the Gentiles (nations) shall come to thy 
light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” .... . “ The sun shall 
be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give 
light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and 
thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy 
moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the 
days of thy mourning shall be ended.” 

As we have before intimated, there is a material or natural light, an 
intellectual or metaphorical light, and a spiritual or analogous light. ‘The 
last we presume to be the light here alluded to. ‘The material sun, when 
risen, clothes all objects of nature with its light—all their beauty of appear- 
ance depends upon this light ; so the imputed righteousness of Christ (the 
Sun of righteousness) clothes the disciple with a garment or covering of 
divine perfection, which constitutes all his perfection. ‘The disciple pos- 
sesses no beauty or glory of his own; without that which is imputed to him, 
he is, like any object of nature, in a state of perfect darkness—it is colour- 
less, and entirely without beauty. ‘To say that the Sun of righteousness has 
risen with healing in his wings, is equivalent to saying that Christ is mani- 
fested as thus shedding the rays of his own moral perfection upon the par- 
doned sinner. 

Corresponding with this view, the vision of peace (the holy city) ex- 
hibits no other righteousness than that of Jehovah ; neither has it need to 
exhibit any other; it has no need to exhibit the light of the sun, or of the 
moon, for it is resplendent with the righteousness of God himself. The 
figure of the light of the Sun of righteousness, and that of the reflected light 
of the moon, may be said to be here dispensed with, because the true light 
or glory represented by these figures is now fully revealed. 

‘The glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.’— 
Here the Lamb of God and the glory of God are represented as equivalents. 
If we ask, What is the glory of God? the answer is, the Lamb ; and if we 
ask what the Lamb is, the answer is, the glory of God. ‘The city (the 
vision of peace) exhibits no righteousness of any created being. The 
righteousness of God in Christ is its light or glory ; as when God promised 
to show his glory to Moses, ‘“ He made his goodness to pass before him ;” 
the goodness of God as manifested in, Christ constituting the glory of God. 
This light of divine glory is to the city what the array of fine linen, clean 
and white, is to the bride, and what the shield or breastplate is to the war- 


᾿ THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 607 


rior ; for, according to the Psalmist, “'The Lord God is [both] a sun and 


shield ; the Lord will give grace and glory,” (Ps. Ixxxiv. 2.) 
Here we have another feature of identity developed. As the city has 


no need of a temple, because God and the Lamb is the temple of it, so it 
has no need of light, because the Lamb (the glory of God) is the light 
thereof.* The bride or wife (the New Jerusalem) partakes of the glory of 
her husband, because she is identified with him. The Jerusalem above is 
the mother of the whole community of disciples, (Gal. iv. 26 ;) the children, 
therefore, may be contemplated as partaking of the same glory. So, (2 Cor. 
iii. 18,) “ We all, with unveiled face, beholding, as in a mirror, the glory of 
the Lord, are changed (as by reflected rays of light) into the same image 
from glory to glory.” As it is said, also, of the perfection of Christ, (John 
i. 16,) “ And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace,” 
χάριν ἀντὶ χάριτος, for every grace of Christ corresponding grace being 
imputed to the disciple. 

ᾧ 505. ‘And the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light 
of it..—The words of them that are saved are not found in all editions of 
the Greek, neither are they in that of Wiclif, where the passage reads, ‘ and 
folkis shulen walke in the light of it.” The word translated nations is the 
same as that sometimes rendered Gentiles, and we could hardly say the 
Gentiles of them that are saved. There is, besides, a corresponding pas- 
sage in the prophets, in which there is no such qualification. ‘ At that time 
they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall 
be gathered unto it,” (Jer. ili. 17.) The words appear to have been inter- 
polated by transcribers, who, governed by a literal construction, supposed 
.the exception to be understood. We might as reasonably qualify the passage 
quoted in the last section: ‘“‘' The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings 
to the brightness of thy rising.” 

We suppose the description in the Apocalypse, as well as the language 
of these prophecies to express the ultimate ascendency of the light of revealed 
truth over every doctrine and principle of doctrine without exception ; this 
ascendency resulting from the manifestation of Christ as Jehovah our right- 
eousness, and as such the only author of salvation ; in conformity with the 
declaration, Phil. 11. 9-11, ‘“‘ Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, 
and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of 
Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and 
things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus 
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” The exhibition of the 


* The Lamb may be considered the instrament or medium (λύχνος) through 
which the light or glory is exhibited, as it is expressed in the Wiclif version, “ the 
clerete of God schal ligtne it: and the Lamb is the lanterne of it ;” or, according to 
the Rheims ed., “the glorie of God hath illuminated it, and the Lambe is the lampe 
thereof.” 


608 ALL THINGS NEW. 


economy of grace, when completed, will be like that of a city set upon a 
hill: its light or glory cannot be hid—it will manifest that glory to all, 
whether all rejoice in the light or not. 

At the period now in contemplation, the overcoming principle (6 νικῶν) 
is to be supposed in full power, ruling the nations with a rod of tron. All 
things (principles) are manifested to succumb and to be subordinate to this 
rule, from the power of which there is no escape. The law goes forth out 
of Zion, and the word of God from Jerusalem, (Micah iv. 2.) Through 
this instrumentality the sovereign will and purpose of the Most High is 
made known; for which reason we may presume it to be predicted (Jer. 
iii. 17) that Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord. ‘To the same 
instrumentality allusion seems to be made, Is. Ixii. 1, 2: “For Zion’s sake 
will [ not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the 
righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a 
lamp that burneth; and the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all 
kings thy glory.” Here the righteousness of Jerusalem or of Zion, is put 
for the light of the apocalyptic city, and the lamp for the instrument of light, 
the medium of righteousness—the lantern of Wiclif’s version. Whether 
righteousness, or light, or glory, however, they are in fact all and each of 
them of the Lord, (Is. liv. 17.) 

‘ And the kings of the earth do bring their glory and Hunde into it.’— 
Not political or military glory. Louis XIV., Frederick of Prussia, Charle- 
magne, Alexander the Great, or Nebachudhtaze, could bring no glory or 
honour into the holy city, the new Jerusalem, the vision of peace. We 
have before noticed that the term rendered kings was sometimes applied, 
amongst the Greeks, to those who presided in religious matters ; but we do 
not suppose this to be ecclesiastical glory any more than political. We sup- 
pose these kings or chiefs to represent leading principles of religious systems 
or doctrines: the glory and honour of which are to be manifested to be sub- 
ordinate, and perhaps in some sense auxiliary to the glory and honour of the 
new Jerusalem. As it is said of the elements or principles of the legal dis- 
pensation, all of which may be contemplated as bringing their glory and 
honour to augment the triumph of the economy of grace, “ Ifthe ministra- 
tion of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteous- 
ness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no 
glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that 
which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glori- 

us.” (2 Cor. iii. 9-11.) 

The same may be said of the glory of the elements of the literal con- 
struction, as compared with those of the spiritual interpretation: for, as the 
apostle intimates in connection with the passage just quoted, (v. 6,) the 
difference is not merely between the New Testament and the Old 'Testa- 
ment, but also between the spirit of the New Testament and the /etter, or 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 609 


literal understanding of it; ‘‘ For the letter,’ he adds, “ killeth, but the 
spirit giveth life,’—thus classing the elements of the letter of the New 
Testament with those of the Mosaical dispensation, both having their glory, 
but a glory far exceeded by the spirit of the New Testament dispensation ; 
which spirit he afterwards terms the ministration of justification, as opposed 
to the ministration of condemnation. 

The leading elements of these two inferior “ ministrations’” we suppose 
to be represented by the kings of the earth. Whatever their honour or 
glory be, it goes to augment, but does not come into competition with, the 
glory of the economy of grace. ‘This, also, is a result of the new state of 
things, or of the views presented by the new heaven and the new earth. 
Prior to the passing away of the former things, the nations (Gentiles) in the 
four quarters of the earth were led astray by the accuser, and under his 
conduct compassed the camp of the saints and the beloved city in battle 
array ; as the kings of the earth had previously been marshalled by the 
beast and false prophet against the Word of God. Now, all things being 
made new, the same elements apparently walk in the light of the city, once 
the object of their hostile efforts, and bring their glory and honour into it. 
The difference is nearly parallel with that between the elements of the law 
rightly used in bringing the disciple to Christ, and the same elements per- 
verted to the establishment of the kingdom of self, in opposition to the 
economy of a free salvation. 


Vs. 25-27. And the gates of it shall not Καὶ ot πυλῶνες αὐτῆς ov μὴ κλεισϑῶσιν 


be shut at all by day: for there shall be 
no night there. And they shall bring the 
glory and honour of the nations into it. 
And there shall in no wise enter into it 
any thing that defileth, neither (whatso- 
ever) worketh abomination, or (maketh) 
a lie; but they which are written in the 


c ’ ‘ ἕξ ‘ 2 ΒΩ > ~ Ν »” 
ἡμέρας (νυξ γὰρ οὔκ ἔσται ἐκεῖ,) καὶ οἷ 
‘ ΄ - > ~ 
σουσι τὴν δόξαν καὶ τὴν τιμὴν τῶν ἐϑνῶν 
> edd Ss a > ὖν > ra ~ 
εἰς αὐτήν. Καὶ ov μὴ eicehy εἰς αὕτην πᾶν 
‘ ~ , - 
κοινὸν καὶ ποιοῦν βδέλυγμα καὶ ψεῦδος, εἰ 
‘ ’ ~ ~ ~ 
μὴ οἵ γεγραμμένοι ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ τῆς ζωῆς 
: ᾿ 


τοῦ ἀρνίου. 


Lamb’s book of life. 


§ 506. ‘ And the gates of it shall not be shut,’ &c.; or, as the original 
implies, ‘shall not be locked at all_—The apocalyptic city (vision of peace) 
being an exhibition of the plan of salvation, to open the gates of the city is 
tounfold the mysterious features of this plan,—to exhibit all the principles 
belonging to it. Hitherto the gates have been locked, or partially so; the 
mystery has been hidden from the foundation of the world, and it is not yet 
fully revealed. The prophet Daniel was told to shut up the words revealed 
to him, and to seal the book to the time of the end. In the interim, it was 
added, “‘ Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” 
Now, at the period of this new state of things, the time of the end is sup- 
posed to have arrived ; the words revealed to Daniel are to be opened; the 
mystery of the gospel is to be fully unfolded, and the book containing this 


610 ALL THINGS NEW. 


mystery is to be contemplated as unsealed ; not only so, the mystery hence- 
forth is to remain open, and that continually and forever. 

There is no night there, and the gates are not shut at all by day, con- 
sequently they are always open.* At the epoch contemplated in this pas- 
sage, the running to and fro, spoken of in the vision of Daniel, may be sup- 
posed to be ended—the knowledge of the truth has increased. ‘This know- 
ledge exhibits the new Jerusalem as clothed or covered with the light, or 
glory, or righteousness of Jehovah. Such a vision of the divine plan of 
redemption, as is exhibited to the spiritual understanding in this vision of the 
new Jerusalem, may be supposed to comprehend all knowledge for which 
the running to and fro was designed. The book spoken of by Daniel is 
therefore no longer to be sealed ; and, corresponding with this, the gates of 
the city are no longer to be locked. 

Night is a season of darkness—of absence of: light—and light we take to 
be, in typical language, an interchangeable term for righteousness. 'To be 
in the night, or in darkness, is to be divested of righteousness—equivalent to 
a position out of Christ; as to be in Christ is equivalent to being in the 
licht. Night is also the season of danger—the thief and the robber availing 
themselves of the darkness to accomplish their purposes ; so, to be out of 
Christ, deprived of his imputed righteousness, is to be in a position of pecu- 
liar peril—exposed to the attacks of the legal adversary. But the righteous- 
ness of God and the Lamb constitutes the light of the holy city, and this 
perpetually and without cessation. Here, therefore, there is no season of 
darkness or of danger ; the adversary is at no moment to be feared, and 
consequently, under the protection of such light no further precaution is 
necessary. ‘This applies both to the position of the disciple, and to the ex- 
hibition of the plan of salvation ; as in the latter no accusing principle can 
introduce itself or find access, so long as the imputed righteousness of Jeho- 
vah is its element of protection. 

‘And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.’— 
That is, the kings spoken of in the twenty-fourth verse. They are to bring 
their own honour and glory and also the honour and glory of the nations into 
the holy city. We give the same construction to this expression as to the 
preceding ones of a like character. It is not to be imagined that Great 
Britain or France in modern times, or Rome, or Babylon, or the kingdom of 
the Medes and Persians, could confer honour upon, or bring honour into, the 
new Jerusalem the heavenly city ; still less could they bring honour or glory 
into the covenant of grace. All powers of the earth we suppose to repre- 


* The expression by day (ἡμέρας) probably applies to the whole twenty-four 
hours, and is equivalent to the declaration, that the gates are never shut or locked. 
The gates of fortified towns are opened of course during the day, but they are locked 
at night; here there is no night, and for that reason the gates are never locked. 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 611 


sent powers of salvation similar to those we have just noticed of the legal 
and literal ministrations. ‘These, as compared with the spiritual economy, or 
ministration of the Spirit, have no glory, by reason of the glory that excel- 
leth. But without this comparison, they have a certain glory, as Moses, 
who was obliged to veil his face before the children of Israel, (2 Cor. iii. 7,) 
which, however, is to be manifested to be subordinate to that of the new 
dispensation. This clause would appear to contain almost an unnecessary 
repetition, were it not for its connection, as we shall see, with the subsequent 
verse. 

§ 507. ‘ And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth,’ 
(maketh common,) &c.—The Greek conjunction καὶ, translated and here, may 
sometimes be rendered disjunctively but, and such would seem to be the proper 
reading in this passage. The gates of the city are to remain open continually, 
and the kings of the earth are to bring their honour and glory and the honour 
and glory of the nations into it ; but there shall in no wise enter into it any 
thing that defileth. The honour and glory of the nations are brought into 
the city, but not as merchandise ; there is nothing of the commercial character 
about the new Jerusalem—no mercenary principle is admitted into it. The 
kings of the nations bring their tribute; as acknowledgments of the suprema- 
cy of the city. As the queen of Sheba, with a very great train, brought her 
gifts to king Solomon, (1 Kings x. 2, 10,) so it is said of the new Jerusa- 
lem prophetically, (Is. lx. 5,) ‘“‘ The abundance of the sea shall be converted 
unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee, and the sons of 
strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee. 
Therefore thy gates shall be open continually : they shall not be shut day 
nor night, that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that 
their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve 
thee shall perish ; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.” Thus all the 
elements of the earthly system, all the elements of the legal dispensation, 
and of the ministration of the letter of the New Testament, shall co-operate 
in bringing honour and glory into the exhibition (or vision) of God’s plan 
of redemption ; nevertheless, we may add, nothing shall be admitted, no 
element or principle, which defileth, or maketh a lie, or worketh abomina- 
tion. 

Πᾶν κοινοῦν, any thing making common, or unclean, according to the 
Greek editions followed by our English version ; or, πᾶν κοινὸν, any thing 
common, according to other editions. We think the first probably the more 
correct, as it is connected with the verb ποιοῦν, following immediately after 
it. The difference, however, is not material. Πᾶν, the neuter of πᾶς, 
translated any thing in this passage, is said to be sometimes put abstractly 
for the masculine, (Rob. Lex. 558;) but we do not think there is any 
occasion for supposing that to be the case here. The whole connection 


612 ALL THINGS NEW. 


shows that things, principles, or elements of doctrine are alluded to, and 
not human beings. Even if the masculine were used, we should take it as ἡ 
a personification, or as relating to οἱ λόγοι, sayings, or doctrines, understood. 

To defile, in the Scripture sense, is to make common, as the opposite of 
setting apart, consecrating, or sanctifying. The utensils appropriated to the 
temple service were set apart ; the same description of utensils employed 
for ordinary purposes were common. ‘To apply the vessels of the temple 
service to an ordinary use was to defile them, or make them common and 
unclean. ‘The disciple set apart in Christ in God’s account is sanctified ; 
out of Christ, he is common or unclean ;* and every doctrine tending to place 
him in such a position, (out of Christ,) is a doctrine that defileth, or that 
renders common. Corresponding with this, we suppose every element of 
doctrine peculiar to the economy of grace, or permitted to appear so, in the 
vision of that economy, must be set apart in God’s account ; and, as such, 
it must be something of which Christ constitutes the sanctifying element. 
Every principle of the economy of grace must be something comprehended 
in the idea that Christ is the only way of access to God ; while, on the con- 
trary, any doctrine tending to introduce principles of an opposite character, 
must be a doctrine defiling or making common; or if it be a principle or 
pretension to merit, coming in competition with the merits of Christ, it is an 
unclean or common principle, and for that reason cannot be admitted into 
an exhibition of the economy of grace. 

§ 508. ‘ Neither working abomination.’-—The abominable are represent- 
ed in the eighth verse of this chapter as destined to be cast into the lake of 
fire; but here it is not merely the abominable, or the abomination, but 
whatever causeth or maketh abomination. We have already had occasion 
to enlarge upon this term, (ᾧ 385,) and have shown the probability of its 
applying particularly to mzxed views of doctrine ; an adulteration of 
Christian faith ; a mixture of the hypocrisy, and lukewarmness, and self- 
righteousness repeatedly spoken of in the Scriptures as peculiarly hateful to 
the Searcher of hearts. We suppose a thing working abomination, in the 
apocalyptic sense of the term, to be a doctrine or a principle of doctrine, 
tending to represent the salvation of the sinner partly as a work of God, 
and partly as the work of man. In this respect such principles differ from 
those belonging to the class of making common or defiling ; as these last 
may be said to teach a way of salvation entirely independent of the merits 


* Every doctrine representing man as being holy or sanctified, by virtue of some 
quality in himself, is an unclean or defiling doctrine. To such impurity, and purity of 
views in. matters of faith, allusion appears to be made, Titus i. 15, “To the clean 
[pure] all things are clean, but to the defiled [spotted, μεμιασμένοις} and unbelieving 
there is nothing clean, but [both] their understandings and their consciences are de- 
filed,” spotted,—eulavtor αὐτῶν καὶ ἢ νοῦς καὶ ἡ συνείδησις. 


THE BRIDE; THE LAMBS WIFE. 613 


of Christ ; while those working abomination profess to place the disciple in 

*a position of dependence upon Christ, when, in effect, they inculcate his 
dependence upon a righteousness of his own. Doctrines of this character 
professedly ascribe the glory of redemption to God, while they really 
assume that glory for man—a species of robbery depriving God of the hon- 
our, and worship or service due to him, under pretence of great zeal for 
holiness, and probably for the law. Such robbery or sacrilege is apparently 
alluded to Rom. ii. 22: Thou that abominatest idols, dost thou rob temples ? 
ὁ βδελυσσόμενος τὰ εἴδωλα ἱεροσυλεῖς. The inconsistency pointed out by 
the apostle being that of a professed jealousy for the worship of God, where 
there is virtually an effort to deprive him of that glory as a Redeemer which 
he has especially declared he will.not give to another. Doctrines of this 
tendency are wholly inadmissible in an exhibition of the divine plan of 
redemption, and for that reason are not allowed to enter the gates of the 
heavenly city. 

‘Or maketh a lie’ —The word maketh is supplied by our translators ; 
but if it were not, it is evidently understood in connection with the preceding 
expression. It is not merely the lie, but whatever has a tendency to make 
a lie, that is excluded ; any principle tending toa false doctrine. We have 
thus three classes of prohibited objects ; the last of a general character ap- 
plying to all false doctrinal principles, or to any misinterpretation, or that 
which occasions any of these. The two first classes must necessarily be 
included in the third, but this last may comprehend varieties of error not 
peculiar to the other two. 

The apostle Paul speaks expressly, Rom. i. 25, of those who changed 
the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more 
than the Creator—a perversion working abomination, as well as falsehood, 
as appears from the vices enumerated by the apostle, apparently by way of 
illustrating the errors in contemplation ; that is, the errors of self-righteous+ 
ness—the idolatry of self, by which the creature is, in the strict sense of 
the term, worshipped and served more than the Creator. But besides this, 
all doctrines tending virtually to the denial of Jesus as the Christ, or tending 
to reject his righteousness, or to deny the sinfulness of man, or to undermine 
the truths of the gospel, may be denominated things making a lie ; as it is 
said, (1 John iii, 21,) “ Y@ know that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar, 
but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?’ 1 Johni. 6, 8: “If we 
say we have fellowship with him, (Christ,) and walk in darkness, we lie, and 
do not the truth.” “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, 
and the truth is not in us.” He that saith I know him, and keepeth not 
his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” So, 1 Tim. iv. 
1, 2, “In the latter times, there shall be some giving heed to seducing 
spirits, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy,” or in the 


614 ALL THINGS NEW. 


hypocrisy of false speaking. These seducing spirits and doctrines (doctrinal 
principles) we suppose to be, apocalyptically, the things making a lie,# 
none of which can be admitted into the heavenly vision of peace. 

ᾧ 509. ‘ But they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.’—This 
clause is to be taken in connection with the preceding portion of the verse : 
“There shall not enter into the city any thing that maketh common, any 
thing that worketh abomination, or any thing tliat maketh a lie; but only 
those things whice are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Such, at least, 
is our construction of the passage—corresponding with our former remarks 
upon the contents of this book of life, (ὃ ᾧ 87, 305.) The pronoun, trans- 
lated they which, is masculine, although the pronoun rendered any thing in 
the first clause of the sentence, is neuter; but as we have remarked in 
respect to τίς, (ὃ 461.) the names of things in the Greek language may be 
masculine or feminine as well as those of rational beings. We have only to 
suppose the masculine plural οἱ to relate to the plural noun λόγοι (words, 
sayings, &c.) and the latter part of the sentence is in conformity with the 
first part, notwithstanding the difference of gender. 

Keeping the city in view as a representation of the divine arrangement 
of principles, constituting the economy of salvation, we learn from the 
passage, that although all principles and doctrines of all systems are to be 
rendered manifestly subservient to the heavenly system, bringing their hon- 
our and glory as a tribute into it, there is to be no admittance of any doc- 
trine comprehended in the three prohibited classes ; but, on the contrary, 
only the words, sayings, or doctrinal elements to be found in the Lamb’s 
book of life ; which book of life (written from the foundation of the world) 
we suppose to be the eternal purpose of God with respect to the whole 
work of man’s salvation. ‘That is, the Lamb’s book of life is, i effect, 
identic with that διαϑήκῃ, or economy of redemption, of which the new 
Jerusalem is a representation. The true vision of peace exhibits no other 
elements than those to be found in the book ; and the elements or principles 
in the book are exhibited in the new or heavenly vision of peace. 

The apostle Paul, alluding to the change of dispensations depicted in 
this Apocalypse, quotes the words of the Spirit, Ps. xl. 7, as the declara- 
tion of Christ himself: ‘Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book 
it is written of me) to do thy will, O God,’ (Heb. x. 7-9.) When the 
Psalm referred to was composed, the only sacred books extant were those 
of Moses, Job, Joshua, and Samuel ; we do not suppose either of these to be 
' the volume spoken of. We suppose it to be the purpose of the divine mind 
figuratively designated as a book, or as the volume of the book—God’s pur- 
pose or plan of salvation written, so to speak, before the creation of the 
world. This book must necessarily contain all the elements of doctrine, 
and all the principles pertaining to the life, and offices, and character, and 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 615 


work of Christ, as the Saviour of the world. It may be denominated the 
book of the life of the Lamb, which corresponds precisely with the Greek 
expression rendered in our common version, ‘“‘ The Lamb’s book of life ;” 
as we have it here, of γεγραμμένοι ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ τῆς ζωῆς τοῦ ἀρνίου. 

If the holy city comprehend all that is contained in the Lamb’s book of 
life, and nothing else, and if the wzfe of the Lamb be identic with the Lamb ; 
then the Lamb, the new Jerusalem, and the divine purpose of salvation, are 
identic—different appellations of the same means of salvation, and different 
modes of presenting the same means to our contemplation. 

Christ, the Lamb of God,* is the word of God made flesh. The word 
of God is the eternal purpose of God, and the eternal purpose of God (in 
relation to the work of salvation) is the book of life—the Lamb’s book of 
life. So. if the elements of the economy of salvation written in this book 
of life, and exhibited in the vision of peace, (the new Jerusalem,) be the 
same as the elements of salvation in Christ ; to give disciples the assurance 
that the means of their eternal life are to be found either in the book of life, 
or in the economy (covenant) represented by the heavenly Jerusalem, is 
equivalent to the assurance of the apostle, (Col. iii. 3,) “ Your life is hid 
with Christ in God.” So, on the other hand, the declaration that nothing 
shall enter into the city except it be found in the book of life, is equivalent 
to the declaration that no element of doctrine can find admittance into a true 
exhibition of the economy of grace, except it be consistent with the whole 
tenor of the gospel, showing Christ (God manifest in the flesh) to be the 
only Saviour.t+ 


* The Lamb of God, so styled, we apprehend, in contradistinction to the lamb of 
man,—the ritual lamb of the passover, and of the Levitical sacrifices ; the last being a 
jamb of man’s providing, while the first is that of God’s providing—a distinction ap- 
parently alluded to by John Baptist, in directing the attention of his countrymen to 
Jesus, “ Behold the Lamb of God.” Uttered as this was to Jews, with whom the idea 
of the annual and daily sacrifices of a Jamb was perfectly familiar, the distinction must 
have been as readily perceptible to the hearers as to the speaker. Thesa me associa- 
tion of ideas we think is to be carried in the mind throughout the reading of the New 
Testament, wherever this appellation is given to the Saviour. 

{ We have already assigned a reason (ὃ 480) for proceeding immediately from the 
close of this chapter to the next, as we propose to do, without the intervention of any 
retrospective remarks in this place. 


48 


σ. 
φὺ 


ALL THINGS NEW. 


CHAPTER XXII. 


VISION OF THE BRIDE, THE LAMB’S WIFE.—THE HOLY 
JERUSALEM.—(CONTINUED.) 


Vs. 1,2. And he showed me a pure 
river of water of life, clear as crystal, pro- 
ceeding out of the throne of God and of 
the Lamb. In the midst of the street of 
it, and on either side of the river, (was 
there) the tree of life, which bare twelve 
(manner of) fruits, (and) yielded her fruit 


every month: and the leaves of the tree’ 


- 8 «, ~ 
Kai ἔδειξέ μοι ποταμὸν ἴδατος ἰζωῆς 
‘ c Ψ' Ψ' 
λαμπρὸν ὡς κρύσταλλον, exmogevomevoy ἔκ 
- ΄ - - εἶ ~ 2 ' > 
τοῦ ϑρόνου τοῦ ϑεοῦ καὶ Tov wgriov. Ly 
, ~ > ~ ~ ~ 
μέσῳ τῆς πλατείας αὐτῆς καὶ τοῦ ποταμοῦ 
ἐντεῖϑεν χαὶ ἐχεῖϑεν ξύλον ζωῆς, ποιοῖν 
΄ - 

καρποὺς δώδεκα, κατὰ μῆνα ἕκαστον ἀπο- 

- ‘ ‘ c ~ ‘ 4 
διδοῦν τὸν καρπὸν αὑτοῦ, καὶ τὰ φυλλὰ 


ing ations. τ > mnt sees 
(were) for the healing of the nation vot RNa ican Dapetelan tub cova 


§ 510. ‘Anp he showed me.’—Although this is the beginning of a 
chapter, the narrative should be regarded as an unbroken continuation of 
the description commenced in the preceding chapter. ‘The apostle has been 
shown the walls of the city, with their foundations or bastions, its gates, its 
spiritual temple, its street: the materials of its various structures have been 
pointed out to him ; the general resplendent appearance of the city has been 
noticed ; even the manner in which it is lighted has been set forth, together 
with the rules of admission and exclusion at the gates. He is now shown 
the supply of water—a supply equally indispensable for purification and for 
sustenance ; the surety and abundance of such supply being as necessary 
to a fortress or fortified city, as its walls and bulwarks. 

‘A pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal.—The word trans- 
lated pure (καϑαρόν) is not met with in all editions of the Greek. Some 
transcribers may have considered it redundant, as the river could hardly be 
clear as crystal if the water were not pure. We should prefer, however, 
retaining it, as the word rendered clear (λαμπρόν) refers rather to the 
shining or brilliant quality of the water than to its purity, while the term 
καϑαρὸν directs our attention to the pure and white linen of the saints,—to 
the fine linen, clean and white, of the bride ; affording the assurance that, 
as the robe is perfectly free from spot or stain, so the water of this stream is 
perfectly free from any foreign substance : the atonement of Christ, as well 
as his righteousness, possessing pre-eminently this peculiar quality of free- 
dom from admixture. 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 617 


The importance of water can be fully appreciated only by those who 
have suffered from the want of it. In countries in the neighborhood of Pal- 
estine, the figure of a full supply of the element strikes the mind with pecu- 
liar force. Lot was governed in his choice of the plain of Jordan by the 
consideration that the country was well watered. Babylon too had its river, 
which also ran through the midst of the city ; but its source was out of the 
city, so that the supply might be cut off by an invading enemy, as eventu- 
ally was the case. The holy city, on the contrary, has the source of the 
river within itself, for the stream proceeded out of the throne of God and of 
the Lamb ; and we learn from the third verse of the chapter that this throne 
was in the city, and apparently is ever to remain there. It is not in the 
power of the adversary to intercept the supply of this life-giving stream— 
the water of life, so denominated because it is the indispensable means of 
eternal life,—the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, (Zech. xiii. 1,) 
and the river the streams whereof, it is said, (Ps. xlvi. 4,) shall make glad 
the city of our God: the source of the river, from the throne in the midst 
the city, corresponding with the assurance of Jesus, “ Whosoever drinketh 
of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst ; but the water that I 
shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up unto everlast- 
ing life,’ (John iv. 14.) 

$511. The source whence the stream proceeds affords a guarantee of 
its purity and power ; at the same time it gives a certain character to the 
river, not otherwise to be possessed. ‘The throne of God and the Lamb: 
not two thrones, but one throne; the same, no doubt, as the great white 
throne, ($ 455.) God and the Lamb are now manifested as the one 
Almighty Sovereign, both occupying the same seat ; the one represented as 
occupying the seat of the other, according to the mode of manifestation. 

The throne of a sovereign exhibits its occupant as a sovereign. The 
righteousness of God whereby he saves the objects of his mercy, manifests 
his sovereignty, more especially as the imputation of this righteousness is a 
free gift or grace ; wherefore it is that the same throne or seat is also term- 
ed the throne of grace. It is therefore from this divine righteousness im- 
putable to the disciple through free and sovereign grace, that the atoning 
means of eternal life (the fountain opened for the washing away of sin and 
uncleanness) proceeds. So heaven is said (Heb. iv. 16) to be the throne 
of God ; and it is so in a spiritual sense, because the revelation, symbolically 
spoken of as heaven, sets forth the same free and sovereign exercise of divine 
power and mercy as that comprehended under the figure of a throne of 
grace. Tor this reason it is said of Jerusalem, “ She shall be called the 
throne of God,” exhibiting also as she does, in this Apocalypse, the same 
arrangement of sovereign grace. Corresponding with this, it was said, 
(Rev. vil. 17,) “The Lamb in the midst of the throne shall lead them unto. 


618 ALL THINGS NEW. 


living fountains of waters,” &c. The revelation had not then so far pro- 
gressed as to show the Lamb to be an occupant of the throne. Now, we 
see that the throne is his ; and that to be in the midst of the throne or seat, 
is to be on the seat ; and that the way in which the Lamb leads his followers 
to living fountains of water, is by opening for them this supply of the pure 
water of life from the throne of grace. The element of ablution now ex- 
hibited is not something in addition to what has been before spoken of, it is 
only the same thing represented under a different figure. 

The apostle alluded to this river of life, this atoning provision from the 
fountain of sovereign grace, at the opening of the book, (Rev. i. 5,) in 
ascribing glory and dominion “ to him that has washed us from our sins in 
his own blood.” Paul alluded to it in speaking of those that are “ washed 
and sanctified, and justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the 
Spirit of our God,” (1 Cor. vi. 11.) The Psalmist had it in view in speak- 
ing of the blessedness of those whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose 
sins are covered; and the prophet, in speaking of him who was wounded 
for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; and Jehovah himself 
alluded to it in the declaration, “I, eyen I, am he that blotteth out thy trans- 
gressions as a cloud, and as a thick cloud thy sins ;” and reference is made 
to the same propitiatory provision of grace alone, in the declaration of him 
who sat upon the throne, (Rev. xxi. 6,) “I will give to him that is athirst 
of the fountain of the water of life freely.” 

It was in contemplation of the same sovereign mercy, that the Psalmist 
exclaimed, ‘“‘ How precious is thy loving kindness, Ὁ God! therefore the 
children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. ‘They shall 
be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make 
them drink of the river of thy pleasures ; for with thee is the fountain of 
life: in thy light shall they see light.” Such is the river of the holy city ; 
the atonement of Christ proceeding from the element of sovereign grace, 
pure and unmixed ; for it admits of no amalgamation with a human merit, 
or with any earthly means of propitiation. Such, too, we may say, was the 
original purport of the revelation of divine mercy ; but this revelation was 
perverted by misrepresentations, and this pervertion involved the loss of 
that peace which an understanding of the truth only is able to give. As it 
was said by the mouth of the prophet, “Ὁ that thou hadst hearkened to my 
commandments ! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness 
as the waves of the sea,” (Is. xlvii. 18.) 

ᾧ 512. ‘In the midst of the street of it ;’ that is, the street of the city, 
the main subject of description, and the subject of the last verse of the pre- 
ceding chapter. Contemplating the origin of all cities and towns as a single 
street, we may take the term street (7 πλατεῖα) to be put here for the whole 
area of the city—the whole city enjoyed the benefits afforded by the river. 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 619 


‘ And on either side of the river, the tree of life.,—On both sides of the 
river here and there, the tree of life was to be found—the tree in the singu- 
lar being put for the genus. ‘Trees of this single kind were to be seen in 
every part ofthecity. ‘The river ran through every street ; and wherever the 
river ran, the tree of life was to be met with: the tree of life and the river 
of life being in fact two different figures of the same means of eternal life. 
Even as figures we may say the tree could not flourish without the river, 
(Ps. i. 3.) 

This must be the tree of life spoken of Rev. ii. 7; “'To him that 
overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the 
paradise of οὐ." ‘This tree is now spoken of as in the midst of the new 
Jerusalem ; consequently the holy city and the paradise of God (the spirit- 
ual paradise) must be identic—different figures of the same economy of 
grace ; this tree, or wood of life, representing the cross of Christ, ($ 47,) 
and the first paradise (¢ 48) representing a position nearly equivalent with 
that afforded by the economy of grace. In the first, however, man was not 
permitted, after having tasted of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, to 
approach the tree of life, while, in the second, this tree is expressly provided 
for him. The difference illustrates the difference of the two positions, both 
as matters of fact and as matters of faith. Under the law, and dependent 
upon his own merits, it is impossible for man to participate in the vicarious 
sacrifice of Christ ; so, as a matter of faith, while the disciple believes him- 
self under the law, and dependent upon his own merits, he cannot place his 
trust in the atonement of Christ. 

‘Which bear twelve manner of fruits..—Viewing the tree of life as the 
cross of Christ, we may judge, by what the cross bore, of the fruit of the 
tree. ‘The blood of the cross is put for the atonement of Christ, or the 
means of reconciliation with God, (Col. i. 20.) Either the atonement itself, 
or the effect of it, (peace with God,) may be contemplated as the fruit 
of the tree of life. So (Col. ii. 14) the nailing of the hand-writing of ordi- 
nances to the cross is spoken of, figuratively, as the fulfilment of the requisi- 
tions of the law by Christ in behalf of the sinner—(see also Eph. ii. 15, 16.) 
We may consider the cross a symbol of the divine purpose, according to 
which Christ became the propitiation for sin, and the substitute for the sin- 
ner. This purpose may be therefore termed the tree or wood, (ξύλον»,) and 
Christ himself (his merits) as the fruit. The tree receives its character from 
its fruit, and it is the offering upon the cross which makes that tree, or the 
divine purpose represented by it, a tree of life. 

We have thus a general idea of the fruit of the tree, but we have still to 
understand how this fruit can be represented as of twelve different species ; 
or, according to the Greek, twelve fruits. Here we call to mind that the 
apocalyptic paradise, or holy city, is not put for the economy of grace itself, 


620 ALL THINGS NEW. 


it is a picture or representation of it. The tree of life in the midst of the 
city is not put for the divine purpose itself, but for a representation of that 
purpose ; and the various fruits of this tree are not put for various merits of 
Christ, (as the means of salvation,) but for various representations or modes 
of exhibiting the same merits ; the fruits of the tree corresponding in char- 
acter, as in number, with the garnishing of the foundations of the wall, and 
with the gates of pearl. As the four branches of one river, enumerated in 
the description of the first paradise, (Gen. ii. 10,) may be symbolical of four 
modes in which the same spiritual means of ablution, and of eternal life, are 
spoken of in Scripture, (water, wine, blood, and propitiation or atonement,) 
so we may suppose the twelve fruits of this tree to represent twelve modes 
of speaking of the same means of justification, or of those imputed merits 
through which the disciple obtains, besides the pardon of his sins and his 
escape from punishment, a title to eternal happiness. 

ᾧ 513. The fruit of a tree, in scriptural language, is a general expression 
for food, solid food or meat, as distinguished from a mere article of drink ; 
as in the garden of Eden, besides its abundant provision of water, there was 
to be found every tree good for food, and as, in a vision of Ezekiel, bearing 
a striking resemblance to this portion of the Apocalypse, after having 
described a stream issuing from under the threshold of the house of the 
Lord, which gradually became a great river, giving life and fertility wherever 
its waters approached, it is added, “‘ And by the river, upon the bank 
thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose 
leaf shal] not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring 
forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued 
out of the sanctuary ; and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf 
thereof for medicine,” (Ezek. xlvii. 1-12.) 

We have had a description of the provisions for the security and comfort- 
able dwelling of the inhabitants of the new Jerusalem, but nothing has yet 
been said of the article of food. We have been informed respecting their 
drink, we now come to a description of their meat. It is under this head that 
we have, as suggested, an allusion to twelve different modes in which the 
merits of Christ are figuratively spoken of in Scripture as the requisite 
means of eternal life; for, although the atonement of Christ is sufficient to 
save the sinner from punishment, something more is®requisite to entitle him 
to eternal happiness; and this something more, is to be found in the imputed 
merits or righteousness of Christ. As we may say of a human being, a 
supply of wholesome drink would be sufficient to preserve him from perish- 
ing, but he requires solid food to enable him to enjoy life. Corresponding 
with this, the benefits derived from the death of Christ are represented in 
the communion of the last supper, by an edible as well as a potable element 


of sustenance. 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB’S WIFE. 621 


The flesh of the firstling of the flock, offered by Abel, the flesh of the 
paschal lamb, the unleavened bread, the manna, the quails, the shew-bread 
of twelve cakes, the flesh of the daily sacrifice, the wheat, the milk, or the 
rich pastures* of the promised land, the honey from the rock, the bread of 
the eucharist, and the material flesh of Christ, severally represent, as we 
apprehend, the same fruit of the tree of life—so many figures of the same 
spiritual meat or food spoken of in this passage of the Apocalypse as twelve 
monthly fruits. ‘These figures are susceptible no doubt of a different classi- 
fication or arrangement, and for some of them other figures may be substi- 
tuted. Our design is rather to suggest the kind of construction to be given 
to the passage, than to attempt a precise interpretation of it. 

‘And yielded her fruit every month.’—That is, continually and perpetu- 
ally. As a plant bearing twelve varieties of flowers, and having one of 
these varieties in bloom every month, must be always in blossom throughout 
the year, Christ and his cross, (the tree of life.) as revealed in the Scrip- 
tures, through the medium of twelve modes of illustration, afford to the 
spiritual understanding a continual and perpetual exhibition of the means of 
eternal life peculiar to the economy of grace—the means not merely of for- 
giveness, but more especially of obtaining the enjoyment of eternal happi- 
ness. 

We do not know that there is occasion for carrying this analysis further, 
but as the number of the fruits multiplied by the number of the months 
would produce the mystic number one hundred and forty-four, this pecu- 


* The prominent idea to be associated with the figure of pastures, as employed 
Ps. xxiii. 2, we take to be rather that of the position of rest than that of a supply of 
food. “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want ;” because he feeds me with the 
bread of life. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures ;” as their position in 
Christ, and the casting of their burthen upon the Lord, gives to those who have been 
labouring to establish a righteousness of their own a state of rest. “He Jeadeth me 
beside the still waters,” (the opposite of those waters elsewhere spoken of by the 
Psalmist as coming over his soul,) by bringing me to the fountain or river of life, 
“He restoreth my soul,” by making me a new creature in Christ. “He leadeth me 
in the paths of righteousness,” by bringing me into his own way of justification; and 
this, it is added, he does for his name’s sake ; that is, for his own glory. 

With these views the disciple “fears no evil,” although contemplating all the 
terrors of the law, as in the valley of the shadow of death ; for there is no condemnation 
to them that are thus in Christ Jesus. With these views he finds himself as a guest 
at the royal table, admitted in the presence and in despite of his accusers, to eat and 
drink with his sovereign ; set apart in Christ, and thus enjoying the security peculiar 
to the Lord’s anointed. 

We have indulged in an analysis of this short psalm, because, in our apprehen- 
sion, it affords a specimen of the correspondence of the figures of the Old Testament 
with those of the New. Well might the Singer of Israel close this poetical effusion 
with the exclamation, “ Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of 
my life; and 1 will dwell in the house~df the Lord for ever. 


622 ALL THINGS NEW. 


liarity may point out the illustration, afforded by the fruits of this tree of 
life, to be a result of the combined testimony of the Old and New Testa- 
ment revelations—the twelve apostles and the twelve tribes. ‘The names 
of the months, and the peculiar characteristics of their respective seasons, 
may also throw some further ight upon the character of these twelve fruits ; 
but we do not venture upon these inquiries at present. 

ᾧ 514. ‘ And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.’ 
—So it was said of the tree seen in the vision of Ezekiel, “‘ The fruit thereof 
shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.”” We were told in the 
preceding chapter, (Rev. xxi. 4,) that under the new state of things there 
is to be no pain, no death, no sorrow nor crying ; and here we have the rea- 
son given for it—that whatever cause of pain or death there may be, or may 
have been, the antidote is now immediately at hand. As it was said of the 
redeemed, Rev. vii. 16, “‘'They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, 
neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat,” (that is, oppressively ;) 
and for this we have here also the reason—the supply of food is ever at hand, 
the fruit of the tree of life is unceasingly within reach ; and if there be no 
suffering from the light or heat of the sun, it is because the leaves of the 
tree of life afford ample protection. 

The word rendered healing, expresses the attendance and kind offices 
of the physician, as well as the good effects of his medicine, (Rob. Lex. 
302;) so the leayes of the tree of life afford relief by their shade as well as 
by their medical qualities. Corresponding with this idea it is said, Ps. exxi. 
5, “ The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand ;” Ps. xci. 1, 2, “ He that 
dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow 
of the A]mighty ;” Is. xxxii. 2, “ A man shall be as a hiding-place from the 
wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as 
the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” ‘These allusions to Christ 
and to the protecting shadow of his merits, accord with his character as the 
true Physician, and with that of his propitiation as the true balm of Gilead. 
It can be to no other than this remedy for the guilt of sin that David alludes 
in his petition, Ps. xli. 4, “‘ Heal my soul, for | have sinned against thee,” 
a healing process explained by the prophet in his prediction of Christ, (Is. 
lili. 3,) “ He was bruised for our iniquities, and with his stripes we are 
healed.’ The leaf of the tree of life-thus bears the same relation to the 
fruit as the element of water bears to the figure afforded by an article of 
food. The leaf of the tree, and the river of the water of life, both direct 
our attention to the same propitiatory provision. In fact, the fruit and the 
leaf owe their virtue to the living stream by the sides of which the tree is 
planted ; ; for which reason the leaf of the tree described by the prophet, it 
is said, (Ezek. xlvii. 12,) shall not fade, or wither : an important consider- 
ation to those depending upon its shade. 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 623 


What is particularly remarkable of this apocalyptic tree, however, is 
that its leaves are for the healing of the nations, (the Gentiles.) Of the 
holy Jerusalem the prophet says, (Is. xxxiii. 20-24,) “The inhabitant 
shall no more say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven 
their iniquity.” And this we may suppose is attributable to their partici- 
pation of the leaves of the tree of life ; for if these leaves be for the healing 
of the nations, much more must they insure health to the inhabitants of the 
city. In both cases, however, the healing must be of the same character— 
it consists in forgiveness. The nations, (Gentiles,) as distinguished from the 
inhabitants, may be contemplated as brought to the city, within the influ- 
ence of the tree of life, to be healed, or to be forgiven. As it was said of 
the strangers to whom the apostle Peter addressed his first epistle, speaking 
of them as healed by the ‘stripes of him who bore our sins in his own body 
on the tree, “ For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto 
the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls,” (1 Peter ii. 25;) and as Paul 
speaks of the Ephesians, by nature Gentiles, aliens from the commonwealth 
of Israel, once strangers and afar off, but now brought nigh by the blood of 
Christ—the position of the Gentile, of the Israelite estranged from his own 
Jand, and of the sheep gone astray, being apparently nearly equivalent 
figures. Apocalyptically, we suppose the effect of the propitiatory elements 
represented by the leaves of the tree of life, upon the legal or self-righteous 
elements spoken of as the nations, to be analogous to this bringing nigh of 
Gentile converts by the blood of Christ. Legal elements, independent of 
their relation to the economy of redemption, are hostile to the economy of 
grace, as, under the conduct of the accuser, they were led on to the attack 
of the beloved city ; but the same elements leading to conviction of sin, and 
taken in connection with the divine plan of atonement, are reconciled to the 
sovereign principle of salvation by grace, and may be thus represented as 
healed by the leaves of the tree of life. The first Gentile state is such as it 
appears under the old order of things ; the second, or healed state, is such 
as is exhibited on the coming in of the new heaven and _ new earth, and 
the consequent manifestation of the new Jerusalem, (the new vision of 
peace.) 


Vs. 3,4. And there shall be no more Kai πᾶν κατάϑεμα τοὐκ ἔσται ἔτι" καὶ 
curse: but the throne of God and of the ὁ ϑρόνος τοῦ ϑεοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἀονίου ἐν αὐτῇ 
Lamb shall be in it: and his servants Η μ ‘ 
shall serve him: and they shall see his ~, | νυ. ς " ΠΝ 
face; and his name (shall be) in their 4¥70" ΚΡ opoytat to προῤρώπον aurou, 
foreheads. καὶ TO OVO αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τῶν μετώπον av- 

τῶν. 


» ‘N ε " > ~ , 
ἔσται, καὶ οἵ δοῦλοι αὐτοῦ λατρευσουσιν 


§ 515. * And there shall be πὸ more curse.’—Legal elements are he re 
deprived of their power ; “For as many as are of the works of the law , 


624 ALL THINGS NEW. 


(ἐξ ἔργων vouov,*) are under the curse ; for it is written,” says Paul, Gal. 
iil. 10, “cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are 
written in the book of the law to do them.” <‘‘ Behold, I set before you 
this day,” said Moses, “a blessing and a curse; a blessing if ye obey the 
commandments of the Lord your God, and a curse if ye will not obey,” 
(Deut. xi. 26-28.) 

Such was the condition upon which the promised inheritance was grant- 
ed to the people of Israel, and upon which possession of the land was to be 
retained. We have supposed that land, flowing with milk and honey, to 
represent the rich abundance of the merits of Christ, the inheritance of the 
saints. There is, however, this difference: the inheritance of the literal 
Canaan was conditional ; it depended upon an exact fulfilment of the law, 
on the part of those to whom the grant was made ;—the inheritance of the 
spiritual Canaan isa free gift. The possession of the one necessarily involved. 
the peril of the curse ;_ in the possession of the other, there is no such peril. 
The position of the Israelites in the land of promise, corresponded with that 
of our first parents in Paradise ; obedience was the condition of enjoyment. 
The result was the same in both cases—the condition was not observed, the 
penalty of the curse was incurred, and the enjoyment forfeited. 

Here, it may be said, two trials of human ability were typically made ; 
one of man generally, the other of the chosen people of God. By both of 
these experiments we are taught that a position under the law is necessarily 
ἃ position involving the curse. By the works of the law no flesh can be 
justified,—man cannot obtain or retain possession of eternal life by his own 
fulfilment of the law. The fault was not in the garden of Eden, or in the 
land of Canaan, but in those to whom the possession was given. Accord- 
ingly, the new Jerusalem exhibits the same benefits, the enjoyment of 
the same inheritance, but without the legal condition. Christ hath re- 
deemed us from the curse of the law,t (Gal. ili. 13) the hand-writing of ᾿ 
ordinances, (the statutes,) involving the peril of the curse, has been blotted 
out, or, rather, all their requisitions have been fulfilled by him who became 
sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him—old 
things have passed away, all things have become new. 

§ 516. ‘ But the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it ;’ or, and 
the throne, &c.—There is no occasion for using the conjunction καὶ 
disjunctively here. The advantage enjoyed by the city about to be 
described, is something in addition to what was before said of it: ‘“ There 
shall be no more curse, and the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it.” 

* Out of the works of the law: something proceeding from that system, and 
depending upon it. 

+ The word rendered curse in Galatians is χατάρα ; in this passage of the Apoca- 


lypse it is χατανάϑεμα; but they both signify obnoxious to punishment, (Rob. Lex.) 
and are very nearly equivalent terms. 


: THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 625 


One advantage arising from this position of the throne in the city is, as 
we have noticed, (Ὁ 510.) that the source whence the pure river of the 
water of life proceeds is in the city ; there is no danger of its being cut off; 
it forms with the throne a constituent part of the city. The throne itself 
(the great white throne, ¢ 455) is that which exhibits the sovereignty of 
God and the Lamb, identifying them both as one sovereign. As we might 
render the Greek—*‘ The seat of God and the Lamb shall be in it,’””—the 
figure does not admit, as we are apt to imagine, of the idea of two seats on 
one throne; God and the Lamb, in this stage of revelation, are identic. 
This throne is in the city ; it is a constituent part of the city ; and corres- 
ponding with this, we say the element of divine sovereignty is a constituent 
part of the economy of grace; while the infinite power of the righteousness 
of Jehovah to save to the uttermost all to whom it is imputed, as it is the 
instrument of exhibiting the sovereignty of God and the Lamb, is also a 
constituent part of the same economy. ‘These also are reasons why there is 
no more curse ; viz., the predominance of sovereign grace, and the certain 
and secure supply afforded by the river of life flowing from the throne. 

It was said of the redeemed, (Rev. vii. 17,) “ And God shall wipe away 
all tears from their eyes’—we have here an explanation of the process. 
The element of divine sovereignty is a constituent element of the plan of 
salvation ; the two are inseparable. It is also the never-failing source of 
the atoning and justifying power—the disciple amidst every doubt casts 
himself upon this one overcoming principle of sovereign grace, and is sus- 
tained by that infinite righteousness which, in the language of inspiration, is 
declared to be “like the great mountains.” Here every doubt is ended, 
and every tear is wiped away. 

‘ And his servants shall serve Atm ;}—God and the Lamb, one Being, one 
and the same occupant of the throne—as otherwise we may presume it 
would have been said, their servants shall serve them. The word translated 
servant, (δοῦλος,) differs very materially in its import from ὁ μισϑωτός or 
ὁ μίσϑιος, which signifies a hired person. The individual serving for wages 
is at liberty to hire himself out or not. If he chooses to forego the 
prospect of compensation, he is under no obligation to serve, he may remain 
idle; but the servants in the sense of the text (Sdvdor) are under an obliga- 
tion to serve. They are not supposed indeed to be in a position of bondage 
as under the law, but they are in the position of those who have been re- 
deemed from captivity, and under the obligation of gratitude to devote them- 
selves to the service of their Redeemer. They have been bought with a 
price, (1 Cor. vi. 20, vii. 23;) they belong therefore to him that bought 
them, and are therefore bound to glorify him in their body and in their spirits 
which are his. To deny this obligation would be to deny the Lord that 
bought them; a heresy predicted of certain false teachers, (2 Peter ii. 1,) 


626 ALL THINGS NEW. 


and a heresy causing the way of truth to be evil spoken of. They have 
been redeemed from the curse of the law ; they do not serve in order to be 
redeemed, but because they have been redeemed. Being made free from 
sin,—delivered from the sting of death—sin having no more power to bring 
them into condemnation, (Rom. vi. 14,) they become on this account 
the servants (δοῦλοι) of God—of him to’ whom they owe their deliver- 
ance. 

It might appear almost unnecessary to predict that the servants of God 
should serve Him; but we presume the design is to place in a prominent 
point of view the motive of action, which, as we have elsewhere shown, 
(ὃ 180,) characterizes the service ; and to show that this motive and the 
service characterized by it necessarily result from the predominance of the 
element of sovereign grace (through the imputation of divine righteousness) 
in securing the eternal life of the disciple, (Rom. v. 21.) The bond-ser- 
vant or slave, actuated only by the fear of punishment or the hope of 
reward, although his conduct may be all that is required, could not be said, 
strictly speaking, to serve his master; because his motive is to serve him- ~ 
self, and he has no other end in view. It could not be said of the master of 
such slaves, Hts servants serve him. But without any other change of circum- 
stances, if these slaves could be supposed to act only from a motive of love 
for their master, or gratitude towards him, without any end of their own in 
view, then this declaration might be made of them, in the strictest sense of 
the expression, “ His servants serve Aim.” 

In the exhibition here made of the plan of salvation, under the figure of 
the new Jerusalem, the most abundant provision is seen to have been made 
for the safety and comfort, and even glory of the inhabitants. In addition to 
this, it is now shown, (from the location of the throne,) that every benefit, 
or privilege, or glory, afforded, or to be afforded by this provision, is due to 
sovereign grace alone ; consequently, the recipient of these favours has no 
motive of action left, and can have no other motive, than that of serving 
hig Benefactor. With him there can be no room for motives resulting either 
from fear or hope; his bread is given him, his water is sure: he is abun- 
dantly satisfied with the fulness of God’s house, and made to drink of the 
river of his pleasures, (Ps. xxxvi. 8.) Of such, therefore, it may be said, 
not only that they are the servants of God, but also that they serve Him.* 
In like manner the principles of the economy of grace will be manifested to 
tend directly to the service and honour of God. 


* The Romans had two sorts of servants—the slave proper, and the slave made 
free, or the freed-man. The first served from a motive of fear; the last, after having 
been made free, remained frequently with his master, sometimes as a confidential 
servant, and generally so remaining and serving (as we may suppose) from a senti- 
ment of grateful aitachment. To this distinction allusion appears to be made, 1 Cor. 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 627 


ᾧ 517. ‘ And they shall see his face.’-—Or, as the Greek expression might 
be rendered, ‘ They shall behold his countenance ;’ that is, the face of God 
and the Lamb—not their faces, but one face—a fulfilment of the prediction, 
(Is. xxxiii. 17,) “Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty.” That the 
face of God and the Lamb may be seen, it must be manifested, or unveiled. 
Such a manifestation we suppose to be here contemplated. Under the old 
dispensation, no man could see the face of God and live, (Ex. xxxiii. 2 ;) 
under the new economy, the face of God is exhibited in Jesus Christ ; the 
disciple in Christ enjoying the position of holiness necessary to enable him 
to see God, ($321;) and God in Christ unveiling himself to the dis- 
ciple. 

To behold the face of a sovereign, is an expression in Scripture for the 
enjoyment of his favour, receiving marks of his approbation ; a deprivation 
of this privilege of seeing the king’s face, being an opposite token of disap- 
probation. As Absalom, although permitted at the solicitation of Joab to 
return to Jerusalem, was not allowed to see the king’s face, (2 Sam. xiv 
28.) The kings of the earth, the great men, and the rich men, &c., could 
not endure the face of him who sat on the throne, (Rev. vi. 15, 16;) from 
whose face, also, the former heaven and the former earth fled away, (Rev. 
xix. 11 ;) representing, as we have supposed, elements not to be counte- 
nanced in an exhibition of divine sovereignty. Opposite to this the elements 
here personified as the servants of God and the Lamb, in the strict sense of 
the term, so far from fleeing away, or calling for a shelter to hide themselves, 
see the face and enjoy the favour of the sovereign on the throne. Elements 
or principles, as they are, of the divine plan of redemption, tending directly 
to the service of God and the Lamb, they are countenanced and sustained 
by the ruling element of sovereign grace. 

‘And his name shall be in their foreheads.’-—Like the opposites of 
those hiding themselves in the dens and the rocks of the mountains, these 
servants of God and of the Lamb are sealed in their foreheads, (Rev. vi. 15, 
and vii. 3.) We suppose them to be identic with the one hundred and 
forty-four thousand of all the twelve tribes—elements of truth resulting 
from the combined revelations of the old and new dispensations ; manifested 
in the first instance as the chosen servants of God; next seen to be asso- 
ciates and co-operators with the Lamb (the element of propitiation) in ex- 
hibiting the glory of God and the triumph of the elements of grace over the 
principles of self-righteousness and misinterpretation, (Rev. xiv. 1-4, and 


vii. 22, 23. The disciple of Christ may be contemplated either as the slave or as the 
Sreed-man of his divine master :—as purchased by the blood of Christ, he belongs to 
Christ, and is, on that account, bound to serve him forever: as placed in a position of 
freedom by grace, he is the freed-man of Christ, and bound to serve him from a 
motive of gratitude. 


628 ALL THINGS NEW. — 


xv. 2-4;) and, finally, manifested to be constituent elements of the econo- 
my of grace, servants of God and the Lamb as one object of worship, having 
his name, the name of God and the Lamb, in their foreheads. ‘This mark 
we suppose (ᾧ 326) to be equivalent to some prominent feature of the doc- 
trinal principle distinguished by it, and places the true character and tendency 
of that principle beyond dispute ; bearing in this respect the seal of divine 
approbation, and affording upon all occasions a token for the recognition of 
its correctness. 

When the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand was first 
described, no name was mentioned ; when those sealed ones were next seen, 
the name of the Father of the Lamb is expressly stated to be written in 
their foreheads, (Rev. xiv. 1 ;) now the revelation being nearly completed, 
the same name, (ὃ 100,) as we presume it to be, is announced (taking the 
connection of this verse with the preceding into view) as the name of God 
and of the Lamb ;—doctrines, tending to show the honour and glory of the 
whole work of man’s redemption to belong to God and the Lamb, as one 
Being, may be considered so characterized as to bear the name of that one 
Being in their foreheads. ‘The same may be said of the principles of such 
doctrines ; such a characteristic feature being a mark or indication of the 
setting apart of the doctrine possessing it to the manifestation of the truth. 

A plate of pure gold bearing the inscription Holiness to the Lord, was 
to be placed upon Aaron’s forehead, (Ex. xxviii. 37, 38,) “ That he may 
bear,”’ as it was said, “the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of 
Israel shall hallow” (sanctify or set apart) “in all their gifts ; and it shall be 
upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord.” So, accord- 
ing to the LXX, the servant of Abraham selected a jewel for the forehead, 
as a mark of the distinction intended for Rebekah, (Gen. xxix. 22.) On 
the other hand, the mark in the forehead of the leprous man, was the indi- 
cation of his utter uncleanness, (Lev. xii. 43-46 ;) and the harlot in the 
wilderness bore the inscription upon her forehead, “ Mystery,” ‘‘ Babylon,” 
&c., and the subjects of the beast, without exception, received a mark in 
their foreheads, as well as in their right hands. It is thus to the forehead, 
that we are to look for an index of the character, office, or position of the 
individual marked ; and analogous with this we judge of the character of a 
system, doctrine, or principle, by some distinguishing feature or manifest 
tendency to be observed in it. 

The apostles wrought miracles in the name of their divine Master. ‘The 
glory of what they were enabled to perform thus redounded to him, and not 
to them. The disciple offers his prayers in the name of Jesus; the power 
of the petition, therefore, and the praise for the answer to the petition, are to 
be ascribed to the name in which it is offered, and not to the piety, fervency, 
or merit, of the petitioner. So, Col. iii. 17, “ And whatsoever ye do in word 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 629 


or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus ;” as if it were said, that in all 
things Ais name may be glorified, and not yours. Thus the leading promi- 
nent feature in every principle or doctrine peculiar to the economy of grace 


must be that of a manifest tendency to exalt the name and magnify the 
glory of God and the Lamb.* 


πὰ one ep abel be no mah hare: Kai νὺξ οὐκ ἔσται ἔτι, καὶ oty ἕξουσι 
an ey shali need no candle, neither , ; ὴ UN oe ἐλ οι 
: : slay φωτὸς λύχνου καὶ φωτὸς ἡλίου, or 
light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth ἔς f 9 rine ἐδ ἐᾷ μια σα 
them light: and they shall reign forever *U9!0S 6 “FOS φῶτοῦσεν er αὐτου Hab βα- 
and ever. σιλεύσουσιν εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. 


§ 518. ‘ And there shall be no night there.’-—This was said of the city in 
the preceding chapter, (v. 25,) but the design was then to show that the 
gates were never closed ; now the purpose is to exhibit the perpetual dura- 
tion of light—that there is no interval of darkness, and none to be appre- 
hended. ‘ Who is among you,” says the prophet, (Is. 1. 10,) “ that fear- 
eth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness 
and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon 
his God”’—and this is said in reference to the justification spoken of in the 
eighth verse of the same chapter. 

We have already defined our views of light, in a spiritual sense, as a 
figure of divine righteousness, the moral perfection of the Deity resplendent 
as the light, and by imputation clothing the objects of his favour with that 
light, as with a garment. The economy of redemption (the true vision 
of peace) fully manifested, affords a constant, perpetual exhibition of this 
gracious provision ; for which reason it is said there is no night there—no 
season of darkness, (¢ 506.) The city is an opposite of the kingdom of 
darkness, (Ὁ 363 ;) and affording, as it does, an exhibition of the position of 
the disciple ἐπ Christ, it is an opposite of those imperfect views of faith, 
which correspond only with a position out of Christ. In this stage of 
revelation, it may be said, “The darkness is past, and the true light now 


* In the ordinary affairs of life, it is no uncommon thing to make use of the name 
of athird person to obtain a desired object. Under a monarchical government, he 
who seeks the liberation of a pardoned criminal, takes with him a document bearing 
the royal signature. With this he goes to the prison in the king’s name, and it is 
manifest that by the power of this name the release is effected. 

In matters of commerce, he who has no money in the bank, obtains the order ofa 
third person who has money or eredit with the institution ; thus furnished, the holder 
of the order receives the amount desired, but it is evidently to the name of the third 
person that the credit of the operation is due. So the disciple, needing a righteous- 
ness to justify him at the great tribunal of divine judgment, and having none of his 
own, presents himself in the name of him who is declared to be Jehovah our right- 
eousness, (God and the Lamb;) the plea made in this name is admitted, and he is 
fully justified—the praise and glory of that justification belonging to him whose name 
is thus employed. 


630 ALL THINGS NEW. 


shineth ;” an epoch responsive to the prophetic invocation, (Is. lx. 1, 2,) 
“ Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon 
thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness 
the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen 
upon thee’’—the imputed glory of divine perfection being equivalent to a 
covering of light. 

‘And they need no candle.’—Or, they have no need of the light of a 
lamp ; that is, of an artificial light; such apparently as we find alluded to, 
Is. 1. 2: “ Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about 
with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have 
kindled. This shall ye have of my hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow”—a 
state of sorrow arising from erroneous views further described, Is. lix. 8-10: 
“The way of peace they know not, they have made them crooked paths ; 
therefore they say, We wait for light, but behold obscurity ; for brightness, 
but we walk in darkness ; we grope for the wall like the blind, we stumble 
at noonday as in the night.’ Where the knowledge of salvation by mputed 
righteousness is wanting, there are perpetual efforts (crooked ways) to create 
some righteousness or some merits of one’s own, in the glory of which the 
deluded errorist thinks himself to be walking, as in the sparks of his own 
kindling. Where, on the contrary, the truth is manifested and understood, 
there is no temptation to these efforts: Jehovah once seen as our righteous- 
ness, no other light can be required, or even desired—they need no candle. 

‘ Neither light of the sun, for the LORD GOD giveth them light.’*—So 
it was said in the preceding chapter, (v. 23,) “The city hath no need of 
the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it,’ &c. ; and we have there 
remarked, that the glory of God, as it is manifest in the Lamb, is the light, 
or lamp of the city, (§ 504.) The purpose then, was to show the glory of 
divine perfection to be the only and all-sufficient glory, exhibited by, or in, 
the economy of redemption. Now, we apprehend, the purpose is to show 
that as the LORD GOD (Jehovah, ᾧ 437) is manifested to be the light of 
the city, there is no occasion for any of the intermediate representations of that 
that light before employed. Christ (the Sun of righteousness) has now given 
up the kingdom to the sovereign God, (God and the Lamb ;) this figure, 
therefore, of the swn is no longer called for; so, as the city is now mani- 
fested to exhibit the glory of Jehovah himself, the figure of an opaque body 
reflecting the rays of the Sun of righteousness ($$ 202, 267) is also dis- 
pensed with. ‘The Lord God shineth upon them, as it is expressed in the 


* Or, ‘shall shine wpon them,’ according to the Greek of some editions, and, we 
apprehend, correctly ; because the allusion is to their position in light, not to a light 
in them. It is not an intellectual light, but light in a spiritual sense, which is here 
the subject of contemplation. 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 6351 


original, or as the prophet expresses it, “The LORD (Jehovah) is thine 
everlasting light,” (Is. Ix. 19, 20.) 

As it is said, (1 John iv. 15, 16,) “ Whosoever confesseth that Jesus is 
the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God.* God is love; and 
he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” The same 
God, of whom it is said (1 Tim. vi. 16) that “ He is the blessed and only 
Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords ; who only hath immortality, 
dwelling tn the light which no man can approach unto.’ Consequently, 
to dwell in God is to dwell in light, (spiritual light or righteousness ;) as it 
was predicted in reference to views of faith of this character, “Surely, 
shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength,” (Is. xlv. 24.) 

§ 519. “ And they shall reign for ever and ever.’—In addressing him- 
self to the seven churches, (Rev. i. 6,) the apostle speaks of them, as well 
as of himself, as having been made kings and priests unto God, according 
to our common version ; or, according to the Wiclif version, and many 
Greek editions, ($ 15,) as those to whom a kingdom had been made by 
their being constituted priests to God. In the new song of the four beasts 
and twenty-four elders, (Rev. v. 8-10,) they speak of themselves as made 
kings and priests, (ὃ 140,) and as such destined to reign upon the earth; or, 
as it is here also expressed by Wiclif, “ madist us a kingdom prestis to oure 
God, and we schuln regne on erthe.” So it is said of those that have part 
in the first resurrection, that they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and 
shall re¢gn with hima thousand years. In the passage under consideration, 
neither of the terms king or priest is mentioned, but we may reasonably 
presume that the re¢gntng is of the same character as that spoken of on the 
three preceding occasions. 

As we have noticed before, the term βασιλεύς," usually rendered king, 
was sometimes applied amongst the Greeks to “‘ one who presided over sacred 
things, Dem. 940, 13,” and Βασίλισσα, (queen,) is ‘“ spoken of the wife of 
the rex sacrorum at Athens, Dem. 1370,” (Rob. Lex. 104, 105;) while 
the verb, βασιλεύω, commonly rendered retgn, signifies, metaphorically, to 
be in force, to be predominant, to prevail, as is said of death, sin, and grace, 
Rom. v. 14, 17, 21, vi. 19. This reigning we may presume, therefore, to 
be a priestly reigning, a predominance in sacred things, a predominance or 
ruling of certain principles of faith in matters of religious doctrine. 

It is evident that this term reign, or king, is not to be understood here 
in the ordinary sense, as of the possession of supreme authority by human 


* This dwelling in God we take to be a figure of the position in which the disciple 
is accounted to be placed in divine judgment; the confession above mentioned 
being a mark or token, and not the means of occupying the position described: as the 
apostle (John) commences the chapter with a designation of marks by which the 
Spirit of God is to be known. 


49 


632 ALL THINGS NEW. 


beings ; for, if we suppose every disciple saved to become, in a future state, 
literally a king or chief, we must either suppose the whole multitude of 
disciples to be kings over those who are not saved, or else they must all of 
them be kings without subjects. We are shut up to the conclusion, there- 
fore, that the term reign is to be understood here in a metaphorical or 
spiritual sense, that the reigning pertains to sacred things, (matters of faith ;) 
and that, in order to ascertain its true character, we must take into view 
the peculiar functions of the priesthood ; the degree of power being illus- 
trated by the figure of royal authority ; the kind of power by the character 
of the priestly office. 

The word priest or priests does not occur in any of the Epistles, except 
in that to the Hebrews. In this Epistle, as well as in the Gospels and in 
Acts, these terms are exclusively applied to the Jewish priests, strictly such 
under the Levitical law ; except in Hebrews, where Christ and Melchisedek 
are spoken of as priests; and in Acts xiv. 18, where the priests of Jupiter 
are mentioned.* Christ himself nowhere designates his apostles or any of 
his followers as priests, nor do the apostles themselves anywhere assume 
this title or appellation. The office and title of przest, throughout the New 
Testament, appear to be contemplated as altogether vested in the house of 
Aaron, under the legal dispensation ; and, on the fulfilment of that dispen- 
sation, as having been altogether merged in the person of Christ. 

The term priesthood occurs, in the New Testament, only in the Epistle 
to the Hebrews, where the subject treated of is the Levitical priesthood, 
(merging, as we have viewed it, in the person of Christ,) and in the first 
Epistle of Peter, (ii. 5and 9,) where the apostle speaks of the whole mul- 
titude of those to whom his Epistle is addressed, (the strangers scattered 
throughout Pontus, &c.,) asa holy and royal priesthood, recommending 
even to this priesthood their reception of the sincere milk of the word as 
new-born babes. As he says, “if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gra- 
cious,” implying very apparently that, so far from being able to teach, there 
was some doubt whether they were yet possessed of the elementary prin- 
ciples of the doctrine of Christ ; whence we draw the inference that, in the 
contemplation of the inspired writer, the province of a priest was altogether 
distinct from that of a teacher. In addition to this, the apostle, in the same 
connection, gives us the reason why these “ new-born babes” are denomi- 
nated a priesthood, which is, that they are “to offer up spiritual sacri- 
fices, acceptable,” &c.; whence we draw the further conclusion, that the 
functions of a priest, strictly speaking, are those peculiar to the offering of 


* The priests of Jupiter were properly styled priests, because they offered sacri- 
fices, or presided over the offering of sacrifices. Such were also the priests of Baal, 
(2 Kings x. 19,) and of other false gods, mentioned in the Old Testament, not teachers, 
or preachers, or pastors, but sacrificators. 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 633 


sacrifices. A priest may be a teacher, and a teacher may be a priest; but 
a teacher, pastor, or minister, in the ordinary sense of the term, is not neces- 
sarily a priest in the scriptural sense of the term. Under the Levitical dis- 
pensation the offering of sacrifices, in the nature of the case, rendered it 
incumbent upon the priest to teach the children of Israel the difference 
between holy and unholy, clean and unclean, (Lev. x. 10, 11 ;) but even in 
this respect, in the time of King Asa, it appears that Israel had been for a 
long season without a teaching priest, (2 Chron. xv. 3.) This teaching may 
be considered, therefore, a function incidental to the office of a priest, but 
not that which characterized the individual as a priest. A priest might be 
a prophet, or might be so on some occasions, but all priests were not pro- 
phets, neither were all the prophets of the Hebrews priests ; nor, we appre- 
hend, were the schools of the prophets (as they have been termed) schools 
of priests, preparatory to the service of the temple. 

The English term priest comes apparently from the French verb 
préter, originally spelt with an s, (prester,) without the circumflex, signify- 
ing to orrer—that is, to offer sacrifice. The Greek “Ἱερεύς, translated 
priest, is derived from the verb ‘Jegevm, signifying not merely to offer sacri- 
fice, but also to zmmolate, to slaughter, the victim offered: a function which 
in early times belonged particularly to the office of a priest, as we find, 
under the law, the principal duties performed by the priests in the temple 
service consisted of manual operations ; and as, in the example of the patri- 
arch upon Mount Moriah, we perceive it to have been considered a matter 
of course that the offerer of the sacrifice should himself slaughter the victim. 
So Jesus Christ speaks of the offering he was about to make, (John x. 15 
and 18:) “ I lay down my life of myself. No one (οὐδείς) taketh it from 
me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have 
power to take it again.” Whence he is called the priest (the high priest) 
of our profession ; not as a teacher, although he taught as never man spake ; 
nor as a pastor, although he is the shepherd (pastor) and bishop (overseer) 
of our souls ; but he is called a priest, because he himself officiated, once 
for all, in offering up the one great sacrifice of atonement, called for by 
Infinite Justice, for blotting out the transgressions of a world of sinners. If 
he had not laid down his life of himself, he could not have been called 
a priest; and if he had not had power to lay it down, as well as power 
to take it again, he could not have filled the office of a priest. 

§ 520. Under the law none of the people were esteemed worthy to 
offer sacrifices acceptable to God ; it was only through the appointed chan- 
nel that the offerings of any could be received, and they were then accepted 
only because such was the medium ordained of God ;—this medium was the 
house of Aaron. ‘The assumption of the priestly office on the part of any 
individual of any other family, would not have rendered the sacrifice either 
holy or acceptable. Aaron and his lineage may thus be said to have reigned 


634 ALL THINGS NEW. 


over sacred things; to them was given a kingdom, that they should be 
priests to God ; they did not assume it, neither did Aaron assume the office. 
The institution of a medium, through which the offering of a sinful being 
could be made acceptable to the Most High, could not in the nature of the 
case be a matter of human appointment; neither could the presiding over 
such an institution be an office which any created being could assume for 
himself, or in behalf of others. Wherefore, it is said, (Heb. v. 4,) “ No 
man taketh this honour upon himself, but he that is called of God, as was 
Aaron ;”’—not the honour of teaching, or preaching, or even of prophesy- 
ing, but the honour of offering sacrifices for sins ; the honour of becoming a 
medium through which, or a mediator through whom the propitiatory ofter- 
ings of a sinful creature can be made to a God of infinite purity. This is 
the honour we apprehend which no man taketh, or can take upon himself, 
except he that is called of God. The house of Aaron has long since passed 
into oblivion ; no pretender to a lineal descent from that family, amongst 
the descendants of Abraham, ventures to claim the priestly or sacrificatorial 
office ; even the tribe of Levi is no longer to be identified; and if the 
temple were now restored, and sacrifices as of old again required, no man 
of the Hebrew nation at least would assume to occupy at the altar the 
station of him who was called of God. 

Let us contrast with this the language of the apostle Peter, concerning 
those for whose growth even the milk of the word was desirable: “ Ye also, 
as lively stones, (in allusion to the living stone, Christ,) are built up a 
spiritual house, an holy priesthood,” &c.; and again, “ But ye are a chosen 
generation, a royal priesthood,’ &c. ‘Thus, an honour which Aaron did 
not take upon himself, and which in a certain sense, even Christ, it is said, 
did not take upon himself, (Heb. v. 5,) is attributed to a whole community 
of disciples, ‘strangers scattered,” &c. The priestly reign or kingdom of 
the house of Aaron, merged in the person of Christ, has now become the 
kingdom of the followers of Jesus ; they have not merely a priesthood insti- 
tuted among them, as was the case with the children of Israel, but they are 
all, without exception, constituted one priesthood, and one generation of 
priests ;—and this for the purpose, as it is said by Peter, of offering up 
spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. As Aaron and his 
descendants presided over the offerings of the temple, so these preside or 
reign (βασιλεύω) over the spiritual sacrifices alluded to. 

It has been suggested that “Christians are here denominated priests, 
ἱεράτευμα, because they are said, ἀνενέγκαι πνευματικὰς ϑυσίας, 1. 6.5 instea 
of offering victims, they exhibit piety and devotedness to the service of 
God ; and being priests, they are also said to be Baotheo,” (royal ;) ‘in 
the same manner as they are said συμβασιλεύειν τῷ Χριστῷ,᾽᾽ (to reign with 
Christ,) &c., (Rob. Lex. 313.) 

This interpretation comes far short, we think, of the meaning of the 


THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE. 635 


apostle. If Christians had no better sacrifices to make than those of their 
own “ piety and devotedness,” we apprehend their offerings would be little 
better than those of Cain—mere fruits of the ground :—a spiritual sacrifice 
must be a sacrifice in a spiritual sense. In this sense Christ, our great High 
Priest, offered once for all his merits, his atonement, his righteousness, in 
behalf of all his followers ; this was the offering over which he reigned or 
presided. The disciple adopted in Christ is accounted to offer the same 
sacrifice—in the sight of God occupying the position of his divine substi- 
tute ; and thus, in the same sense, as a priest retgning or presiding over 
sacred things. 

Such a state of things must be the converse of that existing under the 
legal dispensation ; there, no individual could officiate as a priest or sacri- 
ficator, except he were of the family of Aaron; here every individual, 
although so feeble in faith as to be fed with milk rather than meat, is ac- 
counted a priest; coming unto God in Christ, as in his holy temple; 
resting his offering upon Christ for sanctification, as upon an altar; and 
pleading the merits of Christ as his offering ; dipping, as it were, his hyssop 
branch into the blood of sprinkling, and laying his hand upon the sin-atoning 
Lamb. In this respect, the whole community of Christians constitute a 
royal priesthood, and every member of that community rezgns as a priest.* 
The definition we have already given of the term must be sufficient to show, 
however, that every such priest is not a pastor, or teacher, or prophet, 
bishop or overseer, presbyter or elder ; the duties to be discharged by such 
functionaries requiring gifts and talents not alike possessed by all; while 
the spiritual priesthood requires no other qualification than that of adoption 
in Christ, according to the purpose of God. 

Apocalyptically, we apply the same interpretation to the words “ and 
they shall reign for ever and ever.” The reign is of the priestly character, 
a spiritual presiding over spiritual sacrifices. The elements of the economy of 
grace are here personified as the servants of God, charged with the exhibition 
of the true sacrifice, as well as of all that pertains to the worship of God, 
in the strict sense of that term. The same elements of truth which virtually 
serve God and the Lamb, by promoting his glory, (causing all honour and 
praise to be given to him,) virtually also preside in his temple ; reigning as 
priests over sacred things, by their tendency to place the vicarious offering 
of Christ in its true light, and thence educing that offering or sacrifice of 
gratitude, which the redeemed sinner is bound to render to God in return 
for all his benefits. As it is said, in reference to the same elements, Rom. 
v. 20, “ Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin 


* Christ is the Aaron of the Christian dispensation ; every follower of Christ, as 
adopted in him, is accordingly of the house and lineage of the spiritual Aaron, the 
High-Priest of our profession. 


636 ALL THINGS NEW. 


reigned unto death, even so might grace reign, through righteousness, unto 
eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord ;” or, as the language might be para- 
phrased, ‘ Where the transgression of the law most abundantly rendered 
man obnoxious to condemnation, there the principles of salvation by sove- 
reign grace most powerfully predominated, through justification by Jesus 
Christ, unto eternal life.’ 


_ V.6. And he said unto me, These say- Kul εἶπέ μοι" οὗτοι οἵ λόγοι πιστοὶ καὶ 
ings (are) faithful and true.* ΣΕ 
͵ 


ᾧ 521. ‘And he said unto me,’ &c.—The word are is supplied by our 
translators, and we may dispense with it, or transpose it by rendering the 
expression, ‘ these are the faithful and true sayings.’ ‘This is the third time 
in which this formal declaration has occurred, the circumstances on each 
occasion being similar ; that is, as if an answer were required to a question 
understood, ($$ 427, 471.) It has just been declared that these servants 
of God shall rule, reign, or predominate forever. The question understood, 
we suppose to be, Who are these servants of God? the answer is, These, 
the true and faithful words or sayings ; or, rather, as the term λόγοι, plural 
of λόγος, might be rendered, These faithful and true doctrines, or elements 
of doctrine ;+ principles of the economy of grace, comprehended in the 
whole purpose of God ;—that decision of the divine mind, (fiat,) unchange- 
able from all eternity, which is distinguished, by way of pre-eminence in the 
Scriptures, as the WORD OF GOD. Every doctrinal principle involved 
in this Word or purpose, pertaining to man’s redemption, must reign, pre- 
side, or predominate ; its reign being secured by all the arrangements of the 
economy of redemption, as the elements of a city population are secured in 
the enjoyment of their rights and privileges by the entire structure of the 
city, with all its peculiar advantages. 

These sayings, principles, or words, (A0yo:,) were personified, Rey. xix. 
9, as the guests at a nuptial feast, taking part in the celebration or mani- 
festation of the marriage. Again, they appear, Rev. xxi. 3-5, as the things 
made new: and lastly, they are represented as these servants of God and the 
Lamb ; their whole tendency being that of glorifying the name of Jehovah. 
We do not suppose these sayings, however, to be represented solely by the 
dwellers in the city, we suppose all the elements of the economy of redemp- 
tion to be virtually the servants, and (οἱ λόγοι) the words of God ; accord- 
ingly they are all represented by different parts of the city, or different 
parts of the city may be different figures for the same elements of truth, or 


true Sayings. 


* We have divided the verse here, because we think the subject of the first clause 
properly belongs to the description just given of the holy city; while the last clause 
is part of the account given by the messenger of himself: 

Τ (Rob. Lex. 416. λόγος (3) (Ὁ) (a) applied to Rev. i. 9, and xx. 4.) 


RETROSPECT OF THE VISION OF THE BRIDE. 637 


The preceding narrative, from the commencement of the fourth chapter 
to the close of the twentieth chapter, contains an exhibition of the contest 
between opposite principles, (the elements of truth and those of error,) in 
sacred things—matters pertaining to the way of salvation. ‘Towards the 
close of this narrative, the elements of truth become more and more devel- 
oped, and their destined predominance more and more brought forth, till 
finally, in this exhibition of the new Jerusalem, it is manifested that they 
are to reign or rule forever ; all of these elements being symbolized in the 
various particulars given of the splendid and well-fortified city just contem- 
plated ; they are all spoken of as destined to serve God continually, and 
to rule or reign in sacred things forever; and all, accordingly, we appre- 
hend, are entitled to the appellation of true and faithful sayings, (λόγοι,) 
elements of doctrine, elements of the same class as those of whom it is said, - 
Rey. xiv. 5, “ And in their mouth was found no guile ;” opposites of ‘‘ what- 
soever causeth abomination or maketh a lie.” 


RETROSPECT OF THE VISION OF THE BRIDE. 


ᾧ 522. Although the description upon which we have been comment- 
ing is that of a city, and not of a woman, we have purposely retained for 
our remarks the running title of the Bride, the Lamb’s wife, because it is 
important to bear in mind, throughout our consideration of the subject, that 
the new Jerusalem or holy city, and the bride or wife of the Lamb, are 
representations of the same mystery—interchangeable figures of the same 
subject. 

Whether as a bride or city, the holy Jerusalem is equally an opposite of 
Babylon ; both are revealed to us by a like twofold mode of illustration. 
The one as a bride appears in a clothing of the purest white, prepared by 
the hand of God himself; all her attractions being destined to secure the 
affections of one object alone ; the other appears arrayed in the meretricious 
decorations of a harlot, intent upon perverting from the right way all coming 
within the baneful influence of her allurements. But whether as a bride or 
city, the new Jerusalem is seen descending immediately from God, out of 
heaven, leaving no room for suspicion of the smallest adventitious mixture 
of earthly material, either in her own composition or in that of her array ; 
while all that is to be inferred from the description of Babylon as a woman, 
or as a city, shuts us up to the conclusion that she is of the earth, earthy. 

From the description given of the holy city, the hand of man is not to 
be traced in its structure ; as, in the building of the altar of stone, upon 
which no iron tool of man was to pass, (Ex. xx. 25; Deut. xxvii. 5,) an 
intermixture of human labour in giving it perfection, or in attempting to 


638 ALL THINGS NEW. 


make it more acceptable to Jehovah, would have been a pollution. Baby- 
lon, on the contrary, is represented to have risen into importance from her 
own resources—her arts, her manufactures, and her commerce ;—her mag- 
nificence was instrumentally the work of men’s hands, and her wealth and 
power the result of human toil. Nothing is said in the Apocalypse of the 
walls of Babylon ; they were but earthly mounds when first erected, and 
may be supposed to have crumbled to decay long ere her final destruction. 
Of gates she had no occasion, for there was nothing however false and abo- 
minable which might not have obtained admittance ; even that which was 
of a better character would have been received for the purpose of effecting 
its perversion. Neither is any thing said of her supply of water: the great 
river had been dried up; she had no living springs to which she could 
resort; her cisterns were broken cisterns, incapable of answering the pur- 
pose for which they were intended ; she was utterly without the means of 
arresting the conflagration with which she was destroyed. Sudden destruc- 
tion came upon her, and that without remedy—she could not escape ;— the 
fire destroyed every work, for every work was of the same destructible 
material ; even her site or foundation was nowhere to be found. She had 
no temple of God—He was not in any of her thoughts—God is not sup- 
posed to have been there worshipped at all. Self was the idol of her adora- 
tion ; and of that idol the whole city may be contemplated as the temple ; 
self-interest, self-gratification, and mercenary calculation, constituting all her 
temple service. 

We have adverted to these particulars of the harlot city by way of 
recalling the imagery furnishing so striking a contrast with the features of 
the vision of peace, the heavenly Jerusalem. Employing Paul’s exposition 
of the two Jerusalems, (Gal. iv. 24,) as a key to these two figures of the 
Apocalypse, we have taken them as representations of two plans, systems, 
or economies of salvation; Babylon representing a plan of works, not 
purely legal, but a confused mixture—in pretence a gospel plan, but really 
an adulteration of the elements of grace with those of works, ($¢ 385, 
386.) The holy Jerusalem, on the other hand, we suppose to represent, as 
ina picture, the divine scheme of salvation by grace, sovereign grace, 
entirely free from any admixture of pretensions to merit on the part of the 
being saved. Accordingly, the glory exhibited in this picture is the glory 
of God alone. The vision offers for our contemplation no foundation or 
site upon which to rest our hopes other than Christ, (God in Christ,) the 
stone, the rock, the mountain filling the whole world. It shows us no wall 
of salvation but that of divine righteousness ; it shows us no gate but the 
way of access to God in Christ—a way justly to be esteemed a pearl of 
inestimable value ; it shows us no means of ablution from sin but the river 
of the water of life, the atoning offering of the Son of God. It shows us no 


RETROSPECT OF THE VISION OF THE BRIDE. 639 


element of eternal life but the merits of Christ, the fruit and the leaves of 
the tree of life ; it shows us no light or perfection constituting a portion of 
this scheme but that of Jehovah himself. At the same time, it shows us 
that all these elements are but so many modes of exhibiting one means of 
eternal life—God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. The foun- 
dation or mountain, the wall, the gates, the river, the tree of life, the light, 
are all so many representations of God the Saviour ; and all of them such 
representations as have been elsewhere set forth by prophets and apostles, 
and to which the whole burden of the Old and New Testament revelations 
bears a uniform testimony ;—the manifestation of truth exhibited in this 
vision of peace, in which God and the Lamb appear one and the same 
divine Being, showing us what the apostle declares (1 Cor. xv. 28) is to 
be finally manifested—that God is all in all—Jehovah our righteousness. 
As it is said, (Is. xii. 2,) “ Behold, God is my salvation ; I will trust and 
not be afraid: the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song.” 

§ 523. That such is the interpretation to be given to this portion of the 
Apocalypse may be readily granted ; but the question will still occur, Why 
is this exhibition of the economy of grace denominated the Lamb’s wife 
or bride ? 

To answer this inquiry we go back to the account first given of the 
institution of marriage, and learn that its prominent characteristic is that of 
an accounted identity, resulting from the union of two parties by this rite, 
(Gen. ii. 24 ;) an identity referred to by Jesus Christ himself, as the pecu- 
liar feature of the same union, (Matt. xix. 5, 6 ;) and an identity alluded 
to by Paul as analogous to that of the mysterious union of Christ and the 
church, (Eph. v. 31, 32.) To say that the new Jerusalem is the wife of 
the Lamb, is equivalent, therefore, to the declaration that the new Jerusalem 
and the Lamb are to be accounted identic :—whatever is represented by the 
one is represented by the other; whatever is revealed concerning the one 
is revealed concerning the other; whatever the holy city represents, with 
her walls, her gates, her light, her river, her structures of gold, and her tree 
of life, is represented also by the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world. ‘That the Lamb of the Apocalypse is a figure of the divine Being 
to whom the appellation of “ the Lamb of God” was given by the Baptist, 
(John i. 29, 36,) must be indisputable. This Lamb of God is Jesus Christ : 
whatever is revealed then under the symbol of the bride or Lamb’s wife, 
must be accounted identic with Christ ; and a revelation or unveiling of the 
bride or holy city, must be accounted equivalent to an unveiling of Jesus 
Christ himself; corresponding with the construction (¢ 2) put upon the 
title of this book, (Rev. i. 1,) “ The Revelation of Jesus Christ ;” that it 
is the unveiling of his character, and offices, and work, in what may be 
termed their peculiarly spiritual aspect. 


640 ALL THINGS NEW. 


Jesus Christ reveals himself in this vision of the apostle, and he makes 
this revelation of himself through the instrumentality of the new Jerusalem— 
the wife of the Lamb ;—what she represents, He is ; He is represented in 
her. As the woman is the glory of the man, (1 Cor. xi. 7,) so the new 
Jerusalem exhibits the glory of the Lamb, or rather of God and the Lamb, 
one Being. The glory of the Lamb is the glory of God, (ᾧ 504 ;) as Christ 
is declared (Heb. i. 3,)* to have been the express image of the Father, the 
glory of the holy city, or that exhibited by the holy city, is the glory of 
God. This glory of God is his goodness ; the new Jerusalem is an exhi- 
bition of the goodness or glory of God. The disciple, in contemplating the 
heavenly Jerusalem, sees what Moses, when in the cleft of the rock, was 
permitted to see, this goodness passing before him, (Ex. xxxiii. 19.) The 
goodness of God, in the sense here alluded to, we apprehend to be his 
loving-kindness (Fr. bonté) in the work of redemption. The holy city of the 
Apocalypse is an exhibition of the loving-kindness or glory of God in all its 
particulars ; it is an exhibition in detail of the merciful purpose of God to 
save by sovereign grace. This merciful purpose of God is his glory, of 
which glory Christ is the manifestation in the first instance, and the eco- 
nomy of grace, as identic with Christ, the further exhibition, under the figure 
of the new Jerusalem. 

§ 524. Corresponding with this view, we have in the preceding pages 
assumed the apocalyptic Jerusalem to be a representation or vision of the eco- 
nomy of redemption ; a ¢rue picture, as opposed to that afforded by the harlot 
city, (Babylon,) which we denominate a false picture. The economy of 
redemption in truth is the economy of grace; the economy of grace is 
God’s purpose to save by grace; the purpose of God is the mind, fiat, 
determination of the Supreme Being; it is the word of God: and this 
Word, it is declared, was made flesh, and manifested on earth in the person 
of Christ, the Lamb of God. The new Jerusalem, therefore, both as identic 
with the Lamb, and as an exhibition of the economy (διαϑήχη) or purpose 
of sovereign grace, 15 a vision or picture in detail of the word of God ; re- 
presenting the goodness or loving-kindness involved in that word or purpose, 
and which goodness constitutes the glory of the Deity ; this glory being 
exhibited in the economy of redemption, through the instrumentality of 
Jesus Christ. As it is said of the holy city, the glory of God did lighten it, 
and the Lamb 15 the lamp thereof. 

The Lamb and the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse are figures, but 
Christ and the economy of grace (the Word) are realities. We do not say, 
therefore, of the figures, that they are identic with the realities ; but the one 
is as much jdentic with the other as the appearance of a man’s face in the 


* Χαραχτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ. The representation of the divine principle 
itself. 


RETROSPECT OF THE VISION OF THE BRIDE. 641 


mirror is the same as the man’s face. The Lamb, the holy city, and the 
Rider of the white horse, as figures, are identic ; and the Supreme Being, 
Christ, and the divine purpose, (word,) are identic, as realities. He that 
makes all things new is manifest in the Lamb, and the Lamb is manifest in 
the bride ; so God is manifest in Christ, and Christ is manifest in the econ- 
omy of redemption—the divine purpose or word ;—God the Father, the 
Son, and the Word, being so many manifestations of the same Saviour. 

In the Old Testament writings, God is expressly declared to be the only 
Saviour, and the part taken by the Son in the work of redemption, is but 
dimly shadowed forth. In the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles of the 
New Testament, Christ is expressly declared to be the Redeemer, and _ his 
name is said to be the only name wherewith we can be saved. In the 
Apocalypse the overcoming principle (ὁ νικῶν) is brought forward as the 
conqueror and inheritor of all things. ‘This overcoming principle (the pur- 
pose of sovereign grace) we apprehend to be revealed under the figure of 
the Word of God or Conqueror in the narrative portion of the book of 
Revelation, and under the figure of the bride or wife in the last or descrip- 
tive portion of the same book. At the same time, we have not here an 
exhibition of three Saviours, or three powers of salvation; we have only 
the representation of the same Saviour, the same saving power, brought 
home to our understandings, and presented for the contemplation of our 
faith in three different ways—as the King of kings, the Faithful and True, 
and the Word of God, were all revealed in the person of him who had 
trodden the wine-press alone, (Rev. xix. 11-16.) Christ while on earth 
revealed the divine purpose of grace (the Word of God) in all he did and 
taught and suffered—Christ, in the Apocalypse, reveals the same Word or 
purpose in the particulars given of the Conqueror, and in the illustrations 
afforded by all that is said of the new Jerusalem, or bride. In the first 
instance, the truth as it is in Jesus may be said to have been veiled in the 
flesh—in the last, (the apocalyptic revelation,) it is unveiled in the spirit, 
and, thus spiritually understood, it is an unveiling of Christ himself. 

§ 525. This unveiling of Christ, spiritually understood, may be con- 
sidered, therefore, in a certain degree, a fulfilment of the promised coming of 
the Comforter, (the Holy Spirit, of whom it was said to the disciples of 
Jesus, “ He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remem- 
brance, whatsoever I have said unto you,” John xiv. 27;) the testimony 
borne by the Cornforter being collateral with that to be borne by the apos- 
tles, as we gather from the assurance subsequently given: ‘“ He shall testify 
concerning me, and ye also shall testify” —nagzvoyjce περὶ ἐμοῦ καὶ ὑμεῖς δὲ 
μαρτυρεῖτε (John xv. 26, 27)—the Comforter bearing no other testimony 
than that contained in the whole volume of inspiration. 


642 ALL THINGS NEW. 


Of this Comforter (Paraclete*) it is also said, “ He shall reprove the 
world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment,” (John xvi. 8,) or as we 
think the expression might be understood, He shall confute the world con- 
cerning sin, and concerning justification, and concerning condemnation— 
ἐλέγζει τὸν κόσμον περὶ ἁμαρτίας καὶ δικαιοσύνης καὶ περὶ κρίσεως. The teach- 
ings of the Spirit will convince those of sin who believe themselves to be 
without sin. It will convince the self-righteous of the necessity of justifica- 
tion, through an imputed righteousness ; and it will show the certainty of 
condemnation where this means of salvation is wanting. 

The world here spoken of (κόσμος) must be that which Jesus says, in the 
same connexion, he has overcome, (John xvi. 33.) We suppose it to be 
the arrangement of principles placing the disciple in a position of depend- 
ence upon his own merits. ‘The word rendered reprove, as above, signifies 

primarily “to confute,” to put to shame, (Rob. Lex.) Accordingly, the 
- operation of this revelation by the Holy Spirit is to confute, or put to shame 
the pretensions of this self-righteous economy, figuratively termed the world : 
this confutation of the pretensions of the world by the Holy Spirit being 
equivalent to the overcoming of the world by Jesus Christ. It is not merely 
a convincing of the thoughtless and profane and dissolute, who are literally 
living without God and without hope, that they are sinners; an assertion 
which for the most part they would not pretend to deny ; but it is a con- 
vineing of those trusting: to their own merits, who go about to establish 
their own righteousness, that they are especially the sinners in contempla- 
tion—that even with them, in their position out of Christ, sin lieth at the 
door. ‘This is pre-eminently the work to be accomplished: Hoc opus, hic 
labor est. 

To effect this work, the just sense of the written word of revelation is 
requisite, and for the attainment of this just sense, the illustrations of the 
Apocalypse are given. A large portion of these illustrations, as we have 
seen, are applied to the elucidation of errors and erroneous systems opposed 
to the great truth of salvation by sovereign grace; these errors having been 
overcome, the book closes with an exhibition of the truth itself—the econo- 
my of grace illustrated by all the particulars here given of the heavenly 
Jerusalem. This exhibition, showing as it does, God’s purpose (Word) to 
be a purpose of mercy, comes to the desponding disciple certainly as a com- 
forter. Its language is, ‘Be of good cheer; the sovereign grace of God is 
sufficient for thee. Behold the ample provision made for thy salvation :’ 
while coming as it does immediately from God out of heaven, setting forth a 


* Παράκλητος, one who has been called to give assistance; an intercessor, an 
advocate in a court of justice, (Donnegan.) 


APOCALYPTIC CONCLUSION. 643 


way of redemption in which human merit can have no part, its direct tend- 

ency must be to confute the pretensions of every self-righteous system, and 

τὸ point out the only path—the strait and narrow way to eternal life—the 
gate of pearl inestimably precious. 

The view here taken of what is represented by this spiritual city, bride, 
or wife, corresponds with our remarks in assigning a reason for the appella- 
tion beloved, given to the besieged city, (ᾧ 453.) God’s purpose of grace 
and mercy is his beloved purpose, and this purpose, or word, personated in 
Christ, is his beloved offspring. For the same reason, perhaps, the apostle 
bearing the name of the grace of the Lord, (John,) was distinguished as the 
disciple whom Jesus loved; although he also loved them all even unto the 
end, (John xiii. 1.) The same construction enables us to understand why 
the Messiah of the Old Testament (the Christ of the New) is prophetically 
spoken of as the servant in whom the Lord delighteth, (Is. xlii. 1 ;) and 
why it is prophetically said of the exhibition of the economy of grace, 
restored (as we apprehend it to be in this Apocalypse) from its once per- 
verted state, “Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken, neither shall thy 
land any more be termed desolate, but thou shalt be called Hepzibah, and 
thy land Beulah, for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be 
married.” 


APOCALYPTELC CONCLUSION. 


V. 6, (continued.)—And the Lord God καὶ κύριος ὃ ϑεὸς τῶν πνευμάτων τῶν 
of the holy prophets sent his angel to 
show unto his servants the things which 
must shortly be done. 


~ > ' ‘ ” c ~ ~ 
προφητῶν ἀπέστειλε τὸν ἄγγελον αὑτοῦ δεῖ- 
pe as , c ~ “a ~ ’ > 
Sat τοῖς δούλοις αὑτοῦ, ἃ δεῖ γενέσϑαι ἕν 
τάχει. 


ᾧ 526. ‘ And the Lord God of the holy prophets,’ &c. ; or, according to 
our edition of the Greek and others, the Lord God of the spirits of the 
prophets, which, for the reasons we have given, ($ 437,) may be equivalent 
to the declaration, “ And Jehovah of the spirits of the prophets hath sent,’ 
&c. That is, the same Being who was spoken of by the prophets as 
Jehovah, and was contemplated in the spiritual sense of the prophecies as 
Jehovah, he has sent his angel or messenger. The difference may not be 
material, except that our mode of rendering this appellation calls up an 
association of ideas not usually accompanying the ordinary rendering. With- 
out this, however, the consideration suggested by the text is very important. 
The God of the holy prophets is the God of the Apocalypse. The same 
Being makes the revelation in both cases. The same spirit of inspiration 
which dictated the writings of Moses and the prophets, dictated also that of 


644 ALL THENGS NEW. 


the Apostle John. As this spirit is a spirit of truth, pre-eminently so, alike 
incapable of falsehood, error, or mistake, it follows that both productions must 
be considered the emanation of the same infallible mind. ‘They must coin- 
cide in the testimony, and where the circumstances are similar, they must be 
susceptible of a like construction. The language of vision in the Old Tes- 
tament, is the language of vision in the New. The economy of redemption 
shadowed forth in one, is the economy revealed and illustrated in the other. 
There must be, therefore, a consistency in the types, the figures, the doctrines, 
and principles of both. This we believe to be the case, however imperfect 
our mode of showing it may appear. 

‘Sent his angel.—The inspired messenger, having performed his pro- 
mise of showing the apostle the bride, the Lamb’s wife, now proceeds to 
give an account of his authority for what he has done, and for the various 
explanations and declarations given by him throughout the exhibition, “ to 
show to his servants the things which must shortly come to pass.” The 
expression in the Greek is precisely the same as that employed at the 
commencement of the book, (Rev. i. 1,) where the revelation of Jesus 
Christ is said to be that ‘“ which God gave unto him to show unto his ser- 
vants things which must shortly come to pass ;” which things, it is added, 
he sent and signified by his angel to his servant John ;—the words come to 
pass and be done being the rendering of the same Greek, words—or rather 
the words done and pass being both supplied, the original going no further 
than to say the things which are shortly or suddenly to be—that is, to be 
revealed. This, then, is the angel commissioned to signify these things to 
the apostle, and what is here said to that effect may be considered a notice 
that the task of the messenger is now performed. He has signified the 
things which are to be suddenly, (ᾧ 4,) that is, revealed, as we suppose. 
Whenever they are revealed to the spiritual understanding, the change of 
views produced will be suddenly brought about, as must be the change with 
every disciple in his transition to another state of existence; from a state 
where he sees darkly, to one where he sees even as he also is seen. ‘The 
speaker may be also the angel who took the apostle first to the wilderness 
to see the harlot, and afterwards to the mountain to see the bride ; or this 
angel may be supposed to have left the apostle under the care of the hea- 
venly conductor, accompanying him throughout all the scenes. ‘This, in 
reality, may be of little consequence. ‘This figure of angels we suppose to 
be employed in this mystic composition by way of adapting the narrative 
and scenery to the common apprehension of mankind. ‘The revelation itself 
may be considered an angel, messenger, or message. If God pleases to 
reveal the truth to the understanding of a disciple, he has no occasion for 
the employment of an embodied messenger: the spirit of understanding is 
itself an angel of light, a me:senger from God. 


APOCALYPTIC CONCLUSION. 645 


me th Behold, I come quickly : blessed Καὶ ἰδού, ἔρχομαι ταχύ. μακάριος ὃ τὴ- 
(is) he that ΚΠ ἘΝ the sayings of the ρῶν τοὺς λόγους τῆς προφητείας τοῦ βιβ- 
prophecy of this book. Tas tae eee 

§ 527. ‘ Behold I come,’ &c.—The words, saith the Lord, seem to be 
understood here. The angel was already present, and would hardly speak of 
his own coming, although he might be so misunderstood. The words ren- 
dered shortly, at the close of the preceding verse, (ἐν zéyet,) and quickly in 
this verse, (zayv,) are so nearly the same, that there seems to have been an 
intentional bearing of one upon the other. According to the Greek edition 
we copy, the two sentences should be connected also by the conjunction 
καί, (and ;) reading, “the things which are suddenly to be ; and behold, 
I come suddenly ;” the coming of the Lord being represented as equiva- 
lent to the being done, or being revealed, of the things,—both referring to 
the same manifestation of truth, (ᾧ 17.) 

᾿ς ‘Blessed (is) he that keepeth the sayings (τοῦς λόγους) of the prophecy 
of this book.’—The word rendered blessed, might perhaps be better ren- 
dered here, as elsewhere, happy. The keeping of these sayings is not the 
cause or means of salvation, but it is a source of happiness ; as it is said, 
** Blessed (happy) is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity ;” 
Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven ;”’ “ Happy is he who 
hath the God of Jacob for his help.” This blessedness or happiness can- 
not be enjoyed without a knowledge of the truth, as the sinner, until he 
feels the assurance of his forgiveness, cannot feel the happiness resulting 
from his pardon. So we suppose the keeping of the sayings alluded to, to 
be equivalent to an understanding of all that is rewealed in this book ; the 
understanding of all of the elements of the covenant of grace affording the 
same kind of happiness or blessedness as that arising from a sense of sins 
forgiven. As these words however are the language of vision, they may be 
supposed to apply to doctrinal elements, personified as disciples ; the ele- 
ments consistent with the truth here revealed, or acting as stewards of this 
truth, being described as blessed. 

The words of this declaration correspond so nearly with what is said at 
the commencement of the book, (Rev. i. 3,) that we cannot but consider it 
as marking the termination of the whole narrative—the beginning and the 
ending ; the remaining verses (the present included) occupying the place 
of an application of the subject. If we contemplated the Apocalypse merely 
as a prophetic account of ecclesiastical and political transactions to take 
place in the history of this world, our idea of the happiness derived from 
keeping these sayings, in any sense, would be very limited ; but when we 
take the word prophecy to signify an interpretation of the mind or purpose 
of the Deity, ($ 69,) and consider that term in this place as referring to 
the divine purpose of grace and mercy, then we can easily conceive of a 


646 ALL THINGS NEW. 


great degree of blessedness or happiness arising from the keeping and under- 
standing of these sayings. A full assurance of divine forgiveness is probably 
the source of as great happiness as the human mind is capable of enjoying 
in this life ; and, consequently, a knowledge of the plan of mercy by which 
this forgiveness is secured, must be a source of the like happiness in propor- 
tion as it is understood by the disciple, and appropriated to his own peculiar 


circumstances. 


Vs. 8, 9. And I John saw these things, 
and heard (them.) And when I had 
heard and seen, I fell down to worship 
before the feet of the angel which showed 
me these things. Then saith he unto me, 
See (thou do it) not: for I am thy fellow- 
servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, 
and of them which keep the sayings of 
this book: worship God. 


ᾧ 528. ‘And I John saw,’ &c.; 


Kayo ᾿Ιωάννης ὃ ἀκούων καὶ βλέπων 
ταῦτα " καὶ ὅτε ἤκουσα καὶ ἔβλεψα, ἔπεσα 
προςχυνῆσαι ἔμπροσϑεν τῶν ποδῶν τοῦ ἀγγέ- 
λου tov δεικνύοντός μοι ταῦτα. Καὶ λέγει 
μοι" ὅρα μή" σύνδουλός σου εἰμὶ καὶ τῶν 
ἀδελφῶν σου τῶν προφητῶν καὶ τῶν τη- 
ρούντων τοὺς λόγους τοῦ βιβλίου τούτου" 
τῷ HG) προςχύνησον. 


or, as we might read the passage, 


‘ And I John, who saw and heard these things, when I saw and heard them 
I fell down to prostrate myself,’ &c.—The apostle relates his falling into the 
same mistake before, (Rev. xix. 10,) and notwithstanding what was then 
said to him, he seems to repeat the error. We are to recollect, however, 
that all this is a vision ; as in a dream, during which the reasoning faculties 
are in a great measure suspended. John gives us an account of his own 
behaviour, just as it appeared to him in the vision, not just as it should have 
been in reality ; his impression seems to have been that the angel was a 
personification of the Supreme Being, and as such entitled to divine honours. 
This may have arisen from his construction of the declaration, ‘ Behold, 
I come quickly,’ without the preface of, thus saith the Lord. The same 
style of speaking, however, is to be found in the Psalms and prophets ; as, 
Is. xiii. 1-5, and Ps. xl. 7, where no one supposes the prophet or psalmist 
to be speaking of himself. The expression, ‘‘ The angel which showed me 
these things,’ probably refers to the whole vision of the bride; as we may 
suppose the apostle to have imagined that none but the Deity himself 
could thus unfold the mysterious purpose of sovereign grace. 

‘Then saith he unto me,’ &c.—The heavenly messenger announces 
himself to be an instrument of revelation only ; as such, he styles himself 
one of the prophetic brethren of the apostle ; and what seems also a little 
remarkable, one of those whom he has himself just pronounced blessed ; 
that is, one of the keepers of the sayings of this book. The keeping, there- 
fore, here intended, is not merely the hearing and understanding for one’s 
own sake, but it is the keeping of a treasure for the benefit of others ; as 
the steward of a household keeps the funds intrusted to him for the purpose 
of appropriating them to certain objects, to which objects he does sub- 


APOCALYPTIC CONCLUSION. 647 


sequently appropriate them. This keeping consists, accordingly, in dis- 
bursing and giving out, as well as in receiving. So Paul speaks of his 
fellow-apostles and himself as ministers (servants) of Christ, and séewards 
of the mysteries of God. Like the angel, they were all keepers of the mys- 
teries comprehended in the sayings of this book. Such keepers were also 
the prophets, and they are all pronounced blessed ; we may suppose, not 
only because they discovered the truth and enjoyed the knowledge of it 
themselves, but also because they were made the blessed means or instru- 
ments of making it known to others. So, apocalyptically, we may speak 
even of the elements of revelation charged with setting forth the economy 
of grace, as keepers of the sayings of this book. 

‘Worship God.’—This admonition, as we have noticed before, ($ 428,) 
was given, not so much we apprehend for the sake of the apostle, as for 
the instruction of those who were to come after him. As if it were said, 
on the former occasion, Whatever may appear to be implied in some parts 
of this book to the contrary, bear in mind as a rule of interpretation, that 
God only is to be worshipped ; or that, strictly speaking 
object of worship. 


, He alone is an 
So, in this last instance it might be said, emphatically, 
Bear in mind that God is now manifested to be all in all. The Lamb 
and the Word are merged in the present manifestation of the Sovereign 
God ; to Him alone, therefore, all your adoration is due. 


Vs. 10, 11. And he saith unto me, Seal 


Koi λέγει μοι" μὴ σφραγίσῃης τοὺς λό- 
not the sayings of the prophecy of this 


book: for the time is at hand. He that is 
unjust,let him be unjust still: and he whieh 
is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that 
is righteous, let him be righteous still: 
and he that is holy, let him be holy still. 


yous τῆς προφητείας τοῦ βιβλίου τούτου" 
ὃ καιρὸς γὰρ ἐγγύς ἐστιν. Ὃ ἀδικῶν ἀδι- 
κησάτω ἔτι, καὶ ὃ δυπαρὸς ῥυπαρευϑήτω 
ἔτι" καὶ ὃ δέχαιος δικαιοσύνην ποιησάτω 
ἔτι, καὶ ὃ ἅγιος ἁγιασϑήτω ἔτι. 


§ 529. ‘ And he saith unto me, Seal not,’ &c.—Here is an injunction 
the opposite of that given the prophet in the time of the captivity: “ But 
thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, to the time of the 
end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. 
And I heard,” the prophet adds, “but I understood not: then said I, 
O Lord, what shall be the end of these things? and he said, Go thy 
way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the 
end "ἢ and again: “ But go thy way till the end, for thou shalt stand in 
thy lot at the end of days.” 

It was not given to Daniel to understand or even to inquire into the 
meaning of the words of his prophecy ; they were to remain sealed till a 
certain distant epoch. ‘The words or sayings of the prophecy of the Apo- 
calypse, on the contrary, are not to be sealed ; for the epoch, once distant, 
is now at hand. We may accordingly expect to find in this book of the 
apostle John, when properly understood, the end referred to in the book o 
Daniel ; and perhaps a proper application of the prophecies of Daniel to the 

50 


648 ALL THINGS NEW. 


book of the Apocalypse may be equivalent to the standing of that prophet 
in his lot at the end of days ; that is, the purport of his prophecies will be mani- 
fested to have its place, when and where the truths of the divine purpose of 
salvation by grace shall be fully exhibited. 

We do not take time, however, apocalyptically, in a literal sense; the 
declaration, There shall be time no longer, (ᾧ 230,) is to be borne in mind 
here as elsewhere ; besides, it is now about eighteen hundred years since 
this time was said to be at hand. The construction we put upon the pas- , 
sage must be consistent therefore with the fact. In addition to this, we 
may notice that the word translated time in this place, (καιρός, season,) 
differs somewhat from that translated time, (χρόνος.) Rev. x. 6. The season 
is near—the opening, unsealing, and unveiling of that which was shut, is 
now seasonable, without any reference to the expiration of a chronological 
period. The developments of the Apocalypse are, to all preceding pro- 
phecies, that which a time of fulfilment is to the prediction ; whenever, and 
wherever it may be that the disciple fully understands this revelation of 
Jesus Christ, then and there, to him, the season is come. Meanwhile, it is 
near in a more general sense, as the means of understanding, withheld from 
the prophet, are now within the reach of every follower of Jesus, through 
the medium especially of this portion of divine revelation. 

§ 530. ‘ He that is unjust, let him be unjust still, — O ἀδικῶν ἀδικησότω. 
This verb is uniformly rendered elsewhere in the Apocalypse by the term 
hurt ; and, consistently with this rendering, the translation here should be, 
the hurting, let him or it hurt still; nocens noceat adhuc, (G.&L.) We 
have already given our reasons for supposing the expression Aurt to signify, 
apocalyptically, an action the opposite of justifying, or of tending to justifica- 
tion, ($$ 56,174.) We take it to apply to the tendency of doctrinal princi- 
ples, the masculine article (6) relating to ὁ A0yo,, the saying or doctrine under- 
stood, (ὁ 507.) The doctrine, or any element of doctrine, operating against 
justification, let it do so still ; that is, let it be manifested to do so. 

The operation of the second death was the opposite of justification. [{ 
was to condemn, or cause condemnation, and it did so operate upon the 
beast, the false prophet, the accuser, and the systems death and hell. Tried 
by, and exposed to, the fire of the second death, they were manifested to 
be void of a principle of justification, or righteousness, and consequently to 
be wholly inconsistent with the divine plan of grace and mercy: and this 
manifestation continues, and will continue still. As the beast and false 
prophet are tried day and night for ever and ever, (Rev. xx. 10,) and as 
the smoke, or evidence of the torture of the elements devoted to the worship 
of the beast, ascendeth up for ever and ever, (ὃ 334,) the overcoming prin- 
ciple, ὁ (λόγος) νικῶν, on the contrary, is incapable of suffering from this 
second death, or from any thing thus tending to condemnation, (Rev. ii. 11 ;) 


7. 


APOCALYPTIC CONCLUSION. . 649 


it cannot be hurt by it: so, while mercenary principles were to be tried in 
the balances of the judicial power—upon the black horse, (Rev. vi. 6)—the 
elements of sanctification and atonement (the oil and the wine) could 
not be unjustified or hurt by any of his operations. The power seated.on 
the black horse may still be seen in operation ; but, his true character being 
exhibited, his weighing can only affect principles amenable to his legal 
standard, (§ 154.) The power of the four angels to hurt the earth and the 
sea may still continue, but they can do nothing to affect the elements of 
truth represented by the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed ones 
of the twelve tribes ; neither does their power, we may presume, extend to 
the new earth, or the trees (the tree of life) of the new earth. 

~The power of these angels to hurt may be still exhibited, but it 
cannot affect any thing in the holy city, or any element peculiar to the 
new order of things; for here there is no more death, (neither first nor 
second death,) neither sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. The power of the 
scorpion-locusts may still be manifested, but it must be manifested not 
to extend to the unjustefying of those having the seal of God in their 
forehead, (Rev. ix. 5.) The Euphratean horsemen may still hurt, but 
their power to unjustify is still manifested to be confined to the third of 
men, (Rev. ix. 19,) and none of these elements can be supposed to be found 
either in the holy city or in the new heaven and new earth, where there is 
no more a sea or threatening element. So, likewise, the same tendency to 
hurt or to oppose justification may continue to exist in the principles, repre- 
sented by those opposed to the testimony of the two witnesses, (Rev. xi. 55) 
but their true character being recognised, they cannot affect the principles 
of the economy of grace, represented either by the elements of the holy city 
or by the things of the new creation. The language of the text, however, 
is general. We refer to these examples of hurting only by way of illustra- 
tion. At the same time, such being the use made of this Greek verb in all 
other parts of the Apocalypse, there seems to be no reason for giving it a 
different construction in this place. In the nature of the case all legal prin- 
ciples, or elements of the legal dispensation, must ever remain the same. 
That which is opposed to the justification of the sinner must always remain 
of the same character. “ The law worketh wrath,” (Rom. iv. 15,) and its 
tendency to hurt, (ἀδικῆσαι,) or to operate against the justification of all 
offending in any one point, must necessarily be unchangeable. 

§ 531. “ And he that is filthy, let him be filthystill ;* or, and the defiling, 
(principle,) let it defile still—Here there is a difference in the Greek 
editions ; some of them employing the adjective ῥυπαρός, filthy, with the 
imperative passive ῥυπαρευϑήτω, let him be filthy; and others using the 
active present participle ῥυπῶν, defiling, with the imperative active ῥυπωσώτω, 


650 ALL THINGS NEW. 


let him, or it, defile. We prefer this latter, because it accords best wit: 
the active voice of the preceding verb, respecting which there is no differ- 
ence: and applying it as we do to principles or doctrinal elements, un- 
changeable in their own nature, we find no inconsistency in the declaration 
that the doctrine or saying tending to defile, or to make filthy, will, and 
must ever continue to do so. If we suppose the expression to be applied te 
human beings, we should think otherwise, for we could hardly imagine the 
disciple, or the pretended disciple, or even the unbelieving, bidden to remain 
defiled, or to continue to defile. 

The kind of filth of which the Greek term here employed is expressive, 
is primarily the accumulation of dirt arising from manual labour, to which 
persons engaged in dirty or filthy occupations are subjected. Metaphori- 
cally, the term is expressive of sordid avarice, mean penuriousness, such as 
that for which a miserly person may be distinguished, (Donnegan, art. Pizog, 
and compounds.) Spiritually, we apply it to doctrines of which selfish 
and mercenary motives are the ruling principles. Principles of this charac- 
ter defile or render filthy all doctrines or doctrinal systems into which they 
insinuate themselves ; and this they will ever do, notwithstanding the mani- 
festation of the truth—the real character of these defiling principles may be 
exhibited, but it cannot be changed. 

The same Greek term is used adjectively (James 11. 2) to express the 
ragged appearance of the poor man; his vile raiment; and (Zech. ii. 3, 
4) it is applied to the filthy garments of the high pmiest, Joshua. As a 
noun, we meet with it Job xiv. 4, Τίς γὰρ κάϑαρὸς ἔσται ἅπὸ ῥύπου; ‘ Who 
can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ?” equivalent to the question, 
How can a sinner be justified by the unclean process of self-justification ? 
So Job ix. 31, “If 1 wash myself in snow water, and make my hands ever 
so clean, yet thou shalt plunge me in the ditch, (ἱκανῶς ἐν ῥύπῳ me ἔβαψας, 
thou shalt plunge me in the defiling pit,) and my own flesh shall abhor me.” 
As if he had said, Whatever my pretensions to righteousness or to self- 
atonement might be, thou wouldst place me in that position which must 
exhibit my real defilement—this defilement being of the character alluded 
to by the prophet, (Is. lxiv. 6,) “ All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, 
- and we are as an unclean thing.” Of the sons and daughters of Z’on (the 
misrepresented elements of the economy of grace) it is said, their filth, or 
defilement, shall be purged away, (Is. iv. 4,) and so, in the manifestation of 
that economy, in the heavenly Jerusalem, no defiling element is permitted 
to enter, (Rev. xxi. 27.) These elements themselves, nevertheless, remain. 
‘and must remain, wherever they are, of the same character—the defiling 
principle will ever defile. The only remedy for the elements of truth is an 
entire separation. As it is said, figuratively, in allusion to them, ‘“ Come 


APOCALYPTIC CONCLUSION. 651 


out, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing ;” “ ‘Touch not, 
taste not, handle not.” 

§ 532. ‘He that is righteous, let him be righteous still :’ justus yustitium 
prestet adhuc, (G. & L.)—the just, let him do justice still. If we were not 
assured by divine inspiration that there is not a just man upon the earth that 
doeth good and sinneth not; that there is none righteous, no not one ; and 
if experience and self-examination did not confirm this divine testimony, we 
might suppose this sentence to apply to human beings in a literal sense, but 
with this authority of Scripture, and this knowledge of ourselves, we are con- 
strained to look out for some other than a literal construction of the passage. 

It is very evident that the two classes now calling for our notice are 
opposites of the two we have just commented upon, ὑὉ δίκαιος must be the 
opposite of ὁ ἀδικῶν, as the justifying principle is the opposite of that 
Operating against that of justification. So, δικαιοσύνην ποιησάτω (let him or 
it do or make righteousness) must be the opposite of ἀδικησάτω (let him hurt.) 
As if it were said, The principle opposite to justification, let it continue 
to act, and let the principle tending to justification act. ‘That is, let the 
tendency of both be manifested. To justify, in the scriptural sense of the 
term, is equivalent to making a righteousness where none would otherwise 
exist ; as when Jehovah says, (Is. xlvi. 13,) “1 bring near my righteous- 
ness ;” He maketh righteousness; as, also, when the prophet says, (Is. 1. 
8,) “ He is near that justifieth me, who is he that condemneth?” So, in 
allusion to the same operation, it is said, (Is. xlv. 8,) “ Drop down, ye 
heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the 
earth open, and let them bring forth salvation ; and let righteousness spring 
up together: I the Lord have created it,” (made it.) It may be said that 
God made or created a righteousness, in bringing forth a plan of redemp- 
tion by which he could justify the ungodly, (Rom. iv. 5.) Corresponding 
with this view of justification, every principle of the economy of grace may 
be contemplated as something doing or making righteousness, and conse- 
quently as something itself righteous or justified ; as it is said, (1 John iii. 
7,) ὁ ποιῶν τῆν δικαιοσύνην δίκαιός éoti—the person or principle making 
righteousness is righteous. Here in the Apocalypse we may suppose, as in 
the opposite case, in this verse λόγος (doctrine) to be understood. ‘The doe~ 
trine tending to justification, through the imputed righteousness of Christ, is 
just, and when once manifested to be so will ever remain so manifested. 

‘And he that is holy, let him be holy still.—We give a similar con- 
struction to this sentence—6 ἅγιος, the consecrated, or set apart, is the 
opposite in this connection of ὁ ῥυπῶν, the defiling. The elements (οἱ 
λόγοι) of the economy of grace, are the consecrated principles. Let these 
remain set apart, and remain so manifested. In their own nature they must 

separate from those opposed to them. But it seems to be implied that 


652 ALL THINGS NEW. 


they are not only to be thus separated in fact, they are to be exhibited in 
this new state of things in their distinct position. The time of the harvest 
we may suppose to be now come, when the wheat is to be discriminated 
from the tares, and this discrimination is to be made manifest. The whole 
of this verse may be supposed to have reference to the sayings (οἱ λόγοι) of 
this book just spoken of as not to be sealed, on account of the immediate 
coming of the time of development. 
What we have said elsewhere (ᾧ 88) of the term holiness as a charac- 
teristic of position, or as a quality, and of the different Greek terms rendered 
by this English word, might be repeated here; but we do not suppose the 
term ὁ ἅγιος to be intended to apply here to human beings, none of whom 
pretend to a perfect holiness of their own ; and the passage certainly does 
not admit of the application to something partly holy and partly not holy. 
There is no partial sanctification in the objects or elements contemplated— 
they are things entirely set apart, or not so in any degree. 
Vs. 12, 13. And behold, I come quickly; ov, ἔρχομαι ταχύ, καὶ ὃ μισϑός μου 
and my reward (is) with me, to give per ἐμοῦ, ἀποδοῖναι ἑχάστῳ ὡς τὸ ἔργον 
every man according as ΠῚ work shall be. (2.05 ἔσται. Lye) τὸ Α καὶ τὸ 2, πρῶτος 


[am Alpha and Omega, the beginning ἘΣ pA ΔῊΝ Ratt ΕΝ 
and the end, the first and the last. ppt Nai B'S al eB US 


§ 533. ‘And behold.’—The conjunction ze (and) is not in all the 
editions of the Greek, and seems to be correctly omitted, unless the words, 
‘saith the Lord,’ be understood at the commencement of the verse; for the 
messenger, declaring himself to be the fellow-servant of John, would not 
assume the title of Alpha and Omega. Different voices we apprehend to 
be speaking here alternately. The vision of the Bride is closed, and the 
apostle, with his heavenly interpreter, is restored to the position occupied 
prior to being taken in spirit to the great and high mountain, (Rev. xxi. 9.) 
The scene to be imagined is such as it then was. The great white throne, 
the new heaven, and the new earth, and the new Jerusalem, are all sup- 
posed to be in view. The angel now gives the apostle an account of the 
authority by which he had been directed, in all that he had done and said, 
respecting the things shortly to be done. A voice from the throne here 
utters the words, in allusion to what has just been said, © Behold, I come 
quickly,” (shortly.) The apostle then gives us an account of his mistaken 
act of adoration which calls forth the caution and admonitory warning of 
the angel, from the 9th to the end of the 11th verse. The voice from the 
throne now again repeats the announcement, “ Behold, I come quickly,” 
&c., followed by an admonitory address, extending as far as the first clause 
of the 20th verse; this concluding address, from the first and the last, 
serving the purpose of an application of the whole subject. 

‘I come quickly.—We have already considered this coming quickly or 
suddenly equivalent to the things being shortly done, mentioned in the 6th 


APOCALYPTIC CONCLUSION. 653 


verse: we are here, however, further informed who it is that comes quickly, 
viz., he who styles himself “ Alpha and Omega.” By comparing this 
information with what is said in the preceding chapter, (v. 5, 6,) we find 
‘ Alpha and Omega” to be Him that sat upon the throne; and, taking into 
view the language of Him that sat on the throne, (in the 7th verse of the 
same chapter,) we perceive Alpha and Omega to be, also, God. It is, 
therefore, God himself that cometh quickly ; and this, we suppose, in the 
sense of manifestation, by some peculiar revelation or development of truth ; 
for, of the Deity, strictly speaking, it is said that He dwelleth in light inae- 
cessible, (φῶς ἀπρόσιτον.) “ whom no man hath seen, or can see.” Accord- 
ing to our construction, the coming of the Bride is equivalent to the coming 
of the Lamb, and the coming of the Lamb is equivalent to the coming of 
“ Alpha and Omega,” the beginning and ending. In other words, the com- 
plete revelation of the economy of grace, (the things which are to be sud- 
denly,) is equivalent, in a spiritual sense, to the coming of Christ; and, in 
the same sense, is equivalent to the coming of God: that is, the Deity is 
manifested in the manifestation of his truth, as declared in the words of 
Jesus himself: “‘ He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father ;’—the same 
advent which is spoken of in the New Testament as the coming of Christ, 
(2 Thess. i. 7, 10,) being spoken of in the Old Testament as the coming of 
the Lord God, (Ps. ]. 1-6,) corresponding with the declaration, (Rev. i. 7, 8,) 
that he who cometh in the clouds (δῷ 17,18) is “ Alpha and Omega, the 
beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come, 
the Almighty.” 


‘And my reward (is) with me, to give every man—or to give to each, as 


the work of him or it shall be.—The word translated reward, ὁ μισϑός, is, 
in many places of the New Testament, rendered wages, or hire, which is 
its proper signification. ‘The householder or contractor, who comes forth 
with the means of paying his hired servants or labourers the wages due to 
them, may be said to come, and his reward with him. The work performed 
may be of a good or bad character, and the recompense to be received may 
be of a desirable or of an undesirable kind; still the idea to be associated 
with the term is that of an exact equivalent for what has been done. In 
Latin, it is expressed by merces, whence our term mercenary is derived. 
The adjective, Misdog, signifies hired, to be hired, mercenary, venal ; 
which signification is to be associated with all the compounds of the word, 
as Mic@aevos, one who works for hire, a mercenary, (Donnegan.) He that 
worketh receiveth wages, says our Saviour, (John iv. 36,) alluding to the 
universal rule of compensation. ‘To him that worketh, says Paul. (Rom 
iv. 4,) the hire, or wages earned, is not accounted a matter of grace, but, 
on the contrary, it is a debt, a compensation not to be withheld without an 
act of injustice ; as James v. 4, “ Behold, the Aire of the labourers who have 


reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud.” 


654 ALL THINGS NEW. 


We cannot suppose the reward mentioned in this passage of the Apo- 
calypse to be that of the wages, or hire, of human beings. The wages or 
reward of sin is death. Sin is the transgression of the law. He that trans- 
gresses one commandment of the law, is guilty of the whole. If we say we 
have no sin, we deceive ourselves; consequently all are sinners, and all, 
when rewarded according to their works, must receive the wages of sin, 
which is death. Consistently, however, with our uniform construction of 
this book of Revelation, we think this reward or hire applies to principles, 
elements of doctrine, and not to human beings. As it is said of works, 
1 Cor. iii. 13, ““ Every man’s work shall be made manifest; for the day 
shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try 
every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he 
hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall 
be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by 
fire.’ In the season of trial, the work which is incapable of abiding the test 
is to be destroyed, but not the man. If the work or doctrine be correct, its 
reward is the manifestation of its correctness. 

As in remarking upon Rey. xi. 18, (Ὁ 262,) we suppose doctrines or 
principles of doctrine to be personified as men, although the word man or 
men is not here expressly employed. ‘That no man is saved by works, 
(Eph. ii. 9,) is so repeatedly and expressly set forth in other portions of 
Scripture that there can be no possibility of mistaking that position, and we 
must presume every doctrine taught in the Apocalypse to be consistent with 
it. If no man can be saved by his works, still less can his works entitle 
him to hire, compensation, wages, or reward ;* neither can we suppose the 
Supreme Being to have occasion of a day or of an hour when He is to deter- 
mine whether this or that man be a sinner or not; or whether this or that 
human being be less of a sinner than another: to imagine this would be to 
imagine something entirely inconsistent with all that is revealed in Scripture 
of the omniscience of God. So far as the language of the Apocalypse is 
concerned we think, therefore, there can be no hazard in considering the 
reward in question to be that of a manifestation of the truth or falsehood of 
all doctrines and principles of doctrine ; a manifestation probably effected 
through the just construction of the written word of revelation, comprehend- 
ing that law and testimony by which every work, and device, and doctrine 


* The most faithful disciple is but an unprofitable servant, he can do more than 
it is his duty to do, (Luke xvi. 10.) As Paul says of himself, (1 Cor. ix. 16,) “ Though 
I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me: yea, 
wo is unto me if I preach not the gospel !” His preaching was nothing more than 
the performance of a duty; and if he had neglected to preach, this neglect would 
have been the absolute transgression of a command. If the apostle then could no 
pretend to a reward or recompense from God for his works, what reason is there for 
supposing the pretensions of others in this respect to be well founded ? 


APOCALYPTIC CONCLUSION. 655 


are to be tried as by a chemical test, the coming with reward being identic 
with the coming as by fire, as elsewhere described. 

‘Lam Alpha and Omega,’ &c.—We have already commented upon 
this annunciation. The importance of its introduction here appears to be 
that it identifies the present speaker with him who sat upon the white 
throne, (Rev. xxi. 6 ;) with him who declares himself to be the Almighty, 
(Rev. i. 8 ;) and with him whose voice, as of a trumpet, directed the apostle 
(Rey. i. 11) to write all that he has written in this book, and to send it to 
the seven churches of Asia. 


\ Vs. 14, 15. Blessed (are) they that do ͵Ιακάριοι οἵ ποιοῦντες τὰς ἐντολὰς av- 
his commandments, that they may have τοῦ, ἵνα ἔσται ἣ ἐξουσία αὐτῶν ἐπὲ τὸ ξύλον 
right to the tree of life, and may enter in gn Coie καὶ, τοῖς. πυλώσον! sicth nae 
through the gates into the city. For "VS 9.19 


without (are) dogs, and sorcerers, and τὴν πόλιν. “ES οἱ κύνες καὶ οἵ paguaxor 
whoremongers, and murderers, and idola- καὶ οἵ πόρνοι καὶ οἵ φονεῖς καὶ ot εἰδωλολά- 
cae and whosoever loveth and maketh a τραι καὶ πᾶς ὃ φιλῶν καὶ ποιῶν ψεῦδος. 

ᾧ 535. “ Blessed are they,’ &c.—This declaration, taken in ἃ literal 
sense, would imply that there is a certain portion of mankind who do all 
the commandments of God, and who, accordingly, by their perfect obedi- 
ence acquire a right to participate of the tree of life. We have said enough, 
however, to show why we do not and cannot take these words in a literal 
sense ; if the reading be correct as above, we suppose those doing the com- 
mandments in the sense of the text, to be elements of doctrine in strict 
conformity with the truths of the economy of grace—principles admissible 
into that economy, and forming constituent parts of it ; corresponding with 
such as we suppose allowed to enter the gates, (ὃ 507,) admitted by the 
angels at the gates, (¢ 485,) and probably identic with the one hundred 
and forty-four thousand sealed ones; their right, or rather power, (ἐξουσία,) 
to the tree of life, consisting in their correspondence with the truth repre- 
sented as the tree of life. As we might say of such doctrines, that all belong- 
ing to the divine plan of salvation must correspond with the representation, 
that the imputed righteousness of Christ is the only element of eternal life. 
It would be a mere truism to say of human beings, that it would be well 
for them, or that they would be happy, if they kept the commandments of 
God. If Paul could have hoped for happiness in this way, he would not 
have said of himself, as well as of others, ‘‘ when the commandment came 
sin revived, and I died.” 

The term rendered commandment, or commandments, occurs in no other 
place of the Apocalypse connected with the verb to do, (ποιέω,) but it is 


* These two verses appear to be the interlocutory response as of a chorus, although 
they may be taken for the words of the apostle, or of the angel; but the expression, 
his commandments instead of my commandments, appears intended to show that they 
are not directly the language of Him who declares himself to be Alpha and Omega. 


656 ALL THINGS NEW. 


found in two other places with the verb to keep, (τηρέω.)͵ The dragon 
and the accuser made war with those keeping the commandments of God, 
and having the testimony of Jesus, the remnant of the seed of the woman 
clothed with the sun, (ὃ 291 ;) and those that keep the commandments of 
God and the faith of Jesus are also spoken of, Rev. xiv. 12, apparently as 
exercising patience, (ᾧ 336.) In both these cases, we have considered the 
keeping in the sense of custody ; and the personification, that of principles, 
keeping as watchmen, sentinels, or guards, the true elements of the plan of 
salvation by grace. This personification we suppose to be preserved through- 
out the whole book, and accordingly feel no hesitation in giving to the 
expression, “do his commandments,” a construction similar to that οἱ" 
keeping his commandments. Here, those doing the commandments of God 
are said to do them that they may enter by the gates into the city, as well 
as have power over the tree of life. The two powers are apparently equiva- 
lent figures of the same privilege, indicating the congeniality of character 
between the elements entering by the gate and the city, and between the 
elements having power over the tree and the tree itself ; as the good shepherd 
(John x. 1) enters by the door into the fold, while the thief or robber climbs 
over the wall. The congenial element has the freedom of the city ; and, 
by the same token, has power over or upon the tree of life.* 


* Some editions of the Greek, instead of the words ποιοῦντες τὰς ἐντολάς, doinz 
the conmandments, have the words πλύνοντες tag στολάς, washing the robes. Such is 
the reading preferred by Lachman, and said to be that of the Alexandrine version ; 
it is also followed by Wiclif, “ Blessid be thei that waischen her stoolis: in the blood 
of the Lambe that the power of hem be in the tree of liif and enter bi the gatis in to 
the citee, for with outen forth houndis and wicchis and unchast men and manquellers, 
and servynge to idols and ech that loveth and makith lesinge.” So the Rheims ver- 
sion, “ Blessed are they that wash their stoles,” &c. The Greek words and letters 
in the two readings so nearly resemble each other, that the mistake of transcribers of 
manuscripts in the first instance may very innovently have been made, and the dif- 
ferent readings once introduced, it depended upon other copyists to prefer the expres- 
sion most in conformity with their own peculiar opinions. The transcriber influenced 
by legal views, without attending to the mere truism of the proposition in an ordinary 
sense, preferred the construction setting forth a happiness consisting in keeping the 
commandments ; the more evangelical transcriber preferred that which placed the 
same happiness in the efficacy of the Saviour’s atonement. If we interpreted the 
passage literally, we should certainly prefer the last reading, as most consistent with 
the whole tenor of divine revelation. But looking upon the expression as altogether 
of a spiritual and figurative character, we do not consider it of much importance 
which reading is adopted. The elements personified as disciples washing their 
robes, must represent principles assimilated by this process to the city and to the 
tree; the privilege they possess, therefore, is a result of congeniality of character. 
Whether as disciples keeping the commandments of God, or as disciples washing their 
robes in the blood of the Lamb, they represent doctrinal elements according with the 
character of the city and tree, and therefore possessing the power to enter the gates 
of one, and to participate of the fruit of the other. The city is a figure, and the gate 
is a figure, and therefore whatever enters by the gate into the city must be a figure 


APOCALYPTIC CONCLUSION. 657 


ᾧ 536. ‘For without are dogs and sorcerers,’ &¢.—These characters, 
with the exception of the first, we have already remarked upon (δῷ 477, 
478) as principles of false doctrine working abomination, and making a lie, 
(Rev. xxi. 27 ;)on that account not permitted to enter the city, and for 
the same reason subjected to the never-ending trial of the second death— 
the trial as by unquenchable fire; the two figures (exclusion from the 
city, and everlasting trial or torture in the lake) being nearly convertible 
symbols—as we may say, to be excluded from the city is to be cast into the 
lake, and to be cast into the lake is to be excluded from the city. 

The appellation dogs is very generally admitted to be figurative, but it 
is as generally almost literalized by being considered figurative of human 
beings of a shameless character. In a spiritual sense, however, we construe 
the term more exactly : we suppose dogs here, as well as sorcerers, &c., to 
represent doctrinal principles ; and we take the character of the principles 
represented by these animals more especially from the habits of these 
animals in eastern countries in respect to their food. The dogs of Western 
Asia are scarcely domesticated ; in the cities and towns they herd together, 
and are almost as ferocious as wild beasts. They are regarded as unclean 
animals, and as outcasts amongst animals ; and, having for the most part 
neither homes or masters, they subsist upon every species of offal coming 
in their way ; generally preferring carrion, and vile and putrid animal sub- 
stances, to attacking and killing other animals for food.* Thus, subsisting 
in preference upon unclean aliment, they represent, we think, principles 
specially of a self-righteous character; the dogs of the Apocalypse, as 
elements of doctrine, corresponding in character with the teachers of false 
doctrine, alluded to, Phil. iii. 2, under the same appellation. We do not 
imagine an essential difference between the doctrines represented by these 
excluded characters: they are all of them rather so many different figures 
of the same false principles ; a self-righteous principle or doctrine, in its 
different relations, being in effect a dog, a sorcerer, a whoremonger or adul- 
terer, a murderer, an idolater, and a thing defiling, working abomination, and 
making and loving a lie, in the sense already attached to these expressions. 


so the tree is a figure, and the fruit of the tree is a figure, and therefore whatever has 
power over the tree is a figure. We have no authority for taking part of the repre- 
sentation in a figurative, and part in a literal sense. 

* Dogs licked the blood of Naboth and Ahab, and devoured the body of Jezebel, 
1 Kings xxi. 19, and xxii. 38. Amongst the Hebrews, the unburied carcasses of crimi- 
nals appear to have been left a prey to dogs, as part of the sentence passed upon them. 
They may be considered, in this light, instruments of judicial vengeance: “ The 
sword to slay, and the dogs to tear,” Jer. xv. 3; “Dogs have compassed me,” said 
David ;—“ Deliver my soul from the sword ; my darling from the power of the dog,” 
(Ps. xxii. 20.) That which was holy, or set apart, was not to be given to dogs, 
(Matt. vii. 6;) while flesh torn by beasts was not to be eaten by the Israelites ; it was 
to be cast to.the dogs, (Ex. xxii. 31.) 


658 ALL THINGS NEW. 


ADDRESS OF JESUS. 


Vs. 16,17. I Jesus have sent mine angel ᾿Εγὼ ᾿Ιησοῦς ἔπεμψα τὸν ἄγγελόν μου 


to testify unto you these things in the ~ con LISUNT SN Δ γε Ἶ 
: Ν αἀρτυρῆσαι ὑμῖν ταῦτα ἐπὶ ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις " 
churches. I am the root and the offspring oe ei τ 


of David, (and) the bright and morning- “7° μι ἢ gia fe eked ates Dene, νάνι, "- 
star. And the Spirit and the bride say, 9 λᾶμπρος 0 πρωΐνος. Καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ 
Come. And let him that heareth say, ἢ γύμφη λέγουσιν" ἔρχου. καὶ ὁ ἀκούων εἰ- 
Come. And let him that is athirst come. sara: ἔρχου. καὶ ὃ διψῶν ἐρχέσϑω, ὃ ϑέλων 


And whosoever will, let him take the Ft sey ε y 
water of life freely. are Rpt Pack a Ὁ 


§ 537. 51 Jesus have sent,’ &c.—In the sixth verse of this chapter it 
is said, “the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his 
servants the things which must shortly be done.” It is now as expressly 
declared, that the angel was sent by Jesus. The inference, therefore, is 
unavoidable, that Jesus and the Lord God of the holy prophets are differ- 
ent appellations of the same Being, the same source of truth. This book 
of Revelation, or rather the revelation itself, as it was made to the apostle, 
may be figuratively termed an angel or messenger; Jesus, therefore, may be 
said to reveal himself, in this messenger or message, as by an angel. 

The same Jesus who was declared to be the Lamb of God, (John i. 
29, 36,) and who, as the Lamb, is revealed to us occupying the throne or 
seat of God, is here declared to be the Lord God of the prophets ; and the 
same Jesus who is called (Rev. i. 5) the faithful and true witness, testifies 
or bears witness in this revelation as through the instrumentality of a mes- 
senger. ‘The same Jesus who first exhibited himself to the apostle in this 
vision, in the midst of the golden candlesticks, as one like unto the Son of 
Man, (Rev. 1. 18,) afterwards reveals himself as the Lamb opening the sealed 
book, and consequently as the author of the whole revelation resulting from 
that opening. At the same time, as the Word of God, this Jesus is revealed 
in the rider of the white horse ; first, as going forth to overcome, (Rev. vi. 2.) 
and subsequently as actually overcoming, (Rev. xix. 20, 21 :) lastly, he 
reveals himself in the person of his bride, the holy city. 

The name Jesus signifying the Saviour, God the Saviour must be Him 
by whom the angel here spoken of is sent; or, rather, dropping the figure of 
the angel, God the Saviour is the author of this revelation, as the book is 
entitled the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him, (Rev. i. 1 ;) 
so we may say God reveals himself in this book as the Anointed, the only 
Saviour, for there is none other. God was, in Christ, reconciling the world 


' APOCALYPTIC CONCLUSION. ᾿ 659 


unto himself. The whole testimony of the book is immediately from God. 
This declaration, “I Jesus,” &c., is equivalent to a seal or signature 
affixed to the whole instrument. God in Christ, manifest in the flesh, ap- 
peared to the apostles and others of their time, as one like unto the Son of 
man. In the Apocalypse he reveals himself as the Lamb, the Word, the 
Bride, and the Holy City ; the bride being the image or representation of 
her husband, (the Lamb,) and the holy city being the representation in 
detail of all that is to be understood of the word or purpose of God. 

“ΤῸ testify these things in the churches ;’ or, rather, upon or concerning the 

churches, ἐπὶ τὰς ἐκκλησίαις, (δ 234) the seven churches of Asia, to which the 
book is inscribed, being put for the whole, or for the seven parts of a whole. 
These churches we have supposed to represent so many assemblages of doc- 
rine, each affected by certain peculiar errors ; the errors of the seven com- 
prising, as figures, perhaps all erroneous views incident to matters of Christian 
faith or doctrine. In the introductory epistles these errors are directly re- 
proved. Jn the subsequent revelation they are indirectly set forth by alle- 
gorical representations, in which true and false systems are contrasted with 
that which alone is true. ‘The whole testimony borne in these representa- 
tions may be said to be concerning the churches, because, although not 
expressly declared, it is intended to correct the errors to which those sys- 
tems were subject. 

But whether we render ἐπὶ by concerning or in, the expression confines 
the testimony spoken of to matters of Christian doctrine ; it is something in 
or concerning the Christian system, and is not intended for application out 
of that system. Errors in the churches, and not out of the churches, are the 
subject of reprehension ; and the illustrations of the truth as it is in Jesus are 
intended for those already nourished with the milk of the word, and now 
supposed capable of receiving stronger food. On the other hand, as the 
Apocalypse is not addressed to those out of the church, it is addressed to all 
in the church, without restriction of time or place, age, denomination, sect, 
or country ; all naming the name of Jesus, whether human beings or sys- 
tems of faith, come within the sphere of the totality designated by the num- 
ber seven. 

§ 538. ‘ Lam the root and the offspring of David.*—The root and 
that which springs from the root, together, must constitute the whole 
plant. ‘The expression, therefore, is equivalent to the declaration, I am 
the spiritual David; the terms root and offspring being both understood in 
a spiritual sense. Here, then, is that root of Jesse of which it is said, (Isa. 


* The angel just spoken of having discharged his functions, that figure, may 
now be considered as dismissed ; Jesus speaking in this and in the subsequent verses 
in his own proper person, 


660 ALL THINGS NEW. 


xi. 10,) “It shall stand for an ensign of the people ; to it shall the Gentiles 
seek: and his rest shall be glorious.” Here, too, there is that offspring cf 
the same root, of which it is said, (Is. xi. 1,) “ And there shall come forth 
a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” 
Of this offspring it is also predicted, that “ he shall judge the poor and 
reprove with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the 
earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay 
the wicked.”’ Such reproof, and such action of the mouth and lips, we sup- 
pose to be administered by Jesus in this revelation. 

To the same root and stem, stock and offspring, beginning and ending, 
we apply the prediction, (Zech. ii. 8, and vi. 12, 13,) “ Behold, I will 
bring forth my servant the Branch, (Sept. ἡ ἀνατολή, the rising,) and he 
shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord; 
and he shall bear the glory, and shall set and rule upon his throne, and he 
shal] be a priest upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between 
them both.” So Is. li. 1,2, “ Who hath believed our report, and to 
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him 
as a tender plant, and as a root out of adry ground. He hath no form nor 
comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should 
desire him ;’’—this being the same root of which we are assured, as above, 
His rest shall be glorious. 

In the offspring or race of David we meet with the seed or fruit of the 
woman which was to bruise the serpent’s head, depriving the accuser of its 
power, and sin of its sting, and death or condemnation of its prey, by his 
own vicarious fulfilment of the law. In this anomted, consecrated root, we 
meet too with the parent stock of the good olive tree, (Rom. xi. 16,) from 
which, as engrafted branches, the disciple derives the unction of divine holi- 
ness; as it is said, if the root be holy, so are the branches; and (John 
xv. 4,5) “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the 
vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. He that abideth in me, and 
I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do 
nothing ;”’ the imputed merits of Christ being to the adopted disciple as 
the fruit of the tree is to its branches. In allusion to this arrangement of 
sovereign grace it is said, (Is. lx. 21,) ‘Thy people shall be all righteous ; 
they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of 
my hands, that I may be glorified ;” the fruit borne by this adopted or en- 
grafted branch being, as we apprehend, the imputed merits or righteousness 
of Christ, the purchased inheritance alluded to Eph. 1. 14. 

‘The bright (and) morning-star ;’ or, the resplendent early morning-star, 
ὁ ἀστὴρ ὁ λαμπρὸς 6 πρωϊνός, or ὀρϑρινός, according to some editions. [ shall 
see him, but not now, said Balaam; I shall behold him, but not nigh. 
There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall arise out of Israel, 


APOCALYPTIC CON CLUSION : 661 


(Numbers xxiv. 17 ;) so, 2 Peter ii. 19, “" We have also a more sure word 
of prophecy ; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light 
that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in 
your hearts.” ‘This day dawn we suppose to be the manifestation of the 
truth, and the rising of the day-star to be a figure equivalent to the exhibition 
of Jesus as “ the Lord our righteousness,” our ight, and our salvation ; the 
φωσφόρος or light-bearer of Peter being put for the dawn of a spiritual 
revelation.* Christ. at the time of writing this Epistle, had been already 
manifest on earth, and his truth was already being taught by the preaching 
of the Gospel throughout the world. But the spiritual understanding was 
still wanting ; Christians were yet to see Jesus, as the Sun of righteous- 
ness, even of their righteousness, and as such he here unfolds himself ; 
corresponding with the construction we have elsewhere put upon the figure 
of light, (¢ 504,) the glory of moral perfection. As it is said, (Ps. xevii, 11,) 
Light is sown for the righteous ; or, as we understand it, a righteousness 15 
prepared or made for the justified (in Christ). 

We had occasion to notice, (ᾧ 83,) in the introductory Epistles, the 
promise of Jesus to the overcoming 


g, ὃ τικῶν, L will give him the morning- 
star, (Rev. ii. 28;) which assurance we have applied to an overcoming 
principle, considering it equivalent to the promise of a manifest identity with 
Christ. He is the Star, and he promises to give himself to the overcoming— 
that is, he promises identity : as he prays for his disciples, (John xvii. 22,) 
that they may be one with him; that, in the sight of God, they may be 
accounted identic with him. ‘This promise we suppose to be now apoca- 
lyptically fulfilled. The word of God overcame. ‘The word of God is the 
purpose of God to save by imputed righteousness. 'This purpose of God is 
set forth at large under the figure of the New Jerusalem or bride. The 
bride or Lamb’s wife is identi¢ with the Lamb ; the Lamb is Jesus, and Jesus 
is the morning-star ; thus the word of God or economy of grace are identic 
with the star, and Jesus gives himself to, or identifies himself with, the pur- 
pose of sovereign grace—one is exhibited and seen in the other. 

§ 539. ‘And the Spirit and the bride,’ &c.—The apostle does not say 
Theard the Spirit and the bride say, Come; it is Jesus himself who is still 
the speaker. Having announced that he had in the preceding revelation 


* The king of Babylon is also styled by the prophet (Is. xiv. 12) Lucifer, or light- 
bearer ; and son of the morning, according to our common version, (Sept. “Ewoqpogos, 
or morning-bearer; and zowit ἀνατέλλων, the early rising, or the twilight of the rising: 
“ How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!) But this we 
suppose to be a sarcastic allusion to the presumptuous pretensions of the Babylonish 
monarch, who himself serves in prophecy as a figure corresponding with the seven- 
headed beast of Revelation, and the man of sin in the Epistles; the Babylonish 
pretender claiming to be the morning-star, as the beast and the man of sin pretend to 
make themselves equal with God. 


662 ALL THINGS NEW. 


testified of the things of his kingdom, through the instrumentality of an 
angel, he next announces himself as the spiritual David, and the spiritual 
Morning Star; and having thus revealed himself, he now declares what the 
Spirit and the bride say—that is, he declares the use and purport of the 
preceding development, viz., that it is equivalent to an urgent invitation or 
exhortation, addressed to all who read it, to a participation in the means of 
redemption as represented. 

The spirit here spoken of we suppose to be the spirit of this Apocalypse, 
elsewhere (Eph, i. 17) termed “ the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the 
knowledge of Christ ;” the spirit by which, or in which, John was enabled 
to witness the day of the Lord, (§ 24;) the spirit by which, or in which, 
the apostle beheld the heavenly scene described in the fourth chapter of 
the book, and indeed in all the subsequent chapters; the spirit by which, 
and in which, he was carried to the top of the mountain, and to the wilder- 
ness ; the spirit explaining the nature of the blessedness enjoyed by those 
dying in the Lord, (Rev. xiv. 13 ;) the spirit, nn fine, which all the seven 
churches were especially called upon to hear—what the spirit says being 
the spiritual meaning of what is said or represented. On this occasion the 
spirit is mentioned as uniting with the bride with one voice in giving the 
invitation. We are not told that the Spirit says, Come, and the bride says, 
Come; but the Spirit and the bride together say, Come. They together 
constitute the party giving the invitation. 

The bride, of whom so much is said in the last two chapters, is not 
mentioned in the preceding portion of the Apocalypse, except on one occa- 
sion, (Rev. xix. 7-9,) where she is said to have made herself ready for the 
marriage feast, (§ 425.) The Spirit, on the contrary, as we have seen, is 
to be recognized in all that is revealed; his first work having been the pre- 
paratory operation of setting forth the errors opposed to an understanding 
of the truth ; which preparation we may consider equivalent to the bride’s 
making herself ready. His last work is that of setting forth the truth, in 
the spiritual understanding of all that is said of the bride or holy city ; and 
this last, the New Jerusalem, is the bride ; so that it might have been said 
here, The Spirit and the New Jerusalem say, Come. 

The New Jerusalem consists of a collection of various symbolical figures 
illustrating the principal features of the divine economy of grace. The 
figures, however, alone would explain nothing : it is the spirit or spiritual un- 
derstanding with the figures which affords the illustration ; the two together 
unite in exhibiting the plan of divine mercy, and thus, as with one voice, 
give the invitation to participate in that provision of mercy ;—the call being 
particularly addressed to those under the influence of erroneous views, 
who are now besought to choose the only way of salvation; as it is said of 
true wisdom, (Prov. ix. 1-6,) She hath prepared her feast; she hath sent 


APOCALYPTIC CONCLUSION. 663 


forth her invitations ; she crieth upon the high places of the city, Come, eat 
of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled ; forsake the 
foolish (way) and live, and goin the way of understanding. 

The Spirit and the bride in this revelation virtually say, Come ; as the 
cities of refuge, with their open gates and their guide-posts virtually said, 
Come, to the man-slayer in need of the asylum; the word, or sovereign 
purpose of God, (the city,) inviting to fly for refuge; and this word, or 
purpose, identic as it is with Christ, giving its invitation by a figurative 
exhibition of itself, accompanied with a spiritual understanding. The 
Spirit and the New Jerusalem say, Come ; in other words, the economy of 
grace, unfolded to the spiritual understanding, says, “Come, for all things 
are ready.” As a table, spread with rich dainties, virtually says to the 
beholder, Come; so the rich provision of divine mercy here displayed says 
to the disciple, in the language of the Psalmist, “‘ Come, taste and see that 
the Lord is good ; blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” A blind con- 
fidence in means of redemption vaguely set forth, is not required ; the whole 
plan is exhibited, that the trust or confidence of the disciple may be won 
or gained by it. The lofty walls of the city, with their twelve garnished 
foundations, the pearly gates, the angelic guards, the golden streets, the end- 
less day, the ample supply of living water, and the fruit and leaf of the tree 
of life, (together representing the whole body of written revelation upon the 
same subject,) all say, as with one voice, Come. This voice we suppose to 
be the voice of the Comforter, while the precious invitation corresponds also 
with that of Jesus himself: “‘Come unto me all ye that labour and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” 

ᾧ 540. “ And let him that heareth say, Come.’—TIt is not said, Let him 
that heareth, come, but let him say, Come ; the language being still that of 
Jesus himself. He tells the Aearer that the Spirit and the bride say, Come, 
which is equivalent to announcing his own invitation. Having done this, he 
directs the hearer what to say in his turn— Let him that heareth say, 
Come.” ‘This we must connect with the previously repeated declarations 
of Jesus of his coming quickly. The invitation of Jesus by the voice of the 
Spirit and the bride is addressed to the hearer; and the invitation which the 
hearer is instructed to give is addressed to Jesus, as he is here understood to 
announce his own coming: “Let him that heareth (understandeth) say, 
Come, Lord, come quickly.” 

‘This, we think, is the easiest construction to be put upon the expression, 
But, instead of this, the hearer may be contemplated in the light of a mes- 
senger, to whom a direction is given to communicate what is said to others ; 
in which case the invitation of the hearer, like that of the Spirit and the 
bride, would be directed to disciples, and not to the Lord. The style of the 
Apocalypse, however, and its general construction as a composition, some: 


what of a dramatic character, justifies, we think, the supposition that th 
51 


664 ALL THINGS NEW. 


language of the hearer is intended to be a response to that of the voice of 
the Spirit and the bride. 

However this may be, the hearing in question is something more than a 
mere apprehension of words and phrases, whether communicated orally or 
in writing. It must apply to a certain recognition of the spiritual sense of 
what is thus communicated ; as it is said at the conclusion of each of the 
introductory addresses, (ὃ 46,) “ He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear 
what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” Corresponding with this, we 
may suppose he that hath an ear to hear having heard, he is now directed 
what to say ; that is, to say with the apostle, as at the close of this chapter, 
« Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”” The disciple, accordingly, after he has gone 
through with the testimony of Jesus, furnished in this revelation, may judge 
in some degree whether he has heard or not, in the apocalyptic sense of the 
term, by his disposition to obey the direction here given ; and by the readi- 
ness with which he can respond to the annunciation of the Saviour, “ Behold, 
I come quickly,” (suddenly,) “ Even so, Lord, come.” 

As we were before told that the marriage feast was come, (Rev. xix. 7,) 
and that the wife having received her nuptial array, had made herself ready ; 
as her appearance was next described to be that of a wife adorned, or deco- 
rated, apparently for the feast, which we have supposed to be equivalent to 
a manifestation of the union; and as she here with the Spirit gives the invi- 
tation, Come, we may presume the feast thus anticipated to be now before 
us. In connection with this figure, him that heareth may be supposed to 
occupy the place of the friend of the bridegroom ; such a friend presiding, 
according to the Hebrew custom, as a ruler of the feast, inviting and attend- 
ing to the guests. ‘Thus the direction given to the ruler of the feast to say, 
Come, is equivalent to a general notice that every thing is now ready; it 
remains only for the guests to take the places assigned them. Under this 
construction, all whose duty or privilege it is in any way to promulgate the 
truths of the gospel, may be said to exercise the functions of the friend of 
the bridegroom. They give the invitation, Come ; and they give it as the 
Spirit and the bride have given it here; that is, by setting forth the econo- 
my of grace itself. What is said of the teachers may be equally said of the 
doctrines taught: if they exhibit the divine purpose of redemption as a rich 
provision of sovereign mercy, their language is that of invitation, Come, 

Contemplating this marriage feast, however, as a manifestation simply, 
it will be sufficient for us to consider these invitations as designating the 
completion of that development of truth, which may be said to constitute 
the coming of the Lord. 

ᾧ 541. ‘And Jet him that is athirst come ;’ or, let the thirsting come. 
—Not let him say, come, but let him come ; precisely the same invitation 
as was given by Jesus himself when manifest in the flesh, (John vii. 37 :) 

‘Ifany man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.’”” So Matt, v. 6, 


APOCALYPTIC CONCLUSION. 665. 


“ Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall 
be filled.” The verb “ιψάω, to thirst, is to be understood in all these pas- 
sages in the strongest sense of the term; expressing not merely an inclina- 
tion to drink, but a vehement desire, a famishing with thirst-—an apprehension 
of perishing, if the means of quenching this thirst be not immediately sup- 
plied. So the adjective “έψιος, used metaphorically, signifies parched, arid, 
dry, (Donnegan.) In this sense the means of supplying the thirst alluded 
to in this passage comprehends the whole means of eternal life, that with- 
out which the sinner must perish forever. Of the two figures, hunger and 
thirst, the last is here used for both ; and the means of supplying this want 
may be considered equivalent to the supply of every want pertaining to the 
salvation of the soul. The case of the sufferer, in this spiritual sense, is 
analogous to that of the children of Israel in their way to the promised land : 
wandering in the wilderness, they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and 
thirsty, their soul fainted in them; then they cried unto the Lord, and he 
led them by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation, 
(Ps. evii. 5,6.) Such a city, represented by the new Jerusalem, and all its 
abundant means of comfort and security, is now comprehended under the 
single symbol of thé one indispensable aliment of life and cleanliness ; and 
the right way, before symbolized by the city, is now spoken of as the way, 
or rather, as the act of coming to a never-failing spring. 

‘ And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely ;’* or, the 
willing (the desiring) let him take, &c.—As we have said of thirsting, so 
we say of the term rendered will in this place ; it is not merely a non- 
refusal, a mere assent or consent, but it is a desire, a wish. The verbs in 
both cases are employed in the active form, and we may say there is no 
merely passive idea to be associated with them—9#¢)oy» signifying sometimes 
even eagerly, (as Aischyl. Choe. 791, quoted by Donnegan.) So the 
verb is used, Rev. xi. 5, 6, in the sense of seeking to accomplish a desired 
object. 

This water of life we suppose to be a figure of all that is requisite for 
eternal happiness, all that is otherwise represented by the holy city ; and 
this all we take to be comprehended in the atonement—the vicarious pro+ 
pitiation of the Son of God. A city paved with gold, the whole structure 
of which is garnished with diamonds and precious stones, must be of no 
value as a habitation, without a supply of water. So it is the river of the 
water of life, proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb, which gives 
to the new Jerusalem its characteristic feature of a city to dwell in; as it 
is also the propitiation of Christ*which gives to the whole economy of grace’ 
its characteristic adaptation to the circumstances and wants of the disciple. 


* The adverb δωρεών, translated freely, is rendered, John xv. 25, without cause. 
It is from a noun, δωρεά, signifying a gift or present; something freely granted by the 
donor, and wholly undeserved by the recipient. 


666 ALL THINGS NEW. 


It is the cleansing efficacy of the atonement of Jesus which enables his fol- 
lowers to participate in every other benefit conferred by sovereign grace: 
it is this, indeed, which brings them into the position of such participation ; 
the blessedness of him whose transgressions are forgiven covering, we may 
say, the whole ground of eternal happiness. ΤῸ take of the water of life is, 
then, to partake of the marriage feast—to accept of the means of salvation 
offered in the gospel: one simple figure put for the whole. To take of the 
water of life, is to cast one’s self entirely for redemption upon the merits of 
Christ ; trusting for acceptance with God, solely to a participation in the 
atoning sacrifice of Jesus. 

This participation is now offered, and what is peculiar in the offer is, 
that the benefit to be conferred is freely given, gratis, entirely as a gift ; 
no equivalent being exacted for it, no condition being prescribed ;—cor- 
responding with the language of Paul, Rom. iii. 24, “ Being justified freely 
by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” The only 
question we have to ask is, To whom is the offer made? and the answer is, 
To all desiring to obtain the favour. The invitation to drink is to all who 
are thirsty ; the offer of the life-giving supply is to all who feel their need 
of it, and desire to partake of it. 

There may be those who thirst, but who do not desire to take of the 
proffered supply ; they feel their want, but they prefer depending upon 
other resources. There is within them a proud spirit of self justification and 
vainglory, which speaks to them in the language ascribed to the king of 
Assyria, Is. xxxvi. 16: “ Make with me a covenant, and come out with 
me; and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig-tree ; and 
drink ye every one of the waters of his own cistern.” 

With the atonement of Jesus before them, they prefer seeking out some 
propitiation of their own providing: an almost unaccountable perversity, 
alluded to by the prophet, (Jer. 11. 12, 13 :) ‘‘ Be astonished, O ye heavens, 
at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord: for 
my people have committed two evils ; they have forsaken me, the fountain 
of living waters,” (rejecting the atonement of Christ,) “and have hewed 
out for them cisterns,” (in devising means of propitiation of their own,) 
<< broken cisterns, which can hold no water.” 

There are others, however, who both thirst (feel their need of an 
atoning sacrifice) and earnestly desire (will) to partake of the proffered bene- 
fit: ‘‘ As the hart panteth after the water-brooks,” says David, “so panteth 
my soul after thee,O God! My soul tharsteth for God; for the living 
God,” (Ps. xlii. 1, 2;) “0 God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee. 
My soul thirsteth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is,” 
(Ps. lxiii. 1, 2.) 

This thirsting for God, as expressed in the Psalms, we presume to be 
the thirsting and desiring of the Apocalypse ; corresponding with the chain 


APOCALYPTIC CONCLUSION. 667 


of identity already alluded to. The river of the water of life (the means 
of atonement) being the distinguishing element of the holy city, (the divine 
purpose of grace,) the holy city or bride being identic with the Lamb, 
and the Lamb identic with God, to thirst for God is equivalent to thirsting 
for the water of life. 

§ 542. The words of the last two verses, we suppose to be addressed 
directly to every human being interested in the great salvation, constituting 
the subject of this revelation. The veil is now laid aside, and Jesus no 
longer speaks through his angel; what he says, accordingly, is to be taken 
as directed to all his followers—to all who look for him, (Phil. iii. 20 ; 
Heb. ix. 28.) His language is figurative, as it was in the invitations quoted 
from the gospels ; and his allusions refer to the exhibition of the Spirit and 
the bride, just completed ; but the address may be considered an applica- 
tion of the whole revelation to the case of the sinner individually, and 
to that of all collectively, before whom this portion of Stripture may be 
placed. 

As if it had been said, by way of objection, ‘If the Lamb’s wife (the 
new Jerusalem) be not the whole multitude (’Exxiyoia) of disciples them- 
selves, but only a representation of the assemblage of doctrinal principles 
involved in the divine purpose of grace, what interest have we (disciples) 
in that which is set forth as identic with the Lamb ?” 

In anticipation of this objection, we may suppose it to be now said by 
the Saviour, ‘ Behold, the plan of salvation is here set before you, under the 
figure of the splendid city you have been just contemplating ; all its provi- 
sions and advantages being equivalent to, and comprehended in, what is 
represented by the river of the water of life :—to trust in the refuge repre- 
sented by the city, is to take of the water of life. The exhibition of divine 
mercy is, itself, an invitation to accept of it; and this invitation is accom- 
panied with the assurance, that what is sought for is freely given. Come, 
for all things are ready. Behold, I create all things new; and in this 
new creation, otherwise represented as the new Jerusalem, consists the pre- 
paration for your eternal salvation.’ 

Surely, it is not for the sinner to say, Because I do not myself constitute 
an element of this new creation, this city—the bride—I have no interest in 
it! On the contrary, the language of common prudence must be, ‘ If such 
be the preparation, such the arrangement of sovereign grace, shall I reject 
or lightly esteem it? If the atonement of Jesus offered in my behalf be 
here represented as the aliment of eternal life; if his righteousness be the 
wall of salvation ; if the riches of his merits be the ransom of the soul ; if, 
in him I have an access unto God ; if such be the purpose of infinite wisdom 
and mercy, how can I do despite to this spirit of grace? How can I 
trample under foot such means of reconciliation, or count the provisions of 
such a covenant an unholy thing ?’ 


668 ALL THINGS NEW. 


Such, we think, are the considerations suggested by a just application of 
these invitations to the whole subject of the Apocalypse ; according as they 
do with the earnest entreaty of the apostle, (2 Cor. vi. 1, 2:) “*‘We then 
beseech you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain; for He saith, 
I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I 
succoured thee ; behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day 


of salvation.” 


Vs. 18, 19. For I testify unto every man 
that heareth the words of the prophecy of 
this book, If any man shall add unto these 
things, God shall add unto him the plagues 
that are written in this book: and if any 
man shall take away from the ,words of 
the book of this prophecy, God shall take 
away his part out of the book [tree] of 
life, and out of the holy city, and (from) 
the things which are written in this book. 


Mugtved ἐγὼ παντὶ τῷ ἀκούοντι τοὺς 
λόγους τῆς προφητείας τοῦ βιβλίου τού- 
του" ἐάν τις envi ἐπὶ αὐτά, ἐπιϑήσει ὃ 
ϑεὸς ἐπ᾿ αὐτὸν τὰς πληγὰς τὰς γεγραμμέ- 
νας ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ τούτῳ" καὶ ἐάν τις ἀφέλη 
ἀπὸ τῶν λόγων τοῦ βιβλίου τῆς προφη- 
τείας ταύτης, ἀφελεῖ ὃ ϑεὸς τὸ μέρος αὐτοῦ 
ἀπὸ τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς καὶ ἐκ τῆς πόλεως 
τὴς ἁγίας, τῶν γεγραμμένων ἔν τῷ βιβλίῳ 


[2 
TOUTO). 


§ 543. ‘ For I testify,’ &¢.—There is some difference here in the Greek 
editions, some of them omitting the word γάρ, (for,) and employing the sim- 
ple verb μαρτυρῶ, (I testify,) and others, reading Συμμαρτυροῦμαι γὰρ παντὶ 
ἀκούοντι, which may be rendered, For I testify, together with him that heareth. 
This testimony, according to the last reading, would seem to be given in 
connection with the invitation to come and take of the water of life freely ; 
as if it were added, for nothing militating with this free participation of the 
water of life shall be admissible in the construction of this revelation. 

The other, however, is said to be the better reading, (Rob. Lex.) I wit- 
ness to the hearing. In either case the hearing is the hearer just before 
instructed to say, Come; these hearers, as we suppose, being put for teachers 
or doctrines, virtually urging the invitations of the gospel upon all who need 
the salvation. The word man is supplied by our translators ; the terms any 
and every would apply to angels as well as to men, and to doctrines (λόγοι) 
as well as to human beings. ‘The substance of the testimony, however, is 
the same, viz. that nothing is to be added to, or taken from, the words of 
this prophecy or interpretation of the divine will, (ᾧ 69.) 

This notice was intended primarily, no doubt, to protect the integrity of 
the text; which seems to have been preserved by it undisputed, with very 
trifling exceptions, in a remarkable manner :* the ultimate object, we think, 


* Even the misconstruction of these verses may have been the means of prevent- 
ing many alterations, interpolations, and excisions, which a pious officiousness would 
have otherwise undertaken; if only from a well-meaning effort to make that plain 
which was certainly obscure. So the misapplication of the book to temporal objects 
secured for the first manuscripts an early attention, a critical examination, frequent 
collation, and a jealous watchfulness, the advantages of which might not have been 
otherwise enjoved. 


APOCALYPTIC CONCLUSION. 669 


was to protect the construction, as above suggested ; that no principle or 
expression should be accounted admissible which might take from the free- 
ness of the salvation offered, or add a condition or burden inconsistent with 
the invitation to take of the water of life gratis. The nature of the threat- 
ened penalties must be sufficient to show, that doctrines or principles are 
contemplated as obnoxious to them, and not human beings. “ If any man 
(any one) shall add to (put upon, ἐπιϑῆ) these things, God shall add to 
him (ἐπιϑήσει ἐπ αὐτὸν, put upon him or it) the plagues written in this 
book.” The plagues or blows (πληγάς) written in this book, are the 
seven plagues of the seven vials—the grievous sore upon the men which had 
the mark of the beast, the bloody sea, the fountains and rivers of blood, the 
scorching of the sun, the torment peculiar to the kingdom of the beast, the 
drying up of the Euphrates, the irruption of the spirits unclean as frogs, the 
earthquake and the hail, and the dissolution of the great city : add to these 
the plague of the scorpion locusts and the scorpion tails of the Euphratean 
horses, the plagues which the two witnesses were empowered to inflict, the 
plagues to whiich Babylon was subjected, and the plague inflicted upon the 
head of the beast. These are all “ the plagues written in this book.” We 
have examined them severally, and, however defective our definitions may 
have been, it is evident that these plagues or blows are of a figurative char- 
acter ; symbolizing different tests by which the fallacy of erroneous systems 
and doctrinal principles is to be exposed. Corresponding with this con- 
struction, we presume the admonition or caution contained in the verses upon 
which we are now commenting to be equivalent to the declaration, that all 
false doctrines or principles introduced into this revelation, or brought to 
bear upon it, will be subjected to the tests just enumerated ; their fallacy and 
inconsistency being exhibited by the same process. 

§ 544. ‘And if any man [any one] shall take away,’ &c., ‘ God shall 
take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and (from) 
the things which are written in this book; or, as we might render the 
Greek of some editions, If any one take away from the sayings of the book 
of this prophecy, God shall take away the part of him (or of it) from the 
tree of life, and out of the holy city, (and) of the (things) written in this 
book ; or, from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, written in this book. 
According to the first reading, the things written, &c. constitute a third 
figure ; according to the last reading, the words, “ written in this book,” 
being in the genitive plural in the original, apply to the tree and the city, 
also in the genitive, and together requiring the participle agreeing with them 
in the genitive plural. We are inclined to prefer this reading, because it 
accords with the construction of the preceding verse. The plagues are 
designated as those written in the book ; and, corresponding with this, the 
tree, or book of life, and the city, are also designated as those “ written in 
this book.” The difference, as we understand the figures, is not very 


670 ALL THINGS NEW. 


material. The tree of life, and the book of life, and the holy city, we sup- 
pose to represent the same divine purpose—different illustrations of the same 
word of God, the divine plan of redemption, which also constitutes the things 
written in this book of Revelation. They are all equivalents, although 
affording a variety in their mode of exhibiting the same truths. To take 
the part of a doctrine or principle out of, or away from, either or all of these 
illustrations or exhibitions, is to show that it has no share in them. So any 
doctrine or principle taking away from the substance or from the purport of 
this revelation any portion of its truths, will be shown to have no part in a 
true exhibition of the divine plan of mercy. 

This book (the Apocalypse) we assumed, in the first instance, and we 
think it will so appear to be, an unveiling or revelation, in a spiritual sense, of 
Jesus Christ himself, especially as the word of God, the purpose of sovereign 
grace, or divine plan of mercy. Any doctrine, principle, or construction, tend- 
ing to engraft upon this revelation matters entirely of a different character, civil, 
political, or ecclesiastical, or tending to represent this divine purpose as a plan 
of salvation partly of works and partly of grace, or entirely gf works instead 
of grace, is a doctrine or construction adding to or laying upon this book 
things which do not belong to it ; consequently, such doctrine or construction 
must be eventually exposed to certain tests of truth, illustrated by the plagues 
written in this book. As, for example, the plague to which the harlot was 
finally exposed was that of being destroyed by the ten horns ; the action of 
the law showing the utter destitution of the harlot-system of any righteous- 
ness or means of justification. The plague by which Babylon was finally 
destroyed was fire—the fire which is to try every work—the test of the 
written word by which every doctrine or construction is to be tried ; the false 
doctrine or interpretation being destroyed, although the teacher himself may 
be a subject of mercy—saved indeed through that very plan of sovereign 
grace which, through ignorance, he may have been the instrument of misre- 
presenting. 

The taking away that which belongs to this book, we suppose to be 
something of the same character. In effect, the two figures are nearly con- 
vertible. ‘To apply any portion of the things written in this book toa wrong 
object, is to take them away from their true object, and consequently to 
diminish the number of principles or elements of truth applicable to the true 
design of the revelation. As the two errors are thus interchangeable, so 
the figures representing the penalty are interchangeable. ‘The effect of sub- 
jection to the tests or plagues being that of depriving the false principle tried 
of its part, or rather of any part, in the true exhibition of God’s purpose of 
redemption. 


APOCALYPTIC CONCLUSION. 671 


THE PAROUSIA, OR SECOND COMING. 


V. 20. He which testifieth these things Πέγει ὃ μαρτυρῶν ταῦτα" ναὶ ἔρχομαι 
saith, Surely I come quickly : τὰ ραν θχομ 


ταχυ. 
Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. ᾿ 


᾿Ἱμήν, ἔρχου, κύριε ᾿Ιησοῦ. 


ᾧ 545. ‘ He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly.’— 
These words are still the language of Jesus, who is the testifier or witness 
referred to, as we learn from the preceding verses, (vs. 16 and 18.) It is. 
Jesus who testifies as to the consequences of any alterations in the words of 
the book, and it is consequently he who now announces his coming with a 
species of asseveration. Of this same Jesus, “ the faithful witness,” it was 
said, at the commencement of the book, (Rev. i. 7,) Behold, he cometh 
with clouds ; which coming with clouds we supposed to consist in a reve- 
lation of himself through the medium of the types, and shadows, and sym- 
bolic language of the sacred Scriptures, (ᾧ 18,) and particularly in the figura- 
tive exhibition of this Apocalypse. 

In the address to the angel of the church of Ephesus it is said by the 
same speaker, “ Repent, and do thy first works, or else I will come unto 
thee quickly ;” an intimation that the purpose of this coming, whenever it 
takes place, is to correct erroneous views in matters of faith, (¢ 44 ;) so it is 
said to the angel of Pergamos: ““ Repent, or else I will come,” &c. (Rey. 
ii. 16.) A like caution is given to the angel of the church of Philadelphia, 
(Rev. iii. 11:) “ Behold, I come quickly ; hold fast,” &c. As it had been 
before said, “ If thou shalt not warcu, I will come on thee as a thief, and 
thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee,” (Rev. iii. 3 ;) while, 
to the church of Laodicea, after a very severe rebuke, it is said, ‘‘ If any 
man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him,” &c. In these 
cases the coming is spoken of hypothetically, as depending upon a certain 
contingency—something to take place if the occasion called for it—the 
existence, for example, of certain erroneous views of doctrine requiring a 
perfect manifestation of truth for their correction. The angels or churches 
are not supposed to know the event: at the same time, the speaker knew 
that the occasion would call for his coming, and therefore it was previously 
said by the Spirit, (aside from these addresses,) “ Behold, he cometh.” It 
was foreseen that the contemplated contingency would take place. The 
errors prevailing would call forthe counteracting manifestation ; accordingly, 


672 ALL THINGS NEW. 


except in these addresses, the coming is spoken of as an event positively to 
take place. The kind of coming contemplated we suppose to be the same 
in both cases. 

At the close of the sixth chapter certain elements are represented as 
unable to abide the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, or to endure 
the wrath of the Lamb, the day of that wrath being come, (Ὁ 170.) The 
coming of this day we take to be equivalent to the coming of the Lord ; these 
elements fleeing from the face of Divine Sovereignty for the same reason 
that the old heaven and the old earth fled away from the face of him who 
sat upon the great white throne. The wrath of the Lamb here spoken of ; 
we presume to be of the same kind as that with which the holders of Nico- 
laitane doctrines were threatened, (Rev. ii. 16:) “ Repent, or else I will 
come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my 
. mouth ;—this sword of the mouth being also the same as that with which 
the rider of the white horse was armed, (Rev. xix. 15,) and with which the 
forces of the beast and false prophet were slain ; a weapon employed in the 
destruction of error, and not in the destruction of human beings. The same 
wrath and, of course, the same coming, we conceive to be alluded to, (Rev. 
xi. 18,) immediately upon the sounding of the last trumpet: “ The nations 
were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead,” &c.—a 
coming involved in the coming of the hour of the judgment of God, (Rev. 
xiv. 7,) which hour is likewise the time of harvest, (Rev. xiv. 15;) these 
being not successive events, but different figures of one event. The same 
may be’ said of the “ great day of God Almighty,” the day of the battle of 
Armageddon, (Ὁ 369,) the coming of which is spoken of as like unto that 
of a thief, (Rev. xvi. 14, 15;) corresponding with the coming threatened 
the angel of the church of Sardis. We have given our reasons for supposing 
the battle of Armageddon to be coincident with the destruction of Babylon, 
(Ὁ 442 ;) so we suppose the hour of the judgment of the great city, (Rev. 
xvili. 10,) to correspond with the day of wrath, (Rev. vi. 17.) And as the 
manifestation of truth must be equivalent to the destruction of falsehood, so 
the coming of the marriage feast of the Lamb (Rev. xix. 7) must be 
coincident with the coming of the judgment of Babylon, of the battle of 
Armageddon, and of the day of wrath. From all these passages we conclude 
that the comzng in question consists in a revelation of truth in its proper 
spiritual sense. 

ᾧ 546. Immediately after the exhibition of the New Jerusalem, it was 
said, (Rev. xxii. 7,) ‘ Behold, I come quickly :᾿ corresponding with the 
declaration uttered immediately after the account given of the gathering 
of the kings of the earth for the battle of the great day ; with this difference, 
that the coming quickly is a coming to all—the coming as a thief, is acom- 

ng to those unprepared. The coming of Jesus, quickly or suddenly, will 


THE PAROUSIA, OR SECOND COMING. 673 


happen even to those who look for him; but his coming as a thief, must be 
to those who do not look for him. The coming quickly, is that which the 
follower of the Lamb cheerfully greets ; the coming as a thief, is that which 
the adversary cannot abide. To the beast and his forces upon the field of 
Armageddon, the Word comes as a thief; to those keeping the sayings of 
the book, the same Word comes suddenly, but neither sooner nor more sud- 
τ denly than desired. As the coming with the reward (Rev. xxii. 14) or hire 
of an employer, is desired by those about to receive the reward, so the an- 
nunciation of the approaching development of truth is one cordially responded 
to by him who hears it. 

The last declaration of this coming—that which we are now consider- 
ing—differs from the preceding by the substitution of the word vai, surely 
or verily, for ἰδού, behold—as if the speaker, after having repeatedly said, 
Behold, I ani coming suddenly, now declared himself to have actually come— 
verily, 1 am come suddenly, or verily, 1 do come. The verb is in the present 
tense, although a future signification is sometimes implied in the use of it. 
When the circumstances require it, the expression may be said to look 
to something to come; but otherwise we may take it in the ordinary 
acceptation of the present tense. As we find it used, Luke xiii. 7, ἰδού, 
τρία ἔτη ἔρχομαι ζητῶν καρπόν, Behold, (these) three years I come seeking 
fruit ; so here it is not said, verily, I will come suddenly, but, verily, I do come, 
or I amcome. Such a coming we may suppose to result from the develop- 
ments of this book properly understood. 

The Spirit and the bride say, Come: it is not merely the vision of peace, 
(the new Jerusalem,) or the letter of that viston alone which unveils the 
Saviour, but it is this vision with the spzritual understanding—the letter 
accompanied with the spirit, and so received by him who hears. To under- 
stand this book in its proper spiritual sense, is to witness the coming of Jesus. 
Corresponding with this, the Greek term constituting the title of the book, 
Apocalypsis, (Revelation,) is rendered in our common version (1 Cor. i. 7) 
by the word coming ;*—Paul speaking of those whom he addressed as wait- 
ing for the coming (apocalypse) of the Lord. The same Greek term, 
apocalypsis, rendered revealed,t (com. ver.) is applied to what is usually 
considered the second coming of Christ, (2 Thess. i. 7;) where those who 
are troubled are assured of rest in the apocalypse (revelation) of the Lord 
from heaven with his mighty angels. The same term expresses enlight- 
ening, Luke ii. 32, “‘ a light to lighten the Gentiles ;” and is rendered, Rom. 
viii. 19, manifestation—the earnest expectation of the creature waiting 


* Wiclif, schewynge ; Tyndale, Cranmer, and Geneva, apperynge, (appearing ;) 
Rheims, revelation. 

+ Wiclif, schewynge ; Tyndale, Cranmer, and Geneva, “when the Lord Jesus 
shall shew himself from heaven.” 


674 * ALL THINGS NEW. 


the manifestation of the sons of God. The same Greek term, as a verb, 
apocalypto, is applied (2 Thess. ii. 3, 8) to the coming (revelation) of the 
man of sin; the revelation of “ that wicked,’ and the revelation of the 
Lord Jesus with his holy angels being coincident, the last destroying the first 
“with the brightness of his coming””—the manifestation of truth, in its own 
nature, detecting, exposing, and consequently destroying error. The same 
verb is applied (1 Peter i. 5) to the revelation in the last time, of the way 
of salvation ; and immediately afterwards, in the seventh verse, the noun 
apocalypsis is rendered by the word appearing ; and, in the thirteenth 
verse, by the word revelation, (Tyndale and Cranmer, declaring,) both 
applicable to the final manifestation of Christ. From these examples we 
seem to be warranted in the conclusion that, in the scriptural sense, the 
revelation, or showing, or apocalypse of Christ, and the coming, or appear- 
ing of Christ, are equivalent and interchangeable terms: when and where 
Christ is fully revealed or unveiled, then and there he is come. 

ᾧ 547. In sixteen other passages of the New Testament the term coming, 
as applied to the second advent of our Lord, is expressed in the original by 
the word zapovaia, (parousia,) a word signifying actual presence, or being 
present, (not the act or motion of coming,) from the verb πάρειμι, compound 
of παρὰ and εἰμί, to be present, to be by the side of one: Lat. adsum. From 
signifying actual presence, the word seems to be taken in Scripture for the 
appearance of that presence, the one implying the other ; as the opponents 
of Paul said of him, (2 Cor. x. 10,) “ His letters are weighty and powerful, 
but his bodily presence (the parousza of his body, his personal appearance) 
is weak, and his speech (λόγος, discourse, doctrine, reasoning) contemptible. 

Jesus gave his apostles the assurance of his being with them in effect 
at all times, (Matt. xxviii. 20;) but this was not the parousia, or manifesta- 
tion of his presence alluded to Matt. xxiv. 3, 27, 37, 39, which is evidently 
identic with the coming, or rather the being come, in the clouds, (ἐρχόμενον 
ἐπὶ τῶν νεφελῶν,) spoken of in the thirtieth verse of the same chapter. Paul 
declares himself to have been present with the Corinthians in spirit, (1 Cor. 
v. 3;) but this was not the manifestation of his presence, or parousia, which 
some of them considered so insignificant. ‘The term parousia is also em- 
ployed (2 Thess. ii. 1-8) to express the coming spoken of as a revelation 
in the preceding chapter—a revelation the counterpart or opposite of that 
of the man of sin. So the coming of that wicked is distinguished by the 
same appellation, ( parousia,) in immediate connection with what is said 
of the parousia or coming of the Lord. These peculiarities warrant, we 
think, the further conclusion that the terms parousia and apocalypsis 
are equivalents: both, as used on these occasions, signifying an intellectual 
appearance or presence: a manifestation to the uncerstanding, bearing a 
strict analogy with the exhibition of a corporeal or personal presence, or of 


THE PAROUSIA, OR SECOND COMING, 675 


a being come. Where and when Jesus Christ is unveiled or revealed, 
there and then he is present ; his coming has taken place, in the scriptural 
sense of the expression. The coming of Jesus Christ and the coming of 
the man of sin are to be understood in the same sense ; the revelation of 
the first being the means of destroying the last, and one being no more a 
personal or corporeal appearance than the other. 

ᾧ 548. As the revelation (apocalypse) of Jesus Christ and_ his coming 
(parousia) appear to be nearly interchangeable expressions, so we think the 
coming of the kingdom of God and the coming of the Lord are equivalents, 
in the same Scripture sense of the terms. 

To the inquiry of the Pharisees, When does the kingdom of God come ? 
Jesus replied, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation ; neither 
shall they say, Lo here! or Lo there ! for behold, the kingdom of God is 
within you: and immediately upon giving this answer, he described to his 
disciples what he terms the day of the Son of man; the state of things “ in 
the day when the Son of man is revealed,” (unveiled, ἀποκαλύπεται, Luke 
Xvii. 20-24.) So, after a vivid description of the circumstances of his own 
advent, in which he says, (Luke xxi, 27,) “ And then shall they see the 
Son of man coming (ἐρχόμενον) in a cloud with power and great glory,” he 
adds in reference to this description, (v. 31,) “ So likewise ye, when ye see 
these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at 
hand.” In the account given of the transfiguration on the mount by three 
evangelists, there is the same interchangeable use of these terms to be 
noticed : “ Verily, 1 Say unto you, (Matt. xvi. 28,) there be some standing 
here, which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in 
his kingdom ;” Mark ix. 1, « Verily, I say unto you, that there be some of 
them that stand here which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the 
kingdom of God come with power ;” Luke ix, 27, “ But I tell you of a truth, 
(verily,) there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they 
see the kingdom of God.” The circumstances attending this declaration 
corresponds so precisely in the three accounts, that we cannot hesitate to 
believe that they all refer to that same prediction ; and we can only account 
for the difference between the expression employed by Matthew and that 
given by Mark and Luke, as the words of Jesus, by taking it for granted 
that these evangelists considered the coming of Christ and the coming 
of the kingdom of God, or seeing the kingdom itself, as equivalents. In 
the Scripture sense, to see one is to see the other. We conclude, accord- 
ingly, that what is affirmed of the one may be equally affirmed of the other ; 
and further, that, as the coming of the kingdom of God is identic with the 
coming of the Lord, so either of these must be identic with the apocalypse, 
revelation, or unveiling of Jesus, which we have shown to be identic with 
his parousia, or coming ; as any two objects equal toa third object, must be 


676 ALL THINGS NEW. 


equal to each other. It is barely necessary to add that the term kingdom 
of heaven, which is peculiar to the gospel of Matthew, must be an equiva- 
lent of that of the kingdom of God. 

It was said by Jesus to a certain scribe who had justly defined the whole 
pirit and bearing of the law, (Mark xii. 32-34,) ‘ Thou art not far from the 
kingdom of God.” The law being a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ ; to 
understand the full force of the requisitions of the law, is something very near 
to understanding God’s plan of redemption, or the things of his kingdom, the 
economy by which he reigns. ΤῸ see the kingdom of God is to possess a 
right understanding of the divine plan of government, and this understanding 
can only be possessed by a just appreciation of the condemning power of 
the law on the one hand, and of the redeeming power revealed by the 
gospel on the other. A sight of the kingdom of God is thus a matter for 
the exercise of the understanding: nothing involving objects presented to 
the physical organs of vision, or not a thing to be seen in the ordinary sense 
of the term; and, for the reasons just now given, we say the same of the 
“ coming” (parousia) and “revelation” (apocalypse) of Christ: they are 
alike the objects of intellectual contemplation, something to be seen by the 
mind, and to be seen by a spiritual understanding of the language of divine 
revelation. 

§ 549. Six days after the declaration of Jesus to his disciples, (just 
now referred to,) that there were some of them which should not taste o! 
death till they had seen the Son of man coming in his kingdom, or till they 
had seen the coming of the kingdom of God, he took Peter and James an¢ 
John into a high mountain apart, where he was transfigured before them 
His face shone as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light; ans 
Moses and Elias were seen talking with him. Peter, apparently supposing 
the three personages whom he beheld to be of equal dignity, proposed the 
building of three tabernacles, one for each of them, when a bright clouc 
overshadowed his master, and a voice from heaven pointed him out as the 
peculiar object of consideration ;—as if it had said, Not Moses or Elias, bu 
Jesus, the anointed Saviour: “‘ This is my beloved Son.” ‘To this mani 
festation of the divine character of his Lord, Peter appeals as an evidence 
that they who were with him on the mount, and beheld the honour and glory 
bestowed upon him, were not the subjects of delusion, in making known his 
“ power and coming ;” for they had been “ eye-witnesses of his majesty,” 
(2 Pet. iii. 16,17.) They had seen in anticipation the coming of the Lord 
in his glory. Here, too, was the fulfilment of his prediction, concerning 
those who should be thus favoured before they tasted death ; corresponding 
with this intellectually, we say, ΤῸ see Jesus manifested as the beloved Son 
of God, (ᾧ 525,) as the Sun of righteousness, as clothed in the garment 
of divine perfection ; to perceive the writings of Moses, and the predictions 


THE PAROUSIA, OR SECOND COMING. 677 


of the prophets, co-operating in exhibiting his glorious character, as in com- 
munion with him; to see him, in fine, as he is exhibited in the gospel, 
(the mount, ¢369,) spiritually understood, is to see him coming in_ his 
kingdom. 

Such, we may suppose, to have been the peculiar privilege afforded the 
writer of this Apocalypse. With Peter and James, he saw the coming of 
the Lord, as prefigured in the mount ; but in sperit, as related in this book, 
he saw that coming in all its details. Here he saw Jesus manifested as 
one like unto the Son of man, as the Lamb, as the Word of God, as the 
Tabernacle of God, as the Holy City, the Bride, (the divine purpose of 
mercy, the beloved of God,) and finally, as the Sovereign on the throne, 
occupying the seat of the Deity, and identified with the Supreme Being— 
God in Christ—the Word, the dictwm of sovereign grace—overcoming all 
things, in a spiritual sense, by the power of his righteousness, as he created 
all things by the word of his power. Thus, to John, this apocalypsis or 
reyelation was, at the same time, the parousia or coming of Christ, and an 
exhibition of the kingdom of God with power. The apostle may not have 
been favoured with a concurrent spiritual understanding of what he saw in 
vision ; this understanding may have been subsequently afforded him, As 
Jesus opened the minds of two of his disciples in their walk to Emmaus, 
that they might understand the Scriptures, with the letter of which they 
were already acquainted ; so he may have opened the understanding of his 
beloved disciple, during his confinement in Patmos, to perceive the spiritual 
purport of what had been already symbolically represented to him. This 
subsequent illumination of the mind may be implied in the declaration, 
Verily, 1 come quickly ; the coming consisting especially in a development 
of the spiritual meaning of the things just exhibited.* 

§ 550. ‘ Amen. (Even so,) come, Lord Jesus.’—According to the point- 
ing of some editions, the word Amen would seem to be part of the annun- 
ciation of Him, who says, [come quickly ; but according to the Greek 
edition we copy, which seems to be most correct in this particular, this. 
amen is part of the response of the apostle.’ The words even so, are a trans- 
lation of the word ναὶ, found in some editions of the Greek immediately 
after ἀμήν, (amen,) and is the same word which in the preceding clause was 


* Under this construction, it must be evident that the moment of death is, to every 
ndividual of the human species, the coming of the Lord—the transition from a state 
of imperfect understanding, and even of ignorance, to a state of perfect knowledge of. 
the truth; “ For now,” as it is said, (1 Cor. xiii. 12,) “we see through a glass, darkly; 
but then face to face.” Such we believe to be the common, although undefined, im-. 
pression of Christians generally. The moment of death, like the day of the Lord, 
comes to every one quickly or suddenly: and to those unprepared, as a thief in the 
night. So it is only in an entire reliance upon the merits of his Saviour that the dis- 
ciple can welcome death in the language of the apostle: Even so, come, Lord Jesus. 


678 ALL THINGS NEW. 


rendered surely. Consistently, it should have been again so rendered ; and 
the word amen, signifying so let it be, or, so be it: the whole expression is 
that of perfect concurrence. He that testifieth these things, saith, “ Verily, 
I come quickly ;” to which the apostle responds in vision, apparently, ‘“ So 
let it be, verily come, Lord Jesus ;” a response according with the instruc- 
tion given to him that heareth, in the seventeenth verse. ‘The Spirit and 
the bride saith, Come; whereupon, he that testifieth these things, saith, 
Surely, I do come, or, I come; perhaps in the sense of, I am coming, 
quickly or suddenly : to which the hearing apostle responds, So let it be, 
surely, come, Lord Jesus ; that is, come as thou hast said, quickly, suddenly. 

This is the apostle, of whom it was said by Jesus, “If I will that he 
tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. Then went this 
saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet 
Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die ; but, If I will that he tarry till I 
come, what is that to thee ?” (John xxi. 22, 23.) Now let us suppose the 
coming of Jesus to consist in that unveiling of himself, which results from a 
spiritual understanding of this book of Revelation, and we have only to sup- 
pose that such an understanding was afforded to the apostle, to perceive 
that he did tarry till he saw in effect, even in this life, the second coming 
of his Master. 

Whatever that coming may be, however, the apostle, in vision, declares 
himself prepared for it: his loins girt about with truth, his garments of 
salvation gathered about him, arrayed in the robe of his Saviour’s righteous- 
ness, washed and cleansed and sanctified in the atoning sacrifice of his great 
High-Priest, he is found watching—waiting, even in a state of eager antici- 
pation. In this position, he appears to speak, not only for himself, but for 
all who, like him, are trusting in the merits of the same Redeemer, “‘ Come, 
Lord Jesus, come quickly.” ‘To such, the day of the Lord may come 
suddenly, but it will not come as a thief in the night ; because they are 
always prepared—with them it is always day. Their position in Jehovah’s 
righteousness, is a position of ght; they are not exposed to the dangers of 
darkness ; their lamps are always trimmed and burning: or what is equiva- 
lent to it, Christ is their amp, as the Lamb is the lamp of the holy city, 
and they walk in the light of the glory of his perfection. Having on the 
breastplate of divine righteousness, shod with the preparation of the glad 
tidings of reconciliation with their God ; their faith serving them as a shield, 
and the hope of salvation as a helmet; the sword of the Spzrit enabling 
them to combat with the deadly tendency of the letter ; they are always on 
guard, ready for the presence (parousia) of the Captain of their salvation ; 
with the assurance that, when he shall appear, they shall be like him: for as 
they have once borne the image of the earthy, so adopted in him they will 
then bear the image of the heavenly—being now new creatures in Christ. 


APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION. 679 


Hence, the argument of Paul with the Thessalonian disciples: We are 
not of the night, nor of darkness, therefore let us not sleep as do others ; 
but let us watch and be sober. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, 
but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that 
whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Being thus 
children of the day, thus clothed with the imputed righteousness of Christ, 
it became them to walk consistently for his sake who died for them, that 
his name might be glorified ; thus judging, as he elsewhere expresses it, that 
He who died for all, died that those which live, might live not to them- 
selves, but to Him who died for them. 


V. 21. The grace of our Lord Jesus “Δ χάρις τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ μετὰ 
Christ (be) with you all. Amen. πάντων τῶν ἁγίων. 


ᾧ 551. ‘ The grace,’ &c.—We do not suppose this verse to form a part 
of the narrative of the vision, or to be uttered in vision. That narrative is 
now closed ; the apostle has gone through with the account of all that he 
saw and heard; and he now transmits this account to those for whose 
edification it was intended, without any comment of his own, other than 
this apostolic benediction, as it is usually termed. 

The word 6e is supplied in our common version, no verb being expressed 
in the original. If we suppose ts to be understood instead of be, the read- 
ing will be equivalent to a declaration, that the grace referred to, Rev. i. 4, 
has now been fully exhibited. As if it had been said, in reference to the com- 
pletion of this unveiling of the Lord our righteousness, Behold, the grace 
of our Lord Jesus Christ is with you ; or, is now set before you. This 
grace we suppose to be the same as that referred to, Acts xv. 11, as the 
means of salvation for Jew and Gentile; the same that is spoken of, 2 
Cor. viii. 9: “ For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though 
he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty 
might be rich ;” this grace of Christ consisting in the substitution of him- 
self in behalf of the sinner; an act entirely of free, unmerited favour, and 
for that reason strictly entitled to the appellation of grace. 

This grace of our Lord Jesus Christ constitutes, we apprehend, the gift 
by grace, spoken of and enlarged upon, Rom. v. 15-21: “For if through 
the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the 
gift by grace, by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many, And 
not as by one that sinned, the gift; for the judgment was by one to con- 
demnation ; but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by 
one’s man’s offence death reigned by one, much more they which receive 
abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by 
one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offence of one (judgment came) 
upon all men to condemnation ; even so, by the [imputed] righteousness of 

52 


680 SUMMARY. 


one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For, as by 
one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one 
shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offence 
might abound: but where sin abounded grace did much more abound ; that 
as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign (predominate) 
through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Such 
is the arrangement (διαϑήκχη) of grace, and this we suppose to be the grace 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, here referred to ; either as that which has been set 
before those to whom the Apocalypse is addressed, or as that grace in which 
the apostle prays that they may all participate. 

Some of the Greek editions read with all, others with you all, and some, 
as that from which we copy, with all the saints or holy ones. If this last be 
correct, the language of this verse not being the language of vision, we sup- 
pose these holy ones to be disciples, so termed on account of their position 
by adoption in Christ; whereas, the holy ones of the vision we have taken 
to be principles of the economy of grace personified. ‘The term holy, how- 
ever, has in both cases the same meaning ; it is a term of position, not of 
innate quality. Adopted in Christ, the disciple is accounted holy, or set 
apart ; as the vessels of the temple were holy, not by any peculiarity of 
their composition, but by the use to which they were appropriated. This 
distinction cannot be too much insisted upon, as the disciple can no more 
depend upon a quality in himself called Aoliness, or upon a holiness of his 
own, than he can upon a righteousness of his own ; and it is especially to set 
forth these truths and their opposite errors, that Jesus Christ here reveals 
himself; while it is these errors of an adulterated faith that militate most 
with a just exhibition of sovereign grace. 


SUMMARY. 


§ 552. In reading any book of importance, our first inquiry is to know 
what the author purposes to show. When we have finished the perusal of 
the work, we very properly look back to ascertain whether the end proposed 
has been accomplished. We think the portion of the inspired writings 
recently the subject of our inquiries, under a spiritual construction, fully 
equal to abide the test of such an examination. 

The work is entitled, by its divine Author, the unvetling (apocalypsis ) 
of Jesus Christ: that is, as we have considered it, the revelation of his 
character, offices, and doctrine—the unveiling of the anointed Saviour, 
(§ 2.) This is the purport or design of the whole book. 

The source whence this revelation is derived having been stated by the 
apostle in the commencement of the first chapter, it is said, in allusion to 


SUMMARY, 681 


that source, (Jesus,) “ Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall 
see him,” &c.; leaving the inference to be fairly drawn, that the coming 
spoken of consists in the unveiling now about to be made ; that it is in the 
symbolical revelation here made that Jesus is to be seen coming as in the 
clouds, (ὃ 17.) It is on account, too, of this revelation, apparently, that 
certain legal elements and principles of self-righteousness are represented as 
mourning or wailing—tribes of the earth, opposites of the sealed ones repre- 
sented by the one hundred and forty-four thousand of the twelve chosen tribes. 
This, then, is the general proposition of the work :—that the unveiling of 
Jesus Christ about to be made is something equivalent or analogous to his 
coming in the clouds; and that its nature or tendency is such as to cause, 
figuratively speaking, the mourning or lamentation of all elements of doc- 
trine opposed to the truth of salvation as it is revealed in him. 

The vision commences with what John saw in spirit, witnessing the day 
of the Lord, (Ὁ 24,) or its equivalent. Here Jesus is first seen as one like 
unto the Son of man. "ΤῸ the apostle who had been literally the bosom 
companion of the Son of man, this appearance was sufficient to identify the 
form he saw with that of his beloved Master. He had been his companion 
while on earth, he had seen him on the cross, he had seen him in the grave, 
he had seen him risen from the dead, and he now saw him clothed with a 
perfect and complete righteousness of his own—girt about with truth, the: 
Ancient of days, the possessor of the sword of the Spirit, and of the keys of 
the mystery of death and hell, and the supreme overseer of the churches. 

In the introductory addresses dictated to the apostle, the reason is given 
for the revelation about to be made. Certain errors exist, calling for a pecu- 
liar manifestation of truth—a manifestation spoken of by Christ as his 
coming quickly or suddenly. ‘The churches, or their angels, are to. be sup- 
posed ignorant of the predetermined purpose of the Lord to come, or of 
his actual coming. ‘This event is therefore spoken of to them as something 
contingent: “‘ Repent, and do thy first works, or else I will come.” The 
speaker, however, knew that they would not repent—that the errors in ques- 
tion would demand the threatened correction ; consequently, with him 
there is no uncertainty as to the actual taking place of this coming. The 
form of the announcement, however, serves the purpose of indicating the 
design of the advent, viz., that of correcting certain errors of doctrine; and 
it is important for us to keep this design in view, that we may better under- 
stand the revelation about to be made. ‘The erroneous views to be corrected 
we suppose to be those of a self-righteous character, tending to create the 
belief that man (the sinner ) is to overcome the requisitions of the law by 
some works, merits or propitiation of his own. 'To correct this misappre- 
hension, the principle or power really overcoming, and upon which alone 
dependence is to be placed, is set forth as that to which certain very peculiar 


682 SUMMARY. 


promises are made ; in order, perhaps, that we may recognize the principle 
by understanding the fulfilment of the promises made to it. 

Here is another stage in the process of revelation. We are introduced 
to a new character, The Overcoming, (ὁ νικῶν, or, as we have proposed to 
denominate it, ὁ λόγος ὁ νικῶν,) and we are somewhat at a loss to conceive 
what part this overcoming principle can take in the unveiling of the anointed 
Saviour. We are, however, to keep the personification in mind throughout 
the remainder of the vision, watching its progress, and judging finally of the 
sense in which the promises made to it may be said to be fulfilled. 

§ 553. The fourth chapter affords an exhibition of the attributes of the 
Deity, such as*we may suppose them to appear prior to the revelation of 
the plan of salvation. The elements of truth peculiar to that plan exist, but 
they are not yet revealed. The four living creatures and the twenty-four 
elders may be considered the depositaries of this secret ; but the mystery itself, 
in the nature of the case, can be made known only through a certain instru- 
mentality. This mystery (the divine plan of redemption, or perhaps the plan 
of divine government) is represented (chap. v.) as a sealed book in the night 
hand of the Most High. The only instrumentality by which it can be un- 
folded is the propitiatory power peculiar to the plan: the Lamb, as it had 
been slain, alone is able to open the book. Here we advance another 
important step in the unveiling of Christ: knowing him to be the Lamb of 
God which taketh away the sin of the world, we recognize him in the 
power now prevailing, or overcoming, to open the book. Having arrived 
at this point, we are to bear in mind that whatever is revealed or unveiled 
concerning the Lamb is a revelation of Jesus Christ himself. 

The first revelation made by the Lamb, in opening the sealed book, 
(chap. vi.) is that of a power going forth overcoming and to overcome, or 
that he may overcome, (νικῶν καὶ ἵνα νικήση.) and, apparently, in order that 
he may obtain the reward promised to him that overcometh. Thus far, how- 
ever, the combatant is seen to have received only the crown promised the 
overcoming in the epistle to the church of Pergamos ;—the white horse 
upon which he is mounted, and the bow with which he is armed—the sus- 
taining power of divine righteousness and the overruling power of the 
covenant of grace, (the promise of mercy, ᾧ 147,)—indicating the means 
by which his final victory is to be obtained. 

We seem to lose sight of this Conqueror for a great part of the sub- 
sequent narrative, but we leave him in the midst of a victorious career ; his 
operations are continued, although presented to us under different figures, 
and he again appears to manifest his triumphant progress at the close of 
the revelation. 

The opening of the three subsequent seals exhibits the existence of three 
other powers destined to come into collision with the rider of the white horse. 


SUMMARY. 683 


The fiery-red colour of the horse of him to whom the great sword is given, 
corresponds with the colour of the great red dragon, the antagonist of 
Michael. The mercenary character of the rider of the black horse calls to 
mind the commercial spirit of Babylon; and Death and Hell (sustained by 
the green horse) are expressly mentioned as terminating their career on the 
exhibition of the great white throne. We may presume, therefore, all 
three of these combatants to be understood as operating throughout the 
vision, till overcome by the rider of the white horse: indeed, their functions 
may not differ from those of the three spirits, unclean as frogs, (ᾧ 365,) out 
of the mouths of the dragon, of the beast, and of the false prophet, engaged 
in summoning the kings of the earth to the great battle of Armageddon. 

The opening of the fifth seal shows the state of suspense in which certain 
elements of truth are held pending the contest finally to result in the mani- 
festation of their correctness. 

The opening of the sixth seal reveals the consternation figuratively inci- 
dent to all principles of error, or of self-righteous doctrine, in consequence of 
the unfolding of this great mystery of salvation: at the same time it exhibits 
(chap. vii.) the opposite figurative rejoicing of the principles of truth in 
anticipation of the same development; while it shows (by what is related 
of the four angels holding the four winds of the earth) the true cause of the 
prevalence of error in the earthly system, viz., a privation of the spiritual 
sense of the written word. 

The opening of these six seals affords a general view of the position of 
things—a glance at the whole field of action, the different elements in 
operation, their beginning or going forth, and their end ; for we suppose the 
close of the sixth and the close of the seventh chapters to present scenes 
parallel, as to the progress of the narrative, with the state of things depicted 
at the conclusion of the twentieth and in the former part of the twenty-first 
chapters. 

§ 554. The opening of the seventh seal (chap. viii.) affords a new 
series of representations ; not the exhibition of new things, but further par- 
ticulars of what has been already revealed in substance. 

The day of the wrath of the Lamb has been already spoken of as come ; 
we are now to learn in what the exhibition of this wrath consists: this 
knowledge comes to us as the results of the voices or sounds (revelations) 
of seven trumpets. Various self-righteous and self-justifying principles, 
figuratively spoken of as material objects, are represented as exposed to cer- 
tain tests showing their true character. The trees and grass of the earth 
are burned up; pretensions to human merit wither for want of root; the 
sea becomes blood, and human means of preservation from the vindictive 
wrath represented by the sea (ships) are proved to be worthless. Foun- 
tains and rivers (human means of atonement) become bitter, incapable alike 
of promoting purification or of preserving life the sun, moon, and stars of 


684 SUMMARY. 


this first heaven are darkened ; no sources of righteousness are now exhibited : 
the bottomless pit system (chap. ix.) is seen to send forth no principles 
but such as are calculated to torment, (torture, ) as with a scorpion’s sting, 
all pretensions of merit coming in contact with them. ‘The Euphratean 
system of atonement (the great river in human apprehension) is seen to be 
even of a more deadly character, its principles resulting in the condemna- 
tion of those trusting to it as a means of eternal life—the horsemen killing 
where the scorpion-lecusts only hurt or tortured. 

The six first trumpets thus exhibit, in a summary manner, the downfall 
of the system of error; each of them representing the same process by 
different figures, or in a different light. The last of the six affords, also, in the 
narrative of the two witnesses, (chap. xi.,) a kind of historical epitome of 
the progress of error, from its most triumphant stage to its destruction : 
from the possession of the outer court of the temple and of the holy city 
by the Gentiles, and the destroying of these witnesses by the beast from 
the pit, to their final glorification, and the shock given to the false system 
represented by the great city, as by an earthquake. As a result of the reve- 
lation of the sixth trumpet we learn, also, as a rule of interpretation, from 
the mighty angel, (chap. x.,) that t¢me is not to be taken into considera- 
tion ; and, comparing the measures of time mentioned in the eleventh chapter 
with those afterwards met with, we perceive this rule of time no longer to 
be applied to the events of the sixth trumpet, as well as to those subse- 
quently related. From the same mighty angel we receive the intimation of 
the twofold sense of the language of revelation, illustrated by the sweet and 
bitter taste of the little book. 

ᾧ 555. We now come to the voice of the seventh or /ast trumpet, the 
sounding of which gives occasion to a choral action of praise and thanks- 
giving of peculiar solemnity: it constitutes, also, the last of the three woes 
denounced upon the inhabiters of the earth, and seems to be the revelation 
designed to be most peculiarly instrumental in the destruction of error and 
in the final manifestation of truth. Still this trumpet is not to be taken as 
announcing occurrences subsequent to those already detailed: on the con- 
trary, it goes back even to a revelation of the divine counsels prior to the 
events already unfolded ; its purport may therefore be considered an amplifi- 
cation and more extended view, or more detailed exhibition, of the subjects 
revealed in the preceding chapters. 

The war in heaven, (chap. xii.,) with which the revelation of this 
trumpet commences, teaches us the difficulty existing in the nature of 
things in reconciling the principles of divine justice with those of merey,— 
the difficulty in overcoming the power of the legal adversary (the dragon) 
by that of the intercessor, (Michael.) The propitiatory principle, (the 
blood of the Lamb,) however, secures the ascendency to the latter, and the 
accusing spirit; ejected from the heavenly view of the divine plan of govern- 


SUMMARY. 685 


ment, is to be found only in the earthly exhibition of that government. 
Even here the power of the adversary is manifested to predominate only so 
long as the true exhibition of the economy of grace is lost sight of. So long 
as the witnesses are prophesying in sackcloth, and the woman which bore 
the man-child is secluded in the wilderness, so long the dragon is enabled 
to make war with the remnant of her seed. But the dragon does not carry 
on this war in his own person; he does not appear on earth in his proper 
character; he gives his power to a certain blasphemous principle repre- 
sented (chap. xiii.) as a beast originating from the sea or abyss; and this 
beast exercises his influence through the instrumentality of a certain other 
principle, denominated the false prophet. The secret is here unfolded, that 
the legal adversary (Satan) is actually to be found in the blasphemous prin- 
ciple to which we have given the appellation of self, and that the power of 
this self, and consequently of the adversary, is sustained by ἃ misconstruc- 
tion or false interpretation of the language of revelation. We do not 
suppose the reign of this beast to depict a different error, or a different system 
of error, from that previously alluded to ; it only constitutes anew and more 
detailed illustration of the course and power of the same errors. 

The mind having been turned aside for a short interval, to contemplate 
the particulars of the beast and false prophet, the narrative is again resumed 
in the description of the Lamb upon Mount Zion, (chap. xiv ;) in the annun- 
ciations of the preaching of the gospel, of the fall of Babylon, and of the 
visitation of wrath upon the worshippers of the beast ; with a description of 
the appearance of the Son of man upon a white cloud, of the harvest, and 
of the vintage: Jesus Christ being revealed upon the white cloud in the 
same character as he appeared amidst the golden candlesticks. Imme- 
diately upon this we have the account (chaps. xv. and xvi.) of the pouring 
out of the vials of wrath ; operations, it may be presumed, concurrent if not 
identic with those of the harvest and vintage—different illustrations.of the 
same exercise of divine power in terminating the reign or influence of error 
by the exhibition of truth : with this difference, that whereas the preceding 
revelation consisted more especially in the application of the principle of 
divine justice, as a test of the erroneous doctrines to which it was applied ; 
the effusion of the vials of wrath represents the application of the true prin- 
ciple of divine worship (§ 356) as a test in the exhibition of the same or 
similar errors. 

§ 556. The result of the pouring out of the sixth vial of wrath, the 
preparation for the battle of Armageddon, (Rev. xvi. 14,) indicates the 
immediate connection between this part of the narration and the account 
subsequently given (chap. xix.) of the victory obtained by the Rider of 
the white horse over the beast and his forces. ‘The Conqueror going forth 
at the opening of the first seal, “‘ overcoming, and that he might overcome,” 
s not indeed so termed here, but the fact sets him forth as the overcoming, 


636 SUMMARY. 


(ὁ νικῶν,) and this in a most signal’ manner. We follow him then: after his 
victory, and we next meet with the representation (chap. xx.) of one that 
sat upon the great white throne. We compare this appearance with the 
promise made in the Epistle to the angel of the Laodicean church: “To 
him that overcometh, (or, to the overcoming) will I grant to sit with me on 
my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father on 
his throne.”’” We look forward to the declaration of Him who makes all 
things new, (chap. xxi.,) and we find this great white throne to be the 
throne of God. We look further, and find (chap. xxii.) God and the Lamb 
occupying one and the same throne or seat. The promise is then fulfilled: 
the overcoming—the conqueror of the beast and of the false prophet—is 
manifested to occupy the seat or throne of God and the Lamb. 

Again, in the Epistle to the church of Pergamos, we find a white stone 
promised to the overcoming ; “ and in the stone a new name written, which 
no one knoweth except he that receiveth it.’ It is not said of Him that 
overcame the beast, that he had a white stone given him, but it is said that 
he had a name written, that no one knew but himself. So it is said of the 
overcoming in the Epistle to the church of Philadelphia, “I will write upon 
him the name of my God ;” and of the warrior of Armageddon we find it 
said, “ΗΔ hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING 
OF KINGS, and LORD OF LORDS.” In the address to the church 
of Thyatira, it is said, “‘ Unto him that overcometh, I will give power over 
the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a 
potter shall they be broken to shivers.” Corresponding with this, the 
Rider of the white horse is described as having a sharp sword proceeding 
from his mouth, “ that with it he should smite the nations, and rule them 
as with a rod of iron :” and so we find he did smite the kings of the earth 
and their forces, under the conduct of the beast, with the sword out of his 
mouth. On this occasion, too, his name is expressly declared to be the 
Word of God ;—6 λόγος τοῦ ϑεοῦ is, therefore, ὁ λόγος ὁ νικῶν. The Word 
of God is he that overcometh. Connecting this declaration with the im- 
plied definition of the Deity of his own Word, (Jer. xxiii. 29,) we see in 
the fire from heaven, by which the nations, Gog and Magog, were destroyed, 
(Rev. xx. 9,) a further fulfilment of the same promise; while the fire by 
which the harlot and the city (Babylon) were destroyed (chap. xvii. and 
xviii.) affords a like exhibition of the power of this overcoming Word ;—fire 
and the sword being interchangeable figures of the instrument employed in 
the destruction of error. We have already supposed the same Word to be 
the occupant of the great white throne, both as suggested by the course of 
the narrative, and as a fulfilment of the promise to him that overcometh. 
If we are correct in this particular, the accuser, and death, and hell, must 
be all overcome by the same all-powerful Word. 

We find no other champion in the Apocalypse to whom we can apply 


SUMMARY. 687 


this epithet of the overcoming in connection with the promises, except the 
Lion of the tribe of Judah, who overcame to open the book ; the Lamb by 
whose blood the brethren overcame the dragon, and by whom the ten kings 
in alliance with the beast were to be overcome, (Rev. xvii. 14;) and Jesus, 
who speaks in the introductory Epistles as having himself overcome, (Rev. 
iii. 21.) The Lion of the tribe of Judah, and the Lamb, and Jesus, we 
know to be identic ; and as there cannot be two conquerors, we are shut 
up to the conclusion, that the Rider of the white horse is Jesus, the Son of 
God ;—the manifestation of this truth being a fulfilment of the promise of 
the Alpha and Omega, Rev. xxi. 7: ‘“ He that overcometh shall inherit all 
things ; and I will be his God, and he shall be my Son.” 

The Word of God is thus manifested or revealed to be the Son of God. 
Certain promises are made to him that conquers. ὙΠῸ Rider of the white 
horse undertakes to conquer ; he does conquer, and he obtains the promised 
reward. This, we think, must be indisputable ; although some portion of 
these promises may not be easily explained. The conqueror is identic with 
Jesus Christ ; all, therefore, that is revealed of the one, is a revelation or 
unveiling of the other. So, as the beast and false prophet are represented 
to be antagonists of the Word of God, whatever is revealed of them as 
opposites, serves to throw light upon the character and offices of bim with 
whom they are so ‘directly at variance. 

§ 557. As before suggested, we do not suppose the contest on the 
battle-field of Armageddon to be something in addition to the occurrences 
previously detailed ; it is rather a representation of the same contest between 
truth and error, under a different figure. We lost sight of the Rider of the 
white horse immediately after his first appearance, at the opening of the 
first seal, but the overcoming operations of the Word of God were then 
commenced. They were to be seen in the results of the opening of the sixth 
seal; in the effects of the hail and fire mingled with blood, of the burning 
mountain cast into the sea; of the star cast from heaven, “ burning, as it 
were a lamp.” They were to be seen in the stroke inflicted upon the sun, 
moon, and stars; in the action of the scorpion-locusts, and in that of the 
Euphratean horsemen; in the testimony of the two witnesses, and in the 
results of that testimony : and from the moment that the dragon began his 
persecution of the seed of the woman, when the seven-headed beast first 
rose from the sea, and the two-horned beast from the earth, the warfare was 
commenced. ‘The same operations are to be seen in the proclamations of 
the heavenly herald, in the harvest, in the vintage, and in the process of 
the wine-press ; in the effusion of the seven vials of wrath, in the thunder 
and in the earthquake, and in the lightning and the hail ; in the war be- 
tween the ten horns and the harlot, in that between the ten horns and the 
Lamb, and in the final judgment upon Babylon. In all these processes 
the Logos, or Word of God, was pursuing his victorious career, going forth 


688 SUMMARY. 


conquering (overcoming) every principle of error; sustained by the same 
power of divine righteousness, although that power may not have been 
equally manifested. The Spirit of the mouth of the Lord was employed, 
although not always exhibited as a drawn sword. 

Whatever shape the adversary may assume, and whatever may be the 
figure by which the contest is illustrated, the weapon of the victor is the 
same ;—the revelation of truth is the instrument of destroying error. The 
revelation of the purpose of God, as it is in truth, is the means of destroying 
every system or principle of doctrine inconsistent with it. In this respect 
it must be perceived, that as the new Jerusalem is an exhibition in detail of 
the purpose of God, as pertaining to the means of salvation ; and as the 
divine purpose or economy of grace is, in fact, the Word of God; so the 
new Jerusalem coming down from heaven must be in substance equivalent, 
as a figure, to the appearance of the Rider of the white horse upon the field 
of battle. The two representations are exhibitions of the same Word (Lo- 
gos) of God. The revelation of the new Jerusalem, rightly understood, 
like that of the Word or purpose of God, is the destined instrument of de- 
stroying every principle or doctrine inconsistent with the divine plan of 
salvation ; the Spirit and the bride performing the same part in the destruc- 
tion of error, as is performed by the Word and the sharp sword. The holy 
city is thus a convertible term for the Word of God ; and is, accordingly, 
an appellation applicable to the overcoming, (the rider of the white horse.) 
It is, at the same time, that scheme of doctrine by which, and by which 
alone, the worship of God, in the true sense of the term, can be sustained, as 
by a pillar; corresponding with the promise of Jesus in the address to the angel 
of the Church of Philadelphia: “ Him that overcometh (the overcoming) will 
I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall gono more out: and 
I will write upon him the name of my God, (King of kings,) and the name 
of the city of my God, new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven 
from my God: and my new name,” (Jehovah our righteousness. ) 

The overcoming Word of God being identic with the new Jerusalem, 
and the new Jerusalem being the wife or bride of the Lamb, we see in the 
bridal array of the wife, prepared for the marriage feast, the fulfilment of 
another of these promises: ‘“‘ He that overcometh (the overcoming) the 
same shall be clothed in white raiment: and [ will not blot out his name 
out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and 
before his angels.” The exaltation of the overcoming Word on the great 
white throne may be considered a fulfilment of the latter portion of this 
promise. 

As the bride or wife is identic with the Lamb, and the Lamb identic 
with Jesus, and Jesus himself is the morning-star, the promise to give the 
morning-star to him that overcometh is fulfilled in the manifestation, that 
the overcoming Word and the new Jerusalem are identic with the star itself. 


SUMMARY. 689 


So the promise of the participation of the tree of life is fulfilled in the mani- 
festation, that that tree is a constituent element of the new Jerusalem, and 
that the new Jerusalem is identic with the overcoming Word. In like 
manner, the promise to participate in the hidden manna, (Ὁ 110,) is fulfilled 
by the manifestation that the overcoming Word is identic with Jesus Christ, 
for he has declared himself to be the true bread, which came down from 
heaven ; that is, the hidden manna. So, the promise, “ He that over- 
cometh shall inherit all things,” is fulfilled by the manifestation of the 
identity of the overcoming Word with him, to whom the heathen was to be 
given for an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a posses- 
sion. In accordance with this construction, also, we may take the promise 
to receive the white stone to be fulfilled in manifesting the identity of the 
overcoming Word with him who is the elect, precious corner-stone—the 
only sure foundation of faith or hope. 

§ 558. Jesus Christ is thus exhibited to us in this Apocalypse in the 
midst of the churches, and on the white cloud, as the Son of man ; in the 
act of opening the sealed book, or of unfolding the mystery of redemption, 
as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb as it had been slain ; in the 
war in heaven, as the conqueror of the dragon; on the Mount Zion, as the 
Lamb triumphant; throughout the whole tissue of the narrative as the over- 
coming ; and towards its close as the Word of God, as the bride or wife, 
as the new Jerusalem ; and, finally, as the Lamb enthroned, the Son of 
God identic with God, occupying the same seat, and in effect that God 
who is all in all. 

In the Son of man, we see him who became sin for us that we might 
become the righteousness of God in him. In the Lamb, as it had been 
slain, we see bim who was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for 
our iniquities ; in the conqueror of the dragon, him who satisfied the law, 
and overcame the accuser by the power of his blood. In the overcoming, 
(the Word of God,) whether exhibited under the figure of destructive 
earthly elements, or under that of vials of wrath, or that of a victorious warrior, 
or that of the new Jerusalem, (the bride,) we see the same purpose of 
sovereign grace: the latter figure (the holy city) exhibiting this purpose 
in all its details; and thus, by its ample exhibition of truth, proving in 
effect the same instrument in the destruction of error as that elsewhere 
represented as the sword of the mouth of the Word. 

As the history of the overcoming (the Word) is part of the unveiling 
of Jesus, so also is the history of that which is overcome,—the beast, with 
his aid, the false prophet ; these latter figures serving to give prominence 
to the illustration afforded by the former. ‘The beast is the antagonist of 
the Word, as the dragon (the accuser) is the antagonist of the Lamb; and 
as the harlot, or Babylon, is the opposite of the wife, or new Jerusalem. 
The mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, (Rev. xvii. 7,) 


690 SUMMARY. 


is calculated, in proportion as it is unfolded, to place in high relief the oppo- 
site mystery of the Lamb or Word, and bride. We may derive, accordingly, 
a knowledge of the beast from a knowledge of his antagonist the Word ; and 
by this accession to our information, we obtain a further knowledge of Him 
who here unveils himself. 

ᾧ 559. The overcoming (the Word of God) is the purpose of sovereign 
grace to save freely, through the vicarious offering or imputed merits of 
Christ ; a purpose figuratively spoken of by Paul as the cross of Christ, the 
preaching of which, he says, is foolishness to them that perish, but the 
power of God to them that are saved, (1 Cor. i. 17, 18; Gal. v. 11 ;) a 
purpose, the only object of the disciple’s glorying ;—to glory in the cross of 
Christ (Gal. vi. 15) being equivalent to glorying in the Lord: a purpose 
of grace, by which alone the sinner can be reconciled to his offended Judge, 
(Eph. ii. 16, Col. i. 20;) “ the blood of the cross,” and “ the blood of the 
Lamb,” being interchangeable expressions for the same propitiatory sacri- 
fice. Of this purpose, Word, or Cross, (ξύλον, § 47,) the beast is the 
antagonist or adversary ;—the figure of a principle having a direct tendency 
to oppose the doctrine of a free salvation, through the vicarious offering of 
the Son of God. To this adverse principle we have given the appellation 
of Sexr, because, in proportion to its operation on the mind, its tendency 
is to lead to a dependence upon one’s own merits or righteousness—making 
the cross of Christ of none effect, and prompting the disciple to ascribe to 
himself, or to something in himself, the glory even of his eternal happiness ; 
making himself the author of his own salvation, and consequently assuming 
for self the position of the Deity, (¢ 294.) It must be easy to perceive an 
exposure of this error to be equivalent to a revelation of the opposite of 
truth ; we have, therefore, no occasion to go out of our way to search for 
the connection between the particulars related of the beast and those we 
expect to meet with in a revelation of the true character and offices of 
Christ ; the narrative of one is part of the unveiling of the other. 

The same is to be said of Babylon, or the harlot. As a mixed system, or 
a doctrinal system of mixed and confused principles, sustained by the blas- 
phemous principle of self, the mystery of the wcman is intimately blended 
with that of the beast; they seem to be spoken of, in fact, as one mystery. 
The bride is a help-meet for the Lamb in the work of unfolding the mystery 
of sovereign grace ; and, by parity of symbolical representation, the harlot 
(Babylon) is a help-meet for the beast, in exhibiting the mixed, mercenary, 
confused, and selfish principles of the kingdom or system of the enemy of 
the cross. For this reason the particulars related of Babylon, both as a 
consort of the beast, and as an opposite of the bride, form a portion of the 
general doctrinal development, comprehended in the unfolding of the word, 
or economy of grace: the divine purpose once manifest in the flesh. 

These several exhibitions thus uniformly tending to illustrate the work 


SUMMARY. 691 


and offices and character of the Son of God, we think the purpose of the 
book, as announced in its title, the revelation or unveiling of Jesus Christ, 
must be considered fully accomplished ; the proposition laid down at the 
commencement of the work, ‘“ Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every 
eye shall see him,” being also (in what we apprehend to be the sense 
intended) fully sustained. 

He comes, to the spiritual understanding, in the symbolical and figura- 
tive representations of this Apocalypse. It is here that every eye may see 
him ; and such as he is represented here, he is seen by every one passing 
into that state of existence where the understanding must be opened to the 
knowledge of all mysteries and of all truth. In this Apocalypse Jesus 
comes, or is manifested, as the great propitiatory sacrifice, (the Lamb,) 
overcoming the powers of legal accusation ; for which reason, as we appre- 
hend, those powers are said to wail because of him. He comes as the 
sovereign purpose, (the Word,) saving through the imputation of his own 
righteousness, (his own right arm,) manifesting his victory over every pre- 
tension of human merit ; for this reason, also, the tribes or kindreds of the 
earth (the elements of self-righteousness) mourn because of him. Their 
glory is departed. To God the Saviour, the Lord our righteousness, alone 
belongs the whole glory of the work of redemption, as well as of the salva- 
tion of every redeemed sinner. 

The erroneous views to be combated, as we have remarked, ($ 552,) are 
those tending to create the belief that the disciple is to overcome the powers 
of condemnation by some works or meritsof hisown. To correct this error 
the manifestation is made, that there is but one overcoming principle or 
power; to wit, the divine purpose of sovereign grace—the will, fiat, or 
word of God—this one overcoming power being identic with “the Word 
made flesh,” and identic also with God_ the F'ather—three manifestations οἱ 
one God. “ Speak the word only,” said the believing centurion to Jesus, 
“and my servant shall be healed.” So the disciple may say to ‘his 
SOVEREIGN LORD, “ Speak but the word, and my soul is saved.” Let 
that be the divine purpose, the decision of sovereign grace, and it is enough. 
The revelation made by Jesus Christ of himself, while in the flesh, exhibits 
the process by which this gracious purpose is carried into effect ; showing how 
God may be just, and yet justify the objects of his mercy. The revela 
tion which Jesus makes of himself under the figure of the bride or holy 
city shows the abundance and freeness of this merciful provision; but 
the revelation which he makes of himself in the person of the WORD 
shows the power by which, and the principle upon which, the whole work 
is effected to be the irresistible fiat of sovereign grace alone. It is 
by the development of this truth—by the Word revealed—that the 
self-righteous errors represented by the beast and false prophet, and their 
forces, are overcome, (Rev. xix. 11-21.) It is by the revelation of the 


- 


692 SUMMARY. 


same truth—the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 
(Rev. xxi. 2, 10,) that the legal adversaries, Satan and the assailants of the 
beloved city, are destroyed ; the fire from God out of heaven devouring them 
all, (Heb. x. 27.) It is by the same revealed truth (the fire of the Word) 
that the pretensions of the mixed system are also destroyed, Rev. xvii. 16, 
and xviii. 8; and it is to the same divine revelation, we apprehend, that 
allusion is made in the Old Testament, in the descriptions given of the com- 
ing or manifestation of JEHOVAH himself, (Ps. 1. 2, 3, xevii. 3, 4; Dan. 
vii. 9, 10.) 

ᾧ 560. Such is the illustration afforded by this Apocalypse of the truth 
as it is in Jesus :—the word of salvation ; God’s purpose of sovereign grace, 
the mystery hid from ages ; shadowed forth in the Old Testament ; exempli- 
fied in the life and actions of the blessed Redeemer, as narrated by the 
evangelists ; didactically set forth in his preaching, and in the writings of his 
apostles ; and finally unfolded in the pictorial vision with which the beloved 
disciple was so remarkably favoured. 

The Spirit and the bride say, Come. The whole bearing of this Apo- 
calypse is to exhibit Christ as the only and the all-sufficient Saviour ;_ to invite 
the sinner to lay hold on the hope set before him ; to show him the folly of 
depending on any merit or righteousness of his own ; and to show him that, 
while his only hope is in the work of salvation freely wrought for him, the 
design of this work, and of its revelation, is not to exalt man, but to glorify 
God ; to manifest that to God, the Redeemer as well as the Creator, alone 
redounds all the honour, and praise, and glory, resulting from the salvation 
of the disciple ; consequently, to the same God and Saviour the eternal gra- 
titude and self-devotion of the individual saved is due, even as his reason- 
able service ; as it is said, (Ez. xi. 19,) A new heart will I give you, and 
a new spirit will I put within you ;—this new heart and new spirit consisting, 
we believe, in that grateful motive of conduct which must result from a 
correct knowledge and a just appreciation of the work of salvation by sove- 
reign grace; a motive of conduct, a grateful love, which it is plain must 
endure for ever in that state where the alternate suggestions of hope and 
fear can no longer operate upon the mind. 


NOTE ON THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST. 


There still remains a difficulty in defining the name or title to be ascertained 
from the number of the beast, and until this difficulty is removed we shall be sen- 
sible that that test is wanting, which, as we have suggested, (§ 316,) may be intended to 
indicate the correctness of the interpretation given to the history of this mysterious 
character.» Our apprehension, as we expressed it, was, that the principle symbolized 
by the beast, must be first found from what is said of his character and history, and 
by these we were to be guided in our use of the number. According to the com- 
monly received idea, we have been accustomed to think that the name sought for was 
to be ascertained by giving to each letter composing it the value represented by such 
letter, in the ancient mode of arithmetical calculation. It is only since the conclusion 
of this analysis, and since committing our remarks upon the last chapter to the press, 
that a different use of this number has been presented to our minds. Such as it is, 
we submit it to the consideration of those taking an interest in the subject; leaving 
them to apply the proposed interpretation of the name to the thoughts previously put 
forth, which it would be now too late for us to reconsider or to modify. 

“ Here is wisdom :” it is said, “ Let him that hath understanding count the num- 
ber of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and the number of him (or of it) is six 
hundred and sixty-six,” (z ὃ ¢.) 

We do not take this term count in an ordinary sense, (§ 315,) nor do we suppose 
the term man to be intended to designate literally an individual of the human species, 
nor the term mame to express literally a proper name. There is no more occasion to 
be literal in the consideration of this passage, than in that of any other portion of the 
Apocalypse ; no more occasion to give a literal construction to the term man, than to 
that of beast. The allusion of the term count is apparently to a superstitious 
notion of the people of the East, and, perhaps, of the whole known world, in the time 
of the apostles, that certain hidden things were to be discovered by a mystic combi- 
nation of numbers. Here, then, it is said, is trve wisdom, as distinguished from these 
vain pretensions. Here is a number having an important meaning attached to it. 
Let him that really possesses an understanding of sacred mysteries count the number, 
or divine from the number, the name or title of the thing designated by it; for it is 
the name of something represented as a man, or as a rational being. 

The number in question (six hundred and sixty-six) is expressed in Greek by 
three letters of the alphabet: y six hundred, £ sixty, ς six. Let us suppose these 
letters to be the initials of certain names. As it was common with the ancients, in 
their inscriptions upon coins, medals, monuments, &c., to indicate names of distin- 
guished characters by initial letters, and sometimes by an additional letter, where the 
initial might be considered insufficient, as C. Caius, Cn. Cneus. 

The Greek letter x (ch) is the initial of Χριστός, (Christ.) The letter δ is the 
initial of ξύλον, (wood or tree,) figuratively put sometimes in the New Testament for 
the cross; and in Revelations applied to the tree of life, the spiritual cross. The last 


694 NOTE ON THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST. 
fi 

letter, s, is equivaleutto δέ ; but whether as an s or as an st, it is the initial of the word 
Satanas, Satan, or the adversary, (§ 444.) Taking the two first names in the geni- 
tive, and the last in the nominative, we have the following appellation, name, or title: 
χριστοῦ ξύλου σατανᾶς, the adversary of the cross of Christ, a character corresponding 
with that of certain enemies of the truth described by Paul, Phil. iii. 19: “ Whose end 
is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame; who mind 
earthly things :”—pretended disciples, apparently, whose views in matters of faith 
must be the opposite of those set forth by the apostle in the former part of the chapter 
from which this description is quoted. 

Any doctrine, or principle of doctrine, tending to represent the intervention of a 
divine propitiation as unnecessary ; or militating with a belief and trust in the vicari- 
ous sacrifice of Jesus, as the only hope of salvation, must be an adversary of the cross 
of Christ. Of this character, we consider every principle of self-righteousness ; every 
doctrine tending to exalt self, or to represent man as the author of his own salvation. 
No doctrine, or principle of doctrine, accordingly, can be admitted into the service of 
self, or form a constituent part of the system of self-dependence, unless it possess this 
leading feature of hostility to the atoning sacrifice and justifying righteousness of the 
Son of God. Such, we may suppose, figuratively speaking, to have been the opinion 
of the false prophet; for which reason he caused every subject of the beast to receive 
in his forehead, or in his hand, the mark, the name of the beast, or the nwmber of his 
name; that is, the character of selfishness, the name of self, or the impress (the num- 
ber) of an adversary of the cross of Christ ;—these three marks being in fact so many 
equivalents—characteristic features of the same anti-Christian principles. 

The doctrines of truth, on the other hand, possess especially the characteristic 
of glorifying God alone, giving to him the glory due unto his name ; bearing in their 
foreheads the seal or mark of the name (§ 517) of the Father of the Lamb. 


APPENDIX. 


THE MAN OF SIN. 


Havine considered the ten-horned beast of the Apocalypse identic 
with the man of sin, described by Paul, it appears expedient to exhibit the 
train of reasoning, through the instrumentality of which our own views have 
been formed upon the subject. For this purpose, the following analytic 


sketch is subjoined :— 


2 Tues, ii. 3-12. 


Let no man deceive you by any means: 
for (that day shall not come, foe ar there 
come a falling away first, and that man 
of sin be revealed, the son of perdition ; 
who opposeth and exalteth himself above 
all that is called God, or that is worship- 
ped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the 
temple of God, showing himself that he is 
God. Remember ye not, that, when I 
was yet with you, I told you these things? 
And now ye know what withholdeth that 
he might be revealed in his time. For 
the mystery of iniquity doth already work : 
only he who now letteth (will let,) until 
he be taken out of the way. And then 
shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the 
Lord shall consume with the spirit of his 
mouth, and shall destroy with the bright- 
ness of his coming. (Even him,) whose 
coming is after the working of Satan, with 
all power, and signs, and lying wonders, 
and with all deceivableness of unright- 
eousness in them that perish; because 
they received not the love of the truth, 
that they might be saved. And for this 
cause God shall send them strong delu- 
sion, that they should believe a lie: that 
they all might be damned who believed 
not the truth, but had pleasure in unright- 
eousness, 


My τις ὑμᾶς ἐξαπατήσῃ κατὰ μηδένα 
τρόπον" ὅτι, ἐὰν μὴ ἔλθη 4 ἀποστασία 
πρῶτον καὶ ἀποχαλυφϑῇ ὃ ἄνθρωπος τῆς 
ἁμαρτίας, ὃ υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας ὃ ἀντικεί- 
μένος καὶ ὑπεραιρόμενος ἐπὶ πάντα λεγό- 
μενον ϑεὸν ἢ σέβασμα, ὥςτε αὐτὸν εἰς τὸν 
ναὸν τοῦ ϑεοῦ [ὡς ϑεὸν] χκαϑίσαι, ἀπο- 
δεικνύντα ἑαυτόν, ὅτι ἔστι Feds. Οὐ μνη- 
μονεύετε, ὅτε ἔτι ὧν πρὸς ὑμᾶς ταῦτα Pe 
γον ὑμῖν; Καὶ νῦν τὸ κατέχον οἴδατε, eis 
τὸ ἀποκαλυφϑῆναι αὐτὸν ἐν τῷ ἑαυτοῦ και- 
ρῷ. Τὸ γὰρ μυστήριον ἤδη ἐνεργεῖται τῆς 
ἀνομίας, μόνον ὃ κατέχων ἄρτι ἕως ἐκ μέσου 
γένηται. Καὶ τότε ἀποκαλυφϑήσεται ὃ ἄγ- 
ομος, ὃν ὃ κύριος ᾿Ιησοῦς ἀναλώσει τῷ πνεύ- 
ματι τοῦ στόματος αὑτοῦ καὶ καταργήσει 
τῇ ἐπιφανείᾳ τῆς παρουσίας αὑτοῦ " οὗ ἐσ- 
τιν 4 παρουσία κατ᾽ ἐνέργειαν τοῦ σατανᾶ 
ἐν πάσῃ δυνάμεν καὶ ᾿σημείοις καὶ τέρασι 
ψεύδους καὶ ἐν πάσῃ ἀπάτῃ τῆς ἀδικίας 
ἐν τοῖς ἀπολλυμένοις, av ὧν τὴν ἀγάπην 
τῆς ἀληϑείας οὐκ ἐδέξαντο εἰς τὸ σωϑῆναι 
αὐτούς. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πέμψει αὐτοῖς ὃ 
ϑεὸς ἐνέργειαν πλάνης, εἰς τὸ πιστεῦσαι αὐ- 
τοὺς τῷ ψεύδει, ἵνα χριϑῶσι πάντες οὗ μὴ 
πιστεύσαντες τῇ ἀληϑείᾳ, ἀλλ᾿ εὐδοκήσαντες 
ἐν τῇ ἀδικίᾳ. 


In the preceding chapter of this epistle, the apostle had given a vivid 
description of the coming of the Lord, from the terms of which it was very 


53 


696 % APPENDIX. 


natural for the Thessalonians to suppose this coming to be an event taking 
place in a literal sense in their own day. It seems, besides, from other pas- 
sages of the New Testament, to have been a very common apprehension of 
Curistians of that age, that the final manifestation of Christ was something 
immediately at hand ; hence, we may suppose that there was, with many, a 
wegree of disappointment, and a wavering of their faith, and perhaps even 
on some occasions a relapse into paganism. By the scoffer it was said, 
What has become of the promise of his coming? while the impatient dis- 
ciple exclaimed within himself, Why are his chariot wheels so long delayed ? 
While others, hardened by the forbearance, used the language of the un- 
faithful servants: “ Our Lord delayeth his coming.” ΤῸ guard against this 
disappointment and its effects, the explanation of the passage under con- 
sideration appears designed. 
The word translated now, in our common version, at the commence- 
ment of this chapter, would be better rendered but or and; as it is the 
ordinary Greek conjunction δέ, (Lat. autem, G. & L.) With this alteration, 
bearing in mind that the division into chapters and verses is no part of the 
original composition, we perceive the connection between the two repre- 
sentations here ;—as if the apostle had said, The Lord Jesus shall be 
revealed from heaven with flaming fire, for which cause we pray for you, 
&c., but we beseech you not to be shaken in your faith because he does not 
appear immediately ; for you are to understand that, prior to his appear- 
ance, there must be a detection and exhibition of the existence of a spirit, 
power, or principle, of an entirely opposite character. The revelation of 
this opposing power, he tells them, is to be a preliminary operation in the 
manifestation of Christ. ‘The apostle then explains further, that there is 
something which for a time lets or prevents, and which will let or prevent 
the making of this preliminary revelation. The inference, accordingly, is, 
that although the Lord Jesus delayeth his coming, this coming, whatever 
be its nature, will certainly take place. Meantime, the attention of the dis- 
ciple is to be directed to the detection of the opposing spirit here deseribed, 
as this detection is to be instrumental in the revelation so much desired. 
© Except there come a falling away first, and that man of sm be revealed, 
the son of perdition.’—The word rendered falling away, ἀποστασία, has 
been adopted in our language, (apostacy,) and perhaps expresses, as it is 
commonly understood, all that was intended to be conveyed in this passage 
by the original: Except there come first an apostacy—a falling away from 
the truth—some egregious error in matters of faith, ‘The primary meaning 
of the term is applicable to the conduct of an individual leaving his party, 
or to the revolt of a number of individuals against the lawful authority ; but, 
from the connection, it is evident that it is not in this primary sense, but in 
something analogous to it, that the word is to be taken. ‘The primary mean- 


APPENDIX. 697 


ing of the term, however, is expressive of an open revolt or rebellion, some- 
thing declared or manifested, as distinguished from a mutinous disposition, 
or secret conspiracy. So, we suppose the apostacy here contemplated to be 
not merely the existence of a departure from the truth, but the manifestation 
of such a departure ;—the falling away may have existed in fact for a long 
time ; as another apostle says, ‘Even now there are many Antichrists.’ 
The coming of the Lord was not delayed in the time of Paul, because the 
error itself did not then exist, but because it was not yet openly manifested. 
There was already a falling away or departure from the faith amongst many 
who professed to be followers of Christ ; but the apostacy, or open repudi- 
ation of the truth, was yet to take place. 

‘ And that man of sin be revealed.’-—The apostacy consists in the reve- 
lation of the man of sin, not merely in his existence ; as the open revolt of 
a party is a revelation of the previous rebellious spirit of the conspirators. 
The man of sin may have been in existence from the creation of the world, 
but in the time of the Thessalonians he was yet to be revealed. The 
whole connection of the passage shows us that this man of sin is not liter- 
ally a man, or human being ; it is something personified as ἃ man. Common 
sense immediately suggests this application of the term. If not a man 
literally, neither can it be any body of men, in a literal sense, as the descrip- 
tion subsequently given would not apply to such a body or collection of 
human beings. To understand the figure, however, we must understand 
what would be the signification of the term man of sin, in a literal sense. 
It is evident that it is not merely a sinner, or the sinner, that is here con- 
templated ; for the revelation had been made of old time, and was so 
referred to repeatedly by this apostle, that all have sinned ; that there is 
not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Christ, it is 
said, came into the world to save sinners, even the chief of sinners ; yet we 
cannot suppose he came to save that which is here denominated the man of 
sin ; especially, when it is said in the eighth verse of this chapter, that this 
wicked is to be consumed and destroyed by the coming of the Lord. 

The Greek term ἁμαρτία, primarily signifies a missing or mistaking, 
(Donnegan ;) a taking of that which is false for that which is true, (error, 
Thuc. i. 32, Rob. Lex.) The epithet here employed might, therefore, 
more properly be rendered, the man of error; the man of sin of Paul 
thus corresponding with “ the spirit of error” (τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς πλάνης) of the 
apostle John ;—the first appellation expressing the nature of the thing 
spoken of, the last the nature of its influence upon others, (the power of 
delusion.) It is not merely error in the general that is here contemplated, 
it is a peculiar error in matters of religious doctrine, the worst of errors ;— 
the fountain and source of all errors—an erroneous principle, from which, 
perhaps, every departure from Christian faith originates. 


698 APPENDIX. 


This man of sin is also termed “ the son of perdition.” The son or 
child must be the offspring ;—this evil spirit would seem to be, therefore, 
the offspring of perdition, rather than the parent or cause of it. But, by 
metonymy, the term perdition may be put for that which causes perdition ; 
thus this evil spirit is the offspring of that which causes perdition. ‘That 
which causes perdition, in a doctrinal sense, is the spirit or power of accu- 
sation, under the law bringing the sinner to justice, subjecting him to the 
full penalty of his transgressions ;—a power spoken of in Scripture as Satan, 
or the Devil—the legal adversary or accuser. This man of sin may be, 
accordingly, considered the offspring of Satan, the accuser; owing his 
existence to Satan, as the beast from the sea, in the book of Revelation, 
was indebted for his power to the dragon, The appellation, son of perdi- 
tion, occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures, except where it is applied to 
the traitor Judas, and where it would seem to indicate an individual destined 
to perdition, (John xvii. 12:) “Those that thou gavest me I have kept, 
none of them is lost, but the son of perdition ; that the scripture might be 
fulfilled.” We cannot suppose, however, that the term, as used by Paul, is 
intended merely to indicate the man of sin as destined to perdition, for this 
is afterwards expressly described. ‘There may be, nevertheless, a strong 
analogy between the characteristics of the traitorous apostle and those of this 
traitorous principle ; the one betraying his Master with a kiss, the other 
betraying the cause of the Redeemer under the garb of professed adherence 
to the faith of the gospel. 

‘Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or 
that is worshipped.’—-To make one’s self equal with God, according to the 
Jewish construction of the crime, is blasphemy against God}; and such we 
have supposed to be the blasphemy of the ten-horned beast of the Apoca- 
lypse, (Rev. xiii. 4-6.) He made himself, both directly and indirectly, 
through the false prophet, and through the fabrication of his image, an 
object of worship ; his character corresponding very precisely in this respect 
with that of the man of sin. In fact, we can hardly read the descriptions 
of these two subjects without taking their identity as granted. 

In remarking upon the apocalyptic beast, we have shown that if a 
man represent himself to be the efficient author of his own salvation by 
his own righteousness or merits, or by some propitiation of his own, he vir- 
tually makes himself in appearance equal with God. We may add here, 
that he makes himself, in the same sense, superior to God ; for if the law 
of God condemn, it is God that condemns; and if man justify when God 
condemns, man must be superior to God;—the case supposed by the 
prophet being reversed, (Is. 1. 8,) as also that stated by the apostle, (Rom. 
viii. 33, 34.) The law of God condemns the sinner. If we suppose this sinner, 
then, to make some propitiation of his own equal to counteracting this con - 


APPENDIX. 699 


demnation, we suppose him to be even more powerful than God himself. 
Thus claiming the honour or glory of his own redemption, instead of ascrib- 
ing that glory to God, he opposeth God ; and professing to justify himself, 
and overcome the requisitions of divine justice by some propitiatory power 
or strength of his own, he exalteth himself above all that is called God. 
Man, making himself in his own estimation the efficient cause of his salva- 
tion, makes his own self the object of his own adoration. If, for example, 
a man say, ‘God makes me an object of his favour, because I fear him, or 
because 1 trust in him,’ such a man makes himself the source of the 
benefit he receives. So if he say, ‘I am saved through Christ on account 
of my faith, or on account of my repentance,’ he makes his own faith or 
repentance the cause, and himself the efficient author of his own salvation, 
although he may professedly ascribe that salvation to Christ. If he say, “1 
am saved, indeed, by grace ; but God predestinated me to this favour before 
I was created, because he foresaw that there would be in me some good 
quality deserving of it;’ the disciple here again represents himself as the 
efficient cause of the grace bestowed, and thanks himself rather than God 
for the blessed effects of his own goodness ; although, perhaps, he professes 
at the same time to thank God that he is not as other men are. 

‘So that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing,’ &c.—As 
worship consists in service, and the characteristic of a service depends upon 
the motive of action, he who depends upon his own merits, can be actuated 
by no other motive than to serve and to glorify himself. He thus puts him- 
self in the place or seat of God, in his own mind or estimation ; which mind 
or estimation is, or should be, the temple of God. As it was said of the 
kingdom of God, ‘ Behold, the kingdom of God is within you ;’ so it may 
be said of his temple, ‘ Behold, the temple of God is within you.’ It is 
something depending upon the state of one’s mind. The disciple, whose 
mind is so renewed that his only motive of conduct is to serve God, has 
the temple of God, as it were, within himself; and in that temple he wor- 
ships God, in spirit and in truth; as it was said of such by the apostle, 
(2 Cor. vi. 16:) “ Ye are the temple of the living God ;”’ the body of the 
disciple by a figure of speech being put for his mind. If then we suppose 
the spirit of error so to take possession of the mind of the disciple, as to 
make the interest and glory of self the only motive of conduct, that self 
takes the place of God in his temple—sitting in the temple of God, showing 
himself as God ;—corresponding with the blasphemous pretensions of the 
evil principle we have contemplated as the adversary of the cross, repre- 
sented by the apocalyptic ten-horned beast. 

‘Remember ye not,’ &c.—It would appear from these two verses, that 
the apostle had some time before given the Thessalonians a few hints, at 
least, of the existence of this evil principle, and of its destined revelation ; 


700 APPENDIX. 


but he had not, till now, so distinctly assigned to this cause the delay in the 
corresponding revelation of Jesus Christ. “ But now,” he says, ‘‘ ye know 
what withholdeth ;” that is, apparently, what withholdeth the coming of 
the day of Christ, viz., the necessity of the previous revelation of this man 
of sin. The coming of the day of Christ is withheld, that this apostacy or 
manifest departure from the faith may be exhibited; which manifestation is 
to take place at a certain appointed time, (in its season,) and not before. 
The departure from the faith, however, has already taken place ; existing 
in the time of the apostle at least in an incipient state. Its growth to 
maturity we may suppose to be requisite for its revelation or development. 
As the extreme to which an error is carried is frequently the means of exhi- 
biting its fallacy, so this maturity of extreme error may be set down as its 
season when it is to be revealed; as the season or time of the coming of 
Christ, (Rev. xxii. 10,) must be also the season or time when this wicked 
(being revealed) is to be destroyed by the brightness of that coming. The 
revelation of this man of sin, in the meantime, we may suppose to be some- 
thing progressive—gradually approximating to its time. 

‘For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now 
letteth, [hindereth,] will let, until he be taken out of the way.’—There can be 
no doubt but that this mystery of iniquity is identic with what was before 
termed the man of sin—two ways of speaking of the same thing. The man 
of sin we suppose to be an erroneous, delusive principle of doctrine, or 
spirit of errror ; and the mystery of iniquity is the complicated operation of 
this spirit of error. 

The word translated iniquity (ἀνομία) is the substantive corresponding 
with the adjective ἄνομος, rendered immediately afterwards wicked ; and to 
preserve the connection, we should say, The mystery of wickedness doth 
already work, &c.; and then shall that wicked be destroyed; or else we 
should say, And then shall that zzguitous be destroyed. ‘The adjective 
rendered wicked, however, is precisely the same as that translated, 1 Cor. 
ix. 21, without law—where the apostle says, to them without law he 
became as without law, &c.; and where we certainly could not substitute 
either the word wicked or iniquitous. The adverb ἄρόμως, which occurs 
only once in the New Testament, is rendered in our common version (Rom. 
li. 12) without law: “For as many as have sinned without law, shall also 
perish without law.’ We could hardly say, As many as have sinned 
wickedly, shall also perish wickedly. The same word, ἄνομος, is rendered 
2 Peter ii. 8, unlawful; 1 Tim. 1. 9, lawless ; Acts 11. 23, wicked ; but 
evidently meaning lawless or unlawful—Jesus having been crucified or slain 
by unlawful hands, or without law: contrary to law, having done nothing 
amiss. So, Luke xxii. 37, Mark xv. 28, the same adjective, used substan- 
tively, is rendered transgressors, where it should have been translated the 


APPENDIX. 701 


lawless. These are all the passages in which the adjective occurs in the 
New Testament, and in all these the prevailing idea is, that this wicked is 
something opposed to law, or without law. Corresponding with this is the 
derivation of the word ὄνομος, from » nog, law or rule, with the privative 
prefixed ; and “4vouta, want of laws, lawlessness, (Donnegan,) ftom the 
adjective rdju0g, νομία, legitimus, (Suicerus ;) legitimate, with the privative 
@ forming the word ἀγφομία, illegitimate—unsanctioned by law, contrary to 
rule. 

There can be no question but that an unlawful act is a wicked act, and 
a lawless person is a wicked person, but in the passage under consideration 
neither acts nor persons are the things spoken of. It is a mystery which is 
thus described as without law, or lawless. 

The term γόμος," signifying law or rule, is of pastoral origin, and was 
primarily applied to the partition of lands, or to the land-marks by which 
pasturages set off to different proprietors were divided. It may be em- 
ployed therefore to designate any rule of right. In matters of practice it 
applies to the moral law, or to the law of the land ; and in matters of faith 
or doctrine, to the line or rule of truth. Thus a lawless doctrinal mystery, 
or a mystery of doctrine without law, is a mystery or system the oppo- 
site of truth. The mystery of iniquity, (τὸ «μυστήριον τῆς ἀνομίας,) and 
the wicked (6 ἄνομος) are, accordingly, only different appellations of the 
same spirit or principle of error—something in matters of doctrine opposite 
to the standard of truth; corresponding with the interpretation we have 
given to the term sin, (ἁμαρτέα,) as applied to the man of sin. The terms 
ἁμαρτία and ἀνομία may be considered indeed nearly interchangeable. 
πᾶς ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν καὶ τὴν ἀνομίαν ποιεῖ" καὶ ἡ ἁμαρτία ἐστὶν ἡ ἀνομία, 
(1 John iii. 3,) “ He that doeth sin, doeth iniquity,” and sin is iniquity, 
which, applied to the present case, confirms our supposition that the error 
represented by the man of sin is the same as that represented by the 
mystery of iniquity; the nature of the iniquity (¢nzquitas, from iniquus, 
uneven) or departure from the straight line ; depending upon the thing 
spoken of. In matters of morals, it is sin in the ordinary sense of the term; 
in matters of doctrine, it is a deviation from the rule or standard of truth. 

This mystery or spirit of error was in operation in the time of Paul. Ie 
was not prevented from working, but there was something in the way which 
prevented or hindered it from being revealed. Using the light derived, as 
we think, from the Apocalypse on this subject, we suppose this something, 
by which the revelation of the mystery of error is let or kept back, to be the 
power represented in the revelation by the false prophet. As the man of sin 
—the son of perdition—is equivalent to the ten-horned beast from the sea, 
so the power by which this man of sin is concealed, enabled to work with 
out being recognized, is the two-horned beast from the land, the false inter 


702 APPENDIX. 


preter, the misconstruction of the language of revelation. No sooner is this 
misconstruction taken away, than the mystery of iniquity or of error is 
revealed. On the other hand, so long as this misconstruction prevails, so 
long as man is taught by it to erect an image of his own righteousness, to 
make of self an idol in his own mind, so long that self will occupy in the 
human heart the place of God ; sitting in the temple of God and claiming 
the devotion and honour due only to God ; saying with Lucifer, I will ascend 
above the heights of the clouds: I will be like the Most High, (Is. xiv. 14.) 
So long, too, will the mystery of iniquity remain concealed. 

The same mystery was at work typically in the heart of Cain when he 
offered the fruits of the ground (the symbol of human merit) as a propitia- 
tory sacrifice. It was at work in the heart of Nebuchadnezzar, when he 
glorified himself. It was at work in the heart of Herod, when he assumed 
to himself that glory which he should have ascribed to God. It was at work 
in the minds of the Pharisees and of the Galatians. In all such instances 
the error would have been dispelled if the light of the gospel had been 
brought to bear upon it, free from any misinterpretation ; but, although this 
light, to a certain extent, was in the world previous to the coming of Jesus 
Christ, men loved darkness rather than light: they preferred resting upon 
their own merits, and therefore perverted even the portion of truth with 
which they were favoured. So it was with the Galatians: the mystery of 
error with them would have been detected, if the gospel had not been mis- 
interpreted ; and so it has been since with the various denominations of the 
Christian church. ‘The same mystery has been at work with some in their 
strict adherence to certain forms and ceremonies ; with others, in their zeal 
for certain standards of doctrine, with others in their fastings and prayers, 
their will-worships and voluntary humiliations: with others even in their 
alms-giving, their philanthropy, their religious zeal; and others still have 
shown it in their punctilious attention,or such professed attention, to the 
requirements of justice and moral duty. Whenever these things have pro- 
ceeded from a motive of exalting self, or with the view of making one’s self 
the author of one’s own salvation, the mystery of the man of sin has been 
at work ; while the reason why the promulgation of the gospel has not de- 
tected the error is, that such a detection has been ἰδέ or prevented by the 
misconstruction put upon the language of revelation. 

‘ And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume 
with the spirit of his mouth.—The word translated spirit (πνεῦμα) might 
perhaps be better rendered breath, to be in keeping with the figurative term 
mouth ; for neither mouth nor breath are literal terms. ‘The breath of the 
mouth of the Lord must be the utterance—the words of the Lord—that is, 
the Lord’s revelation of truth, spiritually and properly understood. So it is 
said, Is. xi. 4, of the branch from the root of Jesse, “ He shall smite the 


APPENDIX. 703 


earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay 
the wicked ;” the thing to be smitten and the thing to be slain being 
of a nature to suffer by this action of divine revelation. As the beast self 
(the adversary of the cross of Christ) is slain by the sword of the mouth of 
the Word of God, not by a sword of the hand, so the wicked spoken of by 
Isaiah is something to be slain by language, (the breath οὔ the lips)—the 
language of divine inspiration ; and so the wicked spoken of by Paul is 
something to be consumed by the same language, the breath of the mouth 


of the Lord, and to be destroyed by that manifestation of truth, which is _ 


said to be the brightness of the coming, or parousia, of the Lord— τῇ 
ἐπιφανείᾳ τῆς παρουσίας αὑτοῦ. 

The taking away of the misconstruction which hindered the revelation 
of error, and the manifestation of truth which destroys that error, we sup- 
pose to be simultaneous operations. It is not said by whom or by what 
that which Jets is to be taken out of the way, but the inference is very 
plain that the operation must be that of divine power alone. We do not 
suppose the spirit or breath of the mouth of the Lord to be a new revelation. 
It is the written revelation already made, which, previous to the catastrophe 
here contemplated, had been so veiled or covered’ by misconstructzon, or 
literal interpretation, that its proper spiritual sense was not permitted to 
operate. When this obstacle is removed, the same revealed word operates 
with its full power ;—as it is said by the prophet, the breath of the Lord is 
a stream of brimstone; that is, the revealed word of the Lord is an 
unquenchable fire, and by this fire, which tries every doctrinal production, 
the mystery of error is to be consumed. 

‘ And shall destroy (bring to an end) with the brightness of his coming.’— 
The term here translated brightness, (ἐπιφάνεια,) implies a shining forth, 
or exhibition of, and is thus well rendered in the Latin, in this place, by 
the word illustratio (G. & L.)—the parousia, or manifestation of the 
truth as it is in Jesus, spoken of as his coming, tlustrating every subject 
of revelation connected with it; and, by this illustration, destroying the 
error or mystery of error denominated the Man of Sin. This illustration 
of the parousia, or coming of the Lord, performs the same work in destroying 
error as that effected by the spirit or breath of the mouth of the Lord. The 
figures are interchangeable. ‘To consume is to destroy, and the breath or 
spirit of the Lord’s mouth is identic with the ¢lustration of his parousia or 
spiritual manifestation. 

‘(Even him) whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all 
power, and signs, and lying wonders.’—The coming of this evil one is ex- 
pressed by the same Greek word (παρουσία) as that applied to the coming 
of Christ. The term, as we have noticed, signifies the manifestation of an 


704 APPENDIX. 


actual presence, not the act of coming. It is not the progress of the man 
of sin, as in the act of approaching, that is here spoken of; it is his revela- 
tion. He manifests himself after the manner of Satan, or appears when 
manifested to operate in the same manner as Satan. As we apprehend, 
the expression after the working, applies rather to the manner, or charac- 
ter, of Satan’s operations than to the degree of it which is afterwards 
described. 

Satan is the legal adversary or accuser of man—the drift of all his work- 
mg is to procure the condemnation of the sinner. He is the opposite of the 
Saviour, as the great red dragon was the opposite of Michael. The spirit 
of error—the man of sin—when manifested or revealed, (in his parousia,) 
will be seen to work or operate in the same way. ‘The tendency of the 
mystery of iniquity is to work condemnation instead of salvation ; as the 
adversary of the cross of Christ, self, (the ten-horned beast,) sets aside the 
means of redemption in Christ, and places the disciple in a position of de- 
pendence upon his own merits—a position under the law obnoxious to the 
penalty of the law, and subjected to the unmitigated power of the accuser. 
The man of sin, or mystery of iniquity, also works by receiving, like the 
beast, the power and great authority of the legal adversary. 

‘ With all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivable- 
ness of unrighteousness in them that perish.”"*—As all the world wondered 
after the beast, and as the false prophet performed great miracles im the 
sight of men, (Rev. xiii. 3 and 13,) so the man of sin operates with great 
power, &c., amongst, or in the sight of, the victims of his delusion. He 
does not really perform miracles, but he appears to them to do so. We 
do not suppose in either of these cases that the wonders and signs alluded to 
are prodigies, or that they appear such in a literal sense. The subject 
treated of is a mystery, a system or spirit of error—something to be 
destroyed by divine revelation, (the breath of the mouth of the Lord ;) con- 
sequently these signs and wonders are something in keeping with the whole 
matter. The whole mystery is a doctrinal system of delusion ; and the ten- 
dency of this delusion, we apprehend, is to make men believe that they are 
successfully working out their own righteousness in their efforts at self-justi- 
fication. ‘The signs and lying wonders, accordingly, are such as represent 
the power of this delusive system to be above every other power in convert- 
ing and saving the soul from death ; as those who went about in old time 
to establish their own righteousness, who justified themselves before God, no 
doubt professed to maintain the superiority of such views and doctrines by 
their wonderful effects upon the character and minds of their converts. 


* Τοῖς ἀπολλυμένοις. precisely the appellation applied to those to whom the preach- 
ing of the cross is said to be foolishness: 1 Cor. i. 18. 


APPENDIX. 105 


The expression, “ deceivableness of unrighteousness,” affords some key 
to the nature of this delusion. We should not speak of the deceit or deceiv- 
ableness of immorality, or injustice, in the ordinary sense of the terms, be- 
cause we may say there is no mistaking them—they appear what they are, 
however those practising such immorality or injustice may endeavour to conceal 
it. We do not suppose such to be the kind of unrighteousness here spoken 
of ; we suppose it to be something to be understood in a doctrinal sense. 
There is one kind of righteousness which justifies the disciple in the sight of 
God ; this is the imputed righteousness of Christ. In this there is no deceit 
or deceivableness. But there is a pretended righteousness of man, which is 
the opposite of the true, and which is in fact unrighteousness. [ἢ this self- 
righteousness there is great deceivableness ; its whole character is that of a 
delusion ; its peculiar feature is that of laying hold of every pretext by 
which man may be supposed capable of justifying himself. The self-de- 
ceived and self-deceiving errorist is thus especially open to the arts of the 
adversary in his exhibitions of the requisitions of the law to be fulfilled by 
the works of man ; or, if not fulfilled, to be satisfied by some propitiation of 
man’s providing. Corresponding with this, the Greek word rendered un- 
righteousness is derived from a term signifying justice or righteousness, 
preceded with a privative (ἀ) causing it to signify the opposite—something 
without justice or righteousness—having no righteousness in it ; incapable 
of affording the means of justification. 

‘Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be 
saved,’ &c.—Christ is the way and the truth and the life—there is no salva- 
tion except through his intervening merits ; this is the truth for which the 
self-righteous have uo love, or the love of which they do not receive. They 
prefer relying upon their own ability, their own strength, and for this reason, 
as it appears from this passage, they are left subject to the delusion in which 
they delight. They have pleasure in that pretended righteousness which is 
the opposite of God’s righteousness. Being ignorant of hs righteousness, 
and going about to establish their own righteousness, they have not submit- 
ted themselves to the righteousness of God, (Rom. x. 3.) They do not 
obey the truth, because they have their own glory and not the glory of God 
in view. For this reason they readily give credit to the signs and lying 
wonders, and plausible pretensions of the mystery of iniquity. 

‘And for this cause,’ &c.; or, as the clause might be rendered, And 
through this (instrumentality) God sends them a working of error to their 
trusting to a falsehood, that all those not trusting to the truth, but taking 
pleasure in unrighteousness, may be yudged. That is, as we apprehend, 
that by the extreme of delusion which they give in to, the condemnation of 
their error may be made manifest. The verb rendered shall send, according 


706 _ APPENDIX. 


to some editions, is in the present tense, πέμπει. The delusion sent is not 
something in addition to the mystery. of iniquity, but itis that mystery itself. 
Men are prone to prefer a dependence upon their own merits: to show them 
their folly in this respect, therefore, this delusion is allowed to work for a 
certain period. ‘The word translated delusion is the same substantive, and 
in the same case, as that translated of error, 1 John iv. 6; and the word 
rendered by the adjective strong, is the same substantive which, in this 
chapter, and in every other passage of the New Testament, is rendered by 
the term working, except only Col. ii. 12, where,it is translated operation. 
The verb πιστεύω, commonly rendered believe, signifies primarily and _ pre- 
eminently a trusting to or relying upon the object of belief; and the verb 
zpivo, rendered damned, is that rendered uniformly elsewhere judged, or 
condemned. It has not even the intensive κατά prefixed to the verb, 
where it more particularly expresses condemnation. The term damned 
occurs but in two other places of the Scriptures, according to our common 
version, and in both of these it is a translation of the verb everywhere else 
rendered condemn or condemned. 

The distinction is the more important because we commonly associate 
with the term damned a state of hopeless irremediable punishment, whereas 
a culprit condemned is still supposed to be an object of mercy. We think the 
purport of the passage under consideration teaches us that the mystery of 
error is allowed to work, and is even sent to work, to render the state of 
condemnation of the unbeliever manifest ; but not to cause his final perdi- 
tion, as an addition to some other cause. He that believeth not, it is said, 
(John iii. 18,) is condemned already, (7δη κέκριται.) because he hath not 
believed in (relied upon) the name of the only begotten Son of God. So long 
as the sinner remains in unbelief, he must remain in the state of condemna- 
tion: the working of the mystery of error does not add to the condemna- 
tion, but it renders it manifest; as the proof that one has pleasure in a 
dependence upon his own righteousness is equally a demonstration that he 
does not believe on, or rely upon, the merits of the Son of God, and conse- 
quently he must be, as it is said, condemned already. 

Such we believe to be the purport of the sketch given by Paul of the 
character and working of the man of sin; a sketch in every particular corres- 
ponding, we think, with what is related in the Apocalypse of the ten-horned 
beast, except that the latter is a more minute and detailed account than the 
former. Like the beast, the man of sin is something existing and reigning 
in the human heart. Like the beast, the man of sin usurps the place of 
God in the mind of his subjects or deluded votaries. Like the beast, the 
man of sin owes his predominance to the power of the legal accuser; and 
like the beast, the man of sin is the opponent of God’s plan of salvation, the 


APPENDIX, ΟΊ 


enemy of the righteousness of faith, and the adversary of the cross of Christ. 
Both make themselves objects of worship; both virtually speak blasphemy, 


and both are at last consumed by the fire of revealed truth ; the one 


destroyed by the breath of the mouth of the Lord, scripturally spoken of as 
a stream of brimstone, and as a fiery flame, and the other is doomed to the 
lake of fire and brimstone—an everlasting burning. 


THE END. 


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